Merle Haggard, country music legend, dies at 79

Rest in peace, Merle Haggard. Photo: Los Angeles Times/Genaro Molina

Country legend Merle Haggard, often called "the Poet of the Common Man," whose music reflected his hardscrabble roots and hard-living ways as well as a tenderness that made him a revered songwriter, died on Wednesday at his home near Redding, California, the United States. He was 79.

Haggard, along with fellow Bakersfield, California, superstar Buck Owens, defined the West Coast sound of country music in the 1960s and '70s.