Ten Reasons Why Merle is Mandatory

Number 1: He's had 38 of these actually - number 1 hits, that is.

Number 2: In his youth, he escaped from jails and/or reform schools 17 times. (I didn't know people could actually do that.)

 

(photo courtesy Jeremy Luke Roberts via Wikipedia)

Number 3: He says his first pair of cowboy boots (purchased in Texas) made a new man out of him. (More in fact, than the...uh..."lady" who did her best to make a man out of him just a few hours before he bought those first boots.)

Number 4: He loves haters.

 (photo via www.rockcellarmagazine.com)

Number 5: He convinced an IRS agent to count his land as a tax write off based on the argument that it inspires his music. (I also didn't know people could actually do that.)

Number 6: He tends to compare women to bass fish, but has somehow still convinced 5 of them to marry him. Women. Not bass fish. (This last one, Theresa, seems to have been deemed a "keeper" since they've been married for 20 years now.)

Number 7: He saw Johnny Cash perform in a prison - as a prisoner. Then he left that prison and went on to perform with Mr. Cash and, indeed, become one of his peers in country music.

Number 8: He likes Hunter Hayes. (wait....wha...huh?)

Number 9: When he was 9 years old, his violin teacher told his mother that she was wasting her money. In a way she was, I guess. He did just fine without any more lessons!

Number 10: In a recent interview, he said he's still writing and "always hoping this next song will be the one that I was born to write."

Can't wait to hear that one, Merle!

Jenni