On April 6, 2017, Loretta Lynn took part in a birthday celebration for a friend who could no longer attend. Merle Haggard would have turned 80 that day. Exactly one year earlier, Merle Haggard had died on a 79th birthday.
At Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, fellow musicians gathered for Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard. The evening brought together generations of performers, each helping tell the story of a remarkable career through music.
For Loretta Lynn, the connection to one particular song was especially personal. “Today I Started Loving You Again” was the performance Loretta Lynn contributed to the tribute—and the song Loretta Lynn had described as an all-time favorite.
A compliment from someone who understood songwriting
In interview footage featured in Ken Burns’s Country Music, Loretta Lynn spoke warmly about Merle Haggard’s individuality and openness. Then Loretta Lynn explained just how much one song mattered.
“And he wrote my favorite all-time song.”
Loretta Lynn admired the conversational ease of “Today I Started Loving You Again.” The feeling arrived as naturally as someone sitting down and explaining a change of heart. A short song could hold an experience that would take much longer to describe in ordinary conversation.
Loretta Lynn’s explanation became even more revealing:
“So that covers my whole life, right there. In that one little song.”
That was a substantial compliment from a songwriter whose own work had brought everyday experiences into country music with such clarity. Loretta Lynn understood how much could fit inside a plainspoken line: affection, disappointment, stubbornness, and feelings that refuse to disappear simply because someone wishes otherwise.
For listeners familiar with both artists, the admiration makes sense. Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard built lasting connections with audiences by making recognizable human experiences worth singing about.
A birthday remembered through music
The 2017 concert gave that admiration a public setting. Organized by Blackbird Presents, the tribute included Willie Nelson, Keith Richards, Miranda Lambert, Connie Smith, Toby Keith, and many other performers connected to Merle Haggard’s music.
The selections reflected the breadth of the catalog. Alabama performed “Silver Wings.” Jamey Johnson sang “Kern River.” The Avett Brothers contributed “Mama Tried.” Different voices brought different parts of Merle Haggard’s work into the same room.
Among those performances was Loretta Lynn singing “Today I Started Loving You Again.” Knowing Loretta Lynn’s comments about the song adds something meaningful to the recording of that evening. The audience was hearing a fellow songwriter perform music that had reached deeply into Loretta Lynn’s own life.
The date carried its own significance. A birthday and the anniversary of a death had become inseparable. The concert offered friends and fans a way to spend that difficult date together, listening to the work Merle Haggard left behind.
The performance that listeners could return to
The tribute was recorded, and the concert later received an official audio and video release. That preserved Loretta Lynn’s contribution alongside the other performances, allowing people beyond the Nashville audience to hear the evening for themselves.
For longtime country fans, the connection between the interview and the tribute is what makes this moment memorable. Loretta Lynn explained why the song mattered; the concert preserved Loretta Lynn giving that song a voice in remembrance.
A favorite song can become part of someone’s private history. On what would have been Merle Haggard’s 80th birthday, Loretta Lynn shared that connection with an arena full of people remembering the same man.