Reba McEntire had a very good reason for not wanting to meet Merle Haggard. Even when they were on tour together in the early 80s, McEntire was reluctant to run into the country legend.

“I never wanted to meet my heroes, because I didn’t want them to disappoint me—ever,” she told her fellow season 26 coaches Gwen Stefani, Michael Buble, and Snoop Dogg in a clip of a “Behind the Mic” episode of The Voice on Instagram.

“I was doing shows with Merle Haggard, and I did not want to meet him, because I didn’t want to be disappointed, because I’d looked up to him for so long,” McEntire recalled. “And when I did, he was the nicest, most cordial gentleman. And just… I was like ‘phew!’”

“But people like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell—who I looked up to forever—all of them, sweet as they could be,” she shared.

McEntire was just 26 years old when she opened for Haggard at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth back in August of 1981.

McEntire spoke to Entertainment Weekly about their relationship following Haggard’s death in 2016, revealing that she ultimately came to think of him as family.

 “My first big concert was Merle Haggard and the Strangers,” she said in a statement. “We all looked up to Merle Haggard. And it was a thrill in my life when I got to work with him on the road. We won state in 4-H club Share of the Fun contest singing ‘Okie from Muskogee.’”

“Merle has been a part of my family for a long time,” McEntire concluded. “I remember when he was winning all the CMA awards for ‘Okie from Muskogee,’ I went to bed that night and rehearsed my acceptance speech. He inspired me so much.”