Merle Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, in Bakersfield, California. As a teenager, he was incarcerated at San Quentin Penitentiary ... 235 additonal characters for paid subscriptions ... ecording in 1962 and became identified with Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson in outlaw music, a sub-group of country music.