In a rare occurrence, Merle actually set out to write “Everybody’s Had The Blues” for a specific artist. And it wasn’t even a country artist! It was pop singer Dean Martin. He had already recorded one of Haggard’s songs (“I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am”). Merle was always a big fan of Martin and wanted to compose a hit for him along the same lines as his 1964 trademark number, “Everybody Loves Somebody.” As fate would have it, though, Haggard ended up performing “Everybody’s Had The Blues” on a live album in New Orleans before the song ever got pitched to Dean Martin.
Even if the subject matter of “Everybody’s Had The Blues” was a “downer,” Merle’s life off-stage hardly reflected it. There was a lot of fast living all along the way. He often referred to the early ‘70s as “The Big Party,” but if it’s sketchy in his memory, steel player Norm Hamlet and drummer Biff Adam remember it a little better. They were in large part responsible for keeping the party on the highway. Hamlet admittedly wasn’t much of a partier. He was a bandleader simply trying to take care of business. When the rest of ‘em would go out partying all night, it was up to Norm to get everybody straightened out the next morning and ready for the day’s projects.
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