Loretta Lynn Pronounces Country Music ‘Dead’
She's never been one to hold her tongue!
Hall of Fame icon Loretta Lynn has pronounced country music “dead,” mincing no words as the 87-year-old living legend says “I’m not happy at all.”
Speaking on a recent episode of Martina McBride‘s Vocal Point with Martina McBride podcast, the beloved “Queen of Country Music” told her host she thinks the genre has been lost for good — but also promises to do what she can in preserving what’s left.
“They’ve already let it [die],” Lynn said. “I think it’s dead. I think it’s a shame. I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die, and I’m here to start feeding it.”
Telling McBride she’s “getting mad about it … because it’s ridiculous,” Lynn says the all-American art form is worthy of being saved.
“I’m not happy at all,” she explained. “I think that they’re completely losing it. And I think that’s a sad situation because we should never let country music die. I think that every type of music should be saved, and country is one of the greatest. It’s been around, as far as I’m concerned, longer than any of it.”
Lynn released her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” in 1960, and scored her first Top 10 hit two years later with “Success.” Over the years she earned the reputation of trailblazing female artist, challenging country’s status quo with edgy anthems like “You Ain’t Woman Enough (to Take My Man),” “Fist City,” “Rated X” and “The Pill” — all about the liberating impact of birth control on women in the 1970s. After suffering a stroke in 2017 and a broken hip the following year, Lynn is still making new music, releasing her Wouldn’t It Be Great album in 2018. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
