CMT News

Lawyers for Merle Haggard on Wednesday (May 1) slapped a court order on a Texas music promoter to block the sale on eBay of unreleased Haggard songs, according to the Dallas Morning News. Lawyers said Kathy Schroeder, 48, has filed a lawsuit against Haggard for failing to appear at a Schroeder-promoted concert last October in Fredericksburg, Texas. Although Haggard did not appear at the show because of chest pains, his musicians did. Haggard lawyers say that Schroeder boarded the Haggard tour bus at that show. It was subsequent to that, they say, that a cassette of new Haggard recordings was discovered missing from the bus. When a cassette listing those same songs was advertised on eBay with an asking bid price of $325,000, Haggard's lawyers say they traced the eBay offer to Schroeder. The case against Schroeder will be heard in state district court in Kerrville, Texas, on May 13. Haggard's court order asked for withdrawal of the auction offer, a ban on duplication of the cassette and return of the original cassette. Haggard likened the missing songs to his "kidnapped children." eBay immediately withdrew the offer. 05/02/02