On March 9, 1968, the band decamped to Columbia's recording studios in Nashville, Tennessee, with Clarence White in tow, to begin the recording sessions for the "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" album. While in Nashville, the Byrds also appeared at the "Grand Ole Opry" on March 15, 1968, where they performed the Merle Haggard song "Sing Me Back Home" and Parsons' own "Hickory Wind" (although they were actually scheduled to play a second Haggard song, "Life in Prison"). Being the first group of hippie "longhairs" ever to play at the venerable country music institution, the band was met with heckling, booing, and mocking calls of "tweet, tweet" from the conservative "Opry" audience.