This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli. This week marks the 40th anniversary of Farm Aid, the country music concert founded by Willie Nelson as a fundraiser to benefit farmers. Held in Champaign, ...

MERLE HAGGARD: (Singing) You stayed with me through thick and thin. You watched me lose; you watched me win. You picked me up off of the ground. You never one time let me down. And you put me on a ...

Haggard, who died in 2016, spoke to Fresh Air in 1995 about his love of trains. When he became a star, he acquired his own observation car. Now that coach is part of the Virginia Scenic Railway. This ...

HAGGARD: No, she didn't put me in a juvenile home. They - the authorities put me in there for truancy, for not going to school. And that - they gave me six months in, like, a road camp situation, and ...