Merle Haggard -- Leonard [REACTION]

Merle pays homage to one of his greatest musical influences in his life. Enjoy, please SUBSCRIBE and LIKE, and keep rockin' 2 country!!
_____________________________________
TWITTER: @RockN2Country
FACEBOOK: / rockn2country
PAYPAL ADDRESS: RockN2Country at g mail dot com
BUSINESS EMAIL: RockN2Country at g mail dot com
_____________________________________
#MerleHaggard #Leonard #RockN2Country

[@caroldahlien4285]

This was a song written by Merle in tribute to Leonard Sipes aka Tommy Collins. Tommy got him into music for Merle and also another great Buck Owens were Tommy's guitar players. Tommy was a friend of our family. He was at our house several times for suppers and snowmobiling. Really a sweet guy. Tommy was one of the founders of the Bakersfield sound.

[@willymack5196]

Absolutely a tribute to the great Leonard Sipes who staged name was Tommy Collins. He was one of the greatest songwriters that ever came out of Bakersfield. He did write The roots of my raising and Carolyn for Merle Haggard along with quite a few songs for other famous country singers.

[@rgaskins54]

This song was a tribute to Tommy Collins (real name Leonard Sipes.) It debuted on the Billboard Country chart on 02/14/1981 on the chart for 14 weeks and peaked at #9. Collins was born in Oklahoma City, OK on September 28, 1930. A boyhood guitarist, he began performing at local clubs while at Oklahoma State College, also making appearances on radio stations. During the early '50's, he became a resident of Bakersfield and a Capitol recording artist, is halcyon days being 1954-55 whem Collins followed "You Better Not Do That," a half-million seller, with a quarter of other Top 20 discs. In 1966 hr presented Columbia with a Top 10 song in "If Your Can't Bite, Don't Growl," but his later discs only achieved moderate chart placings. Ad a songwriter, he provided Merle Haggard with some of his best numbers, including the chart-topping "Roots Of My Raising" in 1976.

[@jessethornton8664]

A tribute to Tommy Collins. His band was the strangers.

[@davehaggart]

Exactly.

[@tedszweb5268]

My Favorite Merle song of all.

[@scottandal]

You are on a roll Don! This song is about Tommy Collins , a song writer. I think he wrote it after he past away.

[@scottandal]

I was wrong. Merle wrote this song before Tommy past away.

[@mt3311]

@@scottandal Tommy Collins wrote about three or four hits for Merle haggard, plus "You better not do that." which he sang himself in 1959. Tommy Collins died in 2000, at the age o 69.

[@donaldpoole2995]

So who is Leonard? It's Tommy Collins, whose birth name is Leonard Raymond Sipes. Like Haggard, Collins is a songwriter from Oklahoma. He wrote the songs "Carolyn" and "The Roots of My Raising" for Haggard, and Haggard wrote this song about him.

[@goldenwins7804]

Nice work.....where did you find this information?

[@donaldpoole2995]

@@goldenwins7804 Studying Country music for 30/40 years

[@goldenwins7804]

@@donaldpoole2995 then is will be easy for you to reveal the source....did you talk to Meryl and he told you...was it on page 33, of such and such a work? 30/40 years studying, I say wonderful...now what is the source?

[@royebarb4328]

Tommy Collins was a regular on the Buck Owens show in the sixties. Oklahoma City’s own.

[@michaellunburg8567]

It’s about Merle’s friend, Tommy Collins.

[@warrenburlingame1172]

Leonard was drinking with some of the older singers. He was sent to go get a round of drinks. When he got back Ferlin Husky asked what kind of drink Leonard was drinking. He said it was a Tom Collins. Ferlin said that's you're new stage name. The gold one he hung on the wall was a gold record

[@mt3311]

Tommy Collins like Merle, Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky, Wynn Stewart, Dwight Yoakam, and a couple of others, they all came from Bakersfield. They had a particular Honky Tonk sound. It was electric instrument driven, with a backbeat, and was danceable. it was minimalist, basically dancehall music. It was called the Bakersfield Sound. It was a direct opposite of the Nashville Sound also popular at the time. The Nashville Sound, was a multi instrument sound, used in Nashville, by artists like: Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline, and Ray Price. That is why Willie Nelson didn't make it in Nashville. It was also called Countrypolitan.

[@beckyd.236]

Yee-Haw rock that cowboy hat Don. lol, I don't know anything about the string on it but I know they are always there. Stetson huh? Wow, that is the best that I know of!

[@mmasavant9128]

A gold record on his wall.

[@b.j.anderson3190]

Awesome, found it.

[@joycemcfee1829]

The strings are a nice addition to a cowboy hat. Sometimes the band is made out of a snake skin or other material. Some people add a special Eagle feather to it. Chris Stapleton has a big hunk of turquoise on the front of his hat. (His wife has a jewelry shop featuring turquoise, I believe.) My husband saved a rattlesnake skin for years, planning to make a hat band out of it, but he never learned how to do it. I knew Merle's song was about a good friend, and that has been explained here. After listening to a few of my favorite singers, Merle still stands above them all.

[@RockN2Country]

@joyce mcfee Thank you for those fantastic ideas-they’ve given me insight into what can be done with a hat and how to approach my own style. :-)

[@jimbo_crawdaddy]

Enjoyed.

[@goldenwins7804]

Some say it was about Tommy Duncan who sang with Meryl on the Texas Playboys

[@bighousegroove]

Those who might say that are wrong. Tommy Collins' birthname was Leonard. Tommy Duncan was never a Leonard.

[@rocherossier278]

Tommy Collins

[@jamesworthington3346]

Tommy collins. Big inspiration to merle

[@beckyd.236]

It said he came to hang a gold one on the wall, which to me meant he came to sing and make a gold record?

[@bighousegroove]

Tommy Collins was every bit as important to creating the Bakersfield Sound as Buck and Merle. But obviously not nearly as famous.

[@RockN2Country]

@bighousegroove I wonder if the cocktail that my parents and their friends drank, called a “Tom Collins,” was somehow named for him.

[@bighousegroove]

@@RockN2Country I never thought about that! I was a "bartender" for my parents' parties from a young age, and made many a Tom Collins. I'm sure we could Wiki it now but let's just go with it being about Tommy Collins.

[@RockN2Country]

@@bighousegroove It is settled this day, that Bakersfield Tom Collins is the namesake for the famous drink!

[@margaretk.302]

Great song!!! You could get a fancy hat band or stick toothpicks in the hat band or other things that mean something to you. I think you reviewed Chris LeDoux's "the hat". Your cowboy hat is yours to do as you wish, leave it plain or stick things on it that mean something to you.

[@mt3311]

Spot on Margret, with the hat explanation. I was thinking the same thing.

[@ronnysipes2538]

Leanord Ramon Sipes and changed to Tommy Collins

[@samuelchastain8629]

Wrong he's talking about Leonard spies. My dad's cousin anyway Leonard sipes his stage name was Tommy Collins. Lol

[@ronnysipes2538]

He was my dad's cousin too.

[@kevinlong2065]

Tommy Owens

[@tedszweb5268]

If you want another great story song of Merle’s try Daddy Frank !

[@WilliamSmith-ym6ve]

Leave it like that Cowboys supposed to look rims out of shape

[@kevinlong2065]

Sorry about that. Tommy Collins

[@parkercoleman6014]

Will you please react to frogman by whiskey Myers

[@michaelmargraf844]

Tommy Collins