Posted Sep 2, 2006 by Paul
Filed under: Commentary
Loretta Lynn is a name that everyone knows. She’s recently had a resurgence in her career thanks to the excellent 2004 album “Van Lear Rose” that was famously produced by Jack White of the White Stripes. A local paper got a chance to do an interview with her and we are here to tell every artist, there’s more wisdom in her words than in a thousand “how-to” books.
The old days are passed, and some would argue that you just can’t do things the same way forever. We would argue that if more people would act like the old days, the new days would be that much brighter. Loretta Lynn is a shining example of understanding the old days, she lived through them, and how to maintain oneself during the new days.
Loretta is 71 years old. Some could say she has a career at this stage because of her earlier successes, we would not argue. But Loretta was a mother of four before she even began her career. It did not stop her or slow her down. She didn’t make excuses for not finding success; kids, age, money, location. She just did what she did the best she could do it. She worked hard. And at 71 is still working hard. Even more, she always knew why she was working so hard (and it wasn’t for herself).
Loretta should be emulated by all artist. All songwriters. All entertainers.
We’ve cherry picked some quotes from the article in a hope that you’ll read, and learn. If you want to read the entire article it can be found here.
‘‘The people do want to hear me,’’ says Lynn, who notes that she continues to reap benefits from ‘‘Van Lear Rose,’’ the award-winning 2004 album with producer White. ‘‘I don’t wanna stop, because they’ve what made me what I am. I have to worry about how they feel. Maybe other people don’t. But that’s the way I am.’’
On her motivation to keep going: ‘‘The people. You owe it to them. They were there when you needed it – now it’s for them.
On the country music business now compared to yesteryear: ‘‘It’s hard for me to watch what goes on today, knowing how it started. I think what bothers me mostly is the stuff they get by with. You can hear ’em put a record out, and it’s absolutely not what it should be. But it gets played, and as long as they get played it’s gonna keep happening. A lot of ’em don’t have the songs. When I started, you had to have the song. It didn’t matter how good you sang it; it was the song.’’
