Country music singer and multi-instrumentalist Merle Haggard has died at the age of 79, it has been announced.

The California-born Haggard was a key figure in the 'outlaw country' and Bakersfield Sound movement of the 1970s and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994.

He had his songs covered by the likes of The Everly Brothers, Dean Martin and even The Grateful Dead, and was perhaps best known for his song 'Okie from Muskogee'.

He was married five times throughout his life and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008, making a full recovery afterwards.

However, he was hospitalised for pneumonia in December 2015 and his health continued to decline. He died yesterday, his 79th birthday, at his home in California.

R.I.P.