Ben Haggard on His Musical Upbringing and the Acoustic Guitar

Ben Haggard had quite an eventful upbringing.

As the youngest son of country legend Merle Haggard, he had a life rich with music, so much so that Ben Haggard was named lead guitarist of his father’s longtime band, the Strangers, at the age of 15.

Haggard admits that it was a daunting task at first, as he was plagued by bouts of stage fright early on, not to mention the fact that he was surrounded by greats like musical director Norm Hamlet and guitarist Scott Joss.

But Haggard quickly caught on and hung well with his dad’s collection of heavy hitters. He had to.

“There were no minor leagues involved,” he said. “It went straight to the major leagues. I never had any experience on stage, and I had to adapt or essentially not play. I can’t say that I regret it, because it taught me a lot of things.”

Since Merle’s passing in 2016, Haggard hasn’t missed a beat, carrying on the legacy of his father’s timeless music with brother Noel and the Strangers.

While Haggard’s voice has hints of Merle’s well-worn gravitas, he puts his own spin on classics like “Mama Tried”, “Footlights” and “Sing Me Back Home”, all of which are taken to new heights with his expert fretwork.

Nowadays, in addition to performing with the Strangers, Haggard is working on his own material, with designs of having friend and throwback country artist Sturgill Simpson produce his debut album once it’s ready.

In looking back on his career, Haggard recently checked in with Fender to discuss his love of the guitar and his musical influences.

”If You Can Figure Out How to Make One Note Hit Somebody in the Heart, You’ve Got It Figured Out.”

“If you take away the simplicity of it, you lose the soul, and you're trying to essentially play more than you should; that might lead to a bunch of notes. But with the older recordings, it seems like the analog side of things were a little more natural than the digital part of it; that goes for cameras, that goes for a lot of things. You can easily capture what you're trying to portray with it, I feel like. A lot of people don't take the time to learn about it. I think it's very important to be able to take the soul from the music and the artist is trying to portray.”

”An Acoustic Guitar Is an Expression of Yourself.”

“You can figure out how to sub-consciously play it while you're worried about singing; that's what it's for. It's a crucial part of any writer's or anybody that wants to be, somebody just picking up a guitar for the first time. Acoustic is the first thing that they're going to be drawn to because it's the most natural feeling thing to them.”

”If You Can Make Something Sound Good on an Acoustic, It Will Sound 10 Times Better on an Electric.”

“That’s because you don't have an amp, you don't have things to manipulate your sound quite yet, so what you get on that note is the only thing you're going to get. So you’ve got to make it work for you. Once you go to electric, beyond that, then it really sounds good.”

”My Father Would Show Me a D Chord, Trying to Plant the Seed and Hope That It Would Grow.”

“He never said, ‘You have to play music.’ He said, ‘Here's what I can do and what I can show you about it.’ When I was 12 or 13, I finally got into it and started playing, and I had a few guys show me some scales and different things of that sort. Pretty much from there, I was self-taught.”

”Sometimes a Marriage Happens With a Guitar.”

“A few years ago, I bought this Broadcaster Relic in Humbolt. I believe it’s a Custom Shop. I liked it for a minute, but when I got it home I didn't really care about it too much. And then last couple years, I really just started to bond with it. That happens with guitars. it just really becomes your friend, and you can do anything you want with it.”

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