coming up next, jenna bush hager catches up with country music legend merle haggard. oncert from bobby brown coming up. but this is "today" on nbc. >>> he's known as the poet of the common man. merle hag ard has been selling out concerts for decades, singing stories of working class struggles and joy, and despite setbacks he's still on the road at the age of 75. "today" contributing correspondent jenna bush hager caught up with him in tennessee. >> he was a lot of fun. to say that merle haggard is a legend in country music is an understatement. he's had 40 number one hits. won countless awards. and he received the kennedy center honors for lifetime achievement back in 2010. i sat down with him to see if there's anything that can stop the hag. ♪ merle haggard is hard to scare. but after more than 50 years as one of country music's most influential singer/songwriters, earlier this year haggard feared his show was over. >> the first day in the hospital, they thought my cancer had returned. so it was about the first 30 hours, i was saying good-bye. >> reporter: but this on

we'll hear from merle coming up. >> merle haggard. >> i say merle. >> you say merle?. planning a summer vacation? there's an app for that. we're going to tell you a website to help you plan your trip this summer. first let's check in with stephanie abrams who has the weather forecast. >> already feeling like summer even though it's not officially summertime yet. verna brown says this is nothing, huh? >> nothing like albany, georgia. albany is so hot. >> who's going to heat it up on the stage in a few minutes? >> bobby brown! >> bobby brown! bobby brown is going to make it even hotter. let's have a look at our temperaturs awe head throughout the day today. warm yet again, record highs in places like chicago, yesterday, 97 degrees. you'll be in the 90s. but a front is coming through. i like to call that frontal passage. fropa. around the rest of the country a threat for severe weather across the midwest. >>> no froe paw here. strong on shore flow this morning. you can see alcatraz. very little in terms of ripples on the water. a good sign winds have calmed down and the

it features a range of guest artists from merle haggard to snoop dogg. for coming on the show. >> thank you for asking me. thank you. >> jimmy: oh, please. you can come on whenever you want to. you stay the whole week if you feel like it. i grew up with only two country artists in my house. 'cause i was -- my parents are from brooklyn, new york. it's not really a country family. but hank williams and willie nelson. that's all those two. and i just got to say thank you for that 'cause -- >> well, i'm in good company. [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: yeah, absolutely. there's so many questions to ask. but i mean, let's talk about this new record you have. this is "heros" our right here now. this is -- you have a bunch of guest stars in this one. which you work with, yeah -- merle, you have chris kristofferson on here. snoop dogg. >> snoop dogg. >> jimmy: now, what do you guys sing? you and snoop dogg? >> i wrote a song called, "roll me up and smoke me when i die." [ laughter ] [ cheers and applause ] >> jimmy: perfect to get snoop. that is exactly why you

> that song cracks me up, "i think i'll just stay here and drink" off of will cain's playlist, merle haggard've grown accustomed to christ christie shutting down any thoughts he should run for president or vice president this year. take a listen. >> can you imagine, the person who picks me as vice president would have to be sedated, if i said i should go to a funeral? vice presidency, i want to be governor of new jersey, i ran to be governor of new jersey, i believe come november 2012 i'm going to be governor of new jersey. and not in any other office. but if you're a betting guy you should bet on chris christie being the governor of new jersey, november, 2012. >> so i take that as a no. i think that's a fairly entertaining and strong no. this morning, though, sounds like he's backing away from that very strong no. yesterday while visiting a high school in new jersey he was asked if he might be open to becoming mitt romney's running mate. here's what he said. >> what i said before, i have no interest in being vice president but if governor romney called and asked me to sit down and talk to h