Tanya Tucker Says She ‘Snuck Out’ of Her Window to Go Meet Up with Her ‘Hero’ Merle Haggard: ‘I Ran Away with Him’
Tanya Tucker Says She ‘Snuck Out’ of Her Window to Go Meet Up with Her ‘Hero’ Merle Haggard: ‘I Ran Away with Him’
Rachel DeSantisTue, September 15, 2026 at 6:16 PM UTC
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Tanya Tucker in 2024; Merle Haggard in 2015.Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty -
Tanya Tucker recalls sneaking out at 21 to spend time with her hero, Merle Haggard
The two became lifelong friends, with Tucker cherishing memories of their time together
She said she recently spent time with his sons and his widow
Tanya Tucker is reflecting on the early years of her friendship with country legend Merle Haggard — and how she once snuck out of her house to spend time with him.
The “Delta Dawn” singer, 67, was 21 years Haggard’s junior, but had a crush on the star anyway, she said on The Adam Carolla Show on Sunday, Sept. 13.
“I ran away with him. I didn’t really date him. I just snuck out of my window when I was 21 and got on a plane and went to see him in Texas,” Tucker said. “But my dad caught up with me in about Meridian, Miss.”
The singer explained that she simply “wanted to hang out with” the man she considered her “hero.”
“I just wanted to see how he was day to day, and we ended up being best friends right up until the day he died,” she said.
Merle Haggard in 1970.Credit: Lynn Pelham/Getty
Tucker added that she’d recently spent the day at her daughter Presley’s house in Nashville with Haggard’s sons Noel, 63, and Benny, 33, and his widow Theresa. The “Mama Tried” singer died in 2016 at age 79.
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“We all cooked, and seeing all the Haggards and the Tuckers in the kitchen was pretty funny,” Tucker said. “We listened to Merle Haggard and talked about him and what we missed about him. You won’t hear any voices like him. There’s just not any of those anymore that stand out. I sure do miss him.”
Tucker’s history with Haggard went back to the early days of her career. A 1974 story in Time begins with Tucker, then 15, joining the star on stage in New York to sing her hit “Delta Dawn.”
Though she went on to date other famous men over the years, including Glen Campbell and Don Johnson, Tucker told the New York Daily News in 1997 that she harbored a crush on Haggard, and traveled with him on his bus for several days.
Tanya Tucker in New York ca. 1970.Credit: Art Zelin/Getty
“We fooled around some. But for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to actually have sex with him,” she said. “Maybe it was because he was Merle Haggard.”
Tucker, who does the voiceover on the new PBS documentary Made in the West, recently opened up to PEOPLE about the death of her friend Dolly Parton.
“When I was a kid growing up in music, my heroes were mostly men, Elvis [Presley] and Merle, and I patterned myself more after them than I did for the women. I mean, I loved Loretta [Lynn]. I sang all her songs, and we were best friends. Tammy [Wynette] and I were very close, but I was always programmed more toward the men,” she said. “And now I’ve changed my mind. Dolly is the kind of person, the kind of artist [I wanted to be]. And the way she handled herself. I mean, she could cuss you out and make you like it. She had a way that was amazing, and I want to be more like her because she’s done so much.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
