Meryl Haggard

Born: April 6, 1937

Country legend Merle Haggard is known for his 1969 hit "Okie From Muskogee," a tongue-in-cheek lampoon of his father's attitudes that became an anthem for nonsmokers with its line "We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee/We don't take our trips on LSD."

Haggard is a longtime admitted recreational user of marijuana and staunch advocate for legalization. He told Reuters in 2009 he used marijuana medicinally after a doctor said it was a good substitute for his Valium habit.

He gave it up a few times over the years, but "nothing was funny," he said. He quit again, four days before having a lung tumor removed in 2008, and "prays that he does not lose his creative mojo."

Haggard, who served time in prison for petty crimes as a young man, saw Johnny Cash play at San Quentin. Today he tours prisons, "especially women's prisons, they get overlooked," he told Reuters.

"There are some people in this world that have no idea what the real deal is," he told the Bakersfield Californian newspaper, when asked about Willie Nelson's 2010 arrest for pot on his tour bus. "I think it's silly to put someone in jail for [marijuana possession]. I think it's a threat to the pharmaceutical industry that you can go to the garden to grow something that might keep you from having to use Lipitor."

In December 2010, Merle Haggard was honored with a Kennedy Center Award (pictured).