"The hardest thing about interviewing Merle Haggard," says Los Angeles Correspondent David DeVoss of this week's cover subject, "is finding him." Since Haggard is a compulsive fisherman, ever searching for the perfect lake or stream, DeVoss was sure he had caught his man when he heard that the country singer was at Orange Lake, Fla. DeVoss was about to pack his lures when he learned that Haggard, bitten by the gambling bug, was in Reno, but would meet him in Bakersfield, Calif., for an interview. Four days of high rolling, however, proved too much for Haggard, who called off the appointment and closeted himself in his Reno hotel penthouse to sleep. When he arose, he found DeVoss encamped at his doorstep. Before long, Haggard headed for the hotel's casino with DeVoss in tow. "Scribbling furiously," recalls DeVoss, "I followed Merle's wake of hundred-dollar bills from keno lounge to crap table before nesting in front of a twenty-one dealer. Haggard's analysis of country music was quickly supplemented by a few pointers on gambling--which enabled me to gracefully lose my per diem."

Growing up in Texas should have given DeVoss an early start in country music, but, he says, for him "paradise was listening to the Beach Boys while cruising Dallas streets in a supercharged GTO." He first discovered country music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was TIME's campus stringer. He joined our Houston bureau after his graduation in 1968, then worked in Montreal, New York City, Detroit and Saigon before moving on to the U.S. West.

This week, in the first of two installments, TIME presents excerpts from Khrushchev Remembers: The Last Testament, a second volume of memoirs that will be published in June by Little, Brown & Co. Like its predecessor, Khrushchev Remembers, the new book is based on tapes dictated by the late Soviet leader during the years before his death in 1971 and is a historical document of enormous value. The tapes were translated and edited by Strobe Talbott, who has served as TIME correspondent in Eastern Europe. In the introduction to The Last Testament, Diplomatic Editor and former Moscow Bureau Chief Jerrold L. Schecter reveals for the first time the circumstances under which Khrushchev recorded his memoirs. These revelations are previewed in TIME's excerpts. In addition, this week TIME's color pages include exclusive family-album photographs of Khrushchev at home. Selections from our material are being reprinted by 14 newspapers and magazines round the world.

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