Willie Nelson records Merle Haggard cover album

Country icon Willie Nelson has recorded an album of Merle Haggard songs to pay tribute to his late collaborator.
The Always On My Mind singer frequently hit the studio and the road with his fellow stalwart, and now Willie has celebrated Merle’s memory by performing a number of covers for a new project.
The news was shared during a pre-taped interview for U.S. breakfast show Today, which aired on Wednesday (29Mar17), when co-host Jenna Bush Hager revealed the 83-year-old had given her a sneak preview of the music he had completed within days of the chat.
“Right before I saw him, he was in his recording studio working on another album, and we actually listened in his bus to a whole album he recorded of Merle Haggard songs,” Jenna recalled. “He was like, ‘Oh, I just did this this week,’ and I said, ‘Wait, how do you already have it done?’ And he goes, ‘I’m Willie Nelson!'”
Willie did not discuss the album in the sit-down interview, but he did admit losing Merle last April (16) and then Leon Russell, another old friend and duet partner, seven months later really hit him hard.
Together with the death of Ray Price in 2013, Willie feels his circle of friends is shrinking a little too rapidly.
“In one year there was Ray Price, (then) Leon Russell, and Merle Haggard, and (you think), ‘Wait a minute…’, you know?,” he shared. “You start looking around to see who’s left. And you don’t wanna be the last man standing, and then maybe you do!”
Willie is no stranger to bad health and he had to cancel several shows earlier this year (17) as he battled a nasty cold, but he insists he is doing just fine, especially after false rumours recently suggested he was “deathly ill”.
“It (illness) had me worried too,” he said. “I had caught some kinda crud of some kind that had been going around, (but) I’m alright.”
Nelson will be back on stage at the Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard tribute show, set to take place in Nashville, Tennessee on 6 April (17), the first anniversary of Merle’s death.