1999-2010

Monday, September 28, 2009

Merle Haggard's No Shit Day


Fifteen years ago, tabloid television legend Wayne Darwen came up with the idea of a reality television series shot from inside Merle Haggard's tour bus, talking to ordinary folks as he makes his way across the country. As with most prescient visions of genius, Merle's 'Merica didn't make it to air, but it did made for a lively chapter in the book Tabloid Baby (see Chapter 32). Merle's 'Merica, meanwhile, has gone exactly where Darwen predicted it taking us back in the mid-Nineties. The great songwriter and musician is featured in the latest issue of Rolling Stone (the one with Megan Fox on the cover), with one quote that's stuck with us since we read it aloud in the Tabloid Baby office:

"I don't believe there's a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans. When you get someone new in the White House, don't you suppose they'd sit him down there the first morning in the Oval Office and explain the rules? Give him orders about what to do, and if he didn't do 'em, they'd kill his kids? That's what I think. I think there's a No Shit Day, when they sit the guy down and he says, 'No shit.' And they say, 'Yeah, and it's this way, too.' 'No shit.' 'And we'll kill your fuckin' kids if you don't like it.' I think we're there."

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