A Song for a Friend: Johnny Rodriguez and the Memory of Merle Haggard
In the world of country music, friendships often unfold on the road, onstage, or in the quiet corners of green rooms where guitars rest and stories linger. For Johnny Rodriguez, one of the genre’s most distinctive voices, few friendships meant more than the one he shared with Merle Haggard.
Their bond wasn’t just built on mutual respect as artists — though both men were celebrated in their own right. Rodriguez, with his tender delivery and smooth, bilingual phrasing, broke new ground for Latino artists in country music. Haggard, meanwhile, was a legend — the voice of the working class, a poet of heartache and grit. What made their friendship special was how it endured: quietly, sincerely, and always through the music.
One song in particular threads their lives together: “That’s the Way Love Goes.” Though originally written by Lefty Frizzell and Sanger D. Shafer, it was Merle’s 1983 version that made the song a No. 1 hit — soft, weary, and full of understanding. Years later, Johnny Rodriguez would revisit the same tune, giving it his own tender inflection. It wasn’t just a cover. It was a tribute. And after Haggard passed away in 2016, it became something even more powerful: a farewell.
In interviews and small concerts, Johnny often mentioned Merle not as a distant idol, but as a true friend — someone who offered guidance, who shared the road, who understood what it meant to come from hard beginnings and sing your way through life’s storms. Merle saw in Johnny the same fire he carried in himself — a hunger to be heard, and a heart that never stopped bleeding into the music.
When Johnny performs “That’s the Way Love Goes” now, there’s a heaviness to it. A silence between the notes. A man remembering another man who knew the road, who carried the same weariness, the same faith in a song’s healing power. It’s not just nostalgia — it’s reverence.
In the world of country music, good songs outlive their singers. But every now and then, when a friend plays one for the other, it becomes something more — a conversation that never ends.
Oldies Songs