Tanya Tucker once sneaked out of her house to "hang out" with her "hero," country music legend Merle Haggard.
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Tanya Tucker Wanted to "Run Away" With Merle Haggard
The "Delta Dawn" singer talked about her crush on Haggard during a recent episode of The Adam Carolla Show. She even went so far as to slip out of her bedroom window to spend time with him.
"I ran away with him," Tucker told host Adam Carolla. "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."
Her time with Haggard didn't last long, as her father soon caught wind of what was happening.
"My dad caught up with me in about Meridian, Miss," she said. She explained to him that she "wanted to hang out with the "Mama Tried" singer, whom 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," added Tucker.
Tucker Still Spends Time With Haggard's Family
Though Haggard died in 2016 at the age of 79, Tucker still spends time with his family. She told Carolla that she recently hung out with Haggard's children, Noel, 63, and Benny, 33, and his widow, Theresa, at her daughter Presley's house.
"We all cooked, and seeing all the Haggards and the Tuckers in the kitchen was pretty funny," she 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."
In addition to Haggard, Tucker carried a torch for Glen Campbell for years. But while he called her his "insanity," she saw things a little differently.
She said, "Time just exposed the fact that he was my true love. He was the love of my life... If I had made a different choice, things might have turned out differently. And we probably would have still been together. [But] I was too young."
You can watch Carolla's interview with Tucker below.
