Before They Were Legends

George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Vidor, Texas, with his brother and five sisters. When he was seven, his parents bought a radio and he heard country music for the first time. Given a guitar when he was nine, Jones was soon busking for money on the streets of Beaumont.

Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, the fourth of seven children. He was named John R. Cash because his parents couldn't think of a name, but he went by J. R. all throughout his childhood as a shortened version of his real name.

As a child, he was nicknamed "Harm" by his family and "Herky" or "Skeets" by his friends. He was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain—a factor in his later abuse of alcohol and drugs.

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi in a two-room shotgun house built by his father.

Haggard's father died when Merle was nine years old. He soon began committing petty crimes and truancy. Due to shoplifting in 1950 (aged thirteen), Merle was sent to a juvenile detention center.