Reba McEntire Never Wanted To Meet Country Music Legend Merle Haggard – Here’s Why

Reba McEntire is speaking out this week to explain the one reason that she never wanted to meet the late country music legend Merle Haggard.

McEntire Didn’t Want To Meet Haggard

Even when McEntire, 69, toured with Haggard back in the 1980s, she was reluctant to actually meet the singer. She explained the reason why to her fellow season 26 coaches Gwen Stefani, Michael Buble, and Snoop Dogg in a “Behind the Mic” episode of The Voice on Instagram. 

“I was doing shows with Merle Haggard, and I did not want to meet him, because I didn’t want to be disappointed, because I’d looked up to him for so long,” she recalled. “And when I did, he was the nicest, most cordial gentleman. And just… I was like ‘phew!’”

Since then, McEntire has met many other country music icons, and she’s been pleasantly surprised by many of them.

“But people like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell—who I looked up to forever—all of them, sweet as they could be,” McEntire gushed.

One can only imagine the disappointment of being disappointed by your heroes.

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Haggard Was Like ‘Family’ To McEntire

McEntire was only 26 years-old when she opened for Haggard at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth back in August of 1981. After Haggard passed away in 2016 at the age of 79, McEntire told Entertainment Weekly that he had become like family to her over the years.

“My first big concert was Merle Haggard and the Strangers,” she said at the time. “We all looked up to Merle Haggard. And it was a thrill in my life when I got to work with him on the road. We won state in 4-H club Share of the Fun contest singing ‘Okie from Muskogee.’”

Haggard died of pneumonia on his 79th birthday on April 6, 2016. His son Ben told The Los Angeles Times afterwards that his father “had told us he was gonna pass on his birthday, and he wasn’t wrong.” Haggard continued touring right up until the very end of his life.

Related: Alan Jackson Recalls The Time Merle Haggard Insulted His Mama’s Lemon Pie

McEntire Stays Busy

As for McEntire, she’s still as busy as ever. Season 26 of The Voice premiered on Monday night, with McEntire returning as a coach. She’s also working on her new NBC sitcom Happy’s Place, which is set to premiere on October 18.

In a recent interview, McEntire teased that her fellow coaches on The Voice might make guest appearances on her sitcom. She told TV Insider last month that the coaches would appear on Happy’s Place “in a skinny minute.”

“Snoop wants to be on the show. Michael Bublé wants to be on the show,” she revealed. “Gwen will just come visit, she didn’t say she wanted to be on the show.”

McEntire’s mantra of never meeting your heroes is something that we should all keep in mind. While it worked out for her with Haggard, not everyone is as lucky to have their heroes turn out to be so nice in real life!