Loretta Lynn - Loretta Lynn: Coal Miners Daughter

FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2010

Copyright 1976, 2010 by Loretta Lynn

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in slightly different form in hardcover in the United States by Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, in 1976.

Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Due to limitations of space, permissions to reprint previously published material can be found on .

Cataloging-in-Publication Data for Loretta Lynn: Coal Miners Daughter is on file at the Library of Congress.

eISBN: 978-0-307-74268-1

www.vintagebooks.com

v3.1

To Doo, who had an idea
And to Owen, who helped make that idea come true

I can hardly believe that its been over thirty-four years since Coal Miners Daughter first came out. A lot has happened since then, but I dont know if Ive changed all that much. Ive kind of stuck to what I always donewrite songs, sing, live as honest a life as I can live. But one thing Ive been really grateful for all these years is my fans.

I have to say, I dont even think of them as fans, I think of them as friends, because theyre always so close to me. Theyre a part of my life, same as my family. People come up to me all the time and say, Hey, your storys the story of my life, too. What you went through, I know what that is, Im goin through it now. I think reading about my life has helped them and that makes me feel good. Just like it makes me feel good to be on stage and talk to them, just like I would if they were sitting next to me in my living room. Thats what I think Im doing with my songstalking to my friends. And, Lord, I do have a lot of friends! We just got back from a solo tour and we had a sold-out house everywhere we went. I cant ask for more than that. So I want all my friends to know that I love them and Im so proud that theyve stuck with me all this time. This is my chance to say thank you.

Its also been thirty years since the movie Coal Miners Daughter came out. When someone told me that recently, I thought: You gotta be kiddin me! Thirty years! It really is amazing to think about. I handpicked Sissy Spacek to play me in the movie. She followed me around for a whole year to learn how I talked and sang. My daughters, Patsy and Peggy, used to ask me why I talked like Sissy Spacek! So I guess she did a great job playing me. And bless her heart, she won the Academy Award.

I was dumbfounded the first time I saw the movie. It was hard to watch my life flashing before my eyes. I brought Mommy to the premiere in Nashville and when we got back to the motel after seeing it, I said, Well, Mommy, what did you think of the movie? Now Mommy was real funny. At first, she didnt say a word. And then she said, I thought it was great. You didnt wander off the truth nowhere. You told it like it was. That really made me proud. Ive seen it maybe three or four times now (I dont have to keep watchingI know what happens before it happens!) and I still am proud. Its a good movie. And theyve been talking about another one. I think they should have done it right after that first one came out. But they didnt so, oh well, well just have to see what happens.

Im still writing songs, of course. As you know, Ive written most of my songs. I like to write; its what makes me happy. Id rather write than sing, which is a surprise to most people. But it seems to me like I get a lot out of my system when I write. People often say, Where do you come up with all of these songs? Well, I dont come up with them! Ive lived them! I tell it like it is. In the hills, we dont write songs, we just tell the truth, thats what I always say. And I still believe that. Its just life. I dont think I could sing a song if it didnt fit and if it wasnt true. Even all my cheating songs. It all happened. And let me tell you, my old man got the devil for it!

When I write, it just takes me over. I remember when I was writing Fist City (Youve been makin your brags around town / That youve been a lovin my man / But the man I love, when he picks up trash: He puts it in a garbage can); I was writing away, which means all I was thinking about was that song, and I was getting in my car to drive home to the ranch from my birthday party in Nashville. I wasnt paying any attention to what I was doingcause I was just thinking about that song!when I saw this light and I thought: I dont think Ive ever seen a light like this between Nashville and my house. Guess what? I never saw such a light cause I was all the way in the middle of Memphis! I had to run around and come back home and by the time I got there it was three oclock in the morning! Thats how I wrote Fist City. I dont know no other way to do it. People always say they love the way I communicate. But Im just talking about my life, thats really all Im doing. Maybe thats why I love writing so much, cause I love tellin it like it is. I have a little writing room thats beside my house where I usually work. And just thinking about that room, Im realizing its writing time again. I gotta get back in there and go to work.

People are always asking me about Patsy Cline. I cut an album years back called I Remember Patsy, but nobody can sing Patsys songs like Patsy. Lets face it. Nobody can do it. She was great and thats the beginning and end of the story right there. She wasnt just a person that sang. She had greatness and I think that came across in the little time that she was here. I loved her; she was my girlfriendthe only girlfriend I had when I first came to Nashville. And she kind of tucked me under her wing. The age difference wasnt that much apart; I was a couple of years younger, thats all. But she knew a lot more than me. And we stuck together until she was gone. That was one of the hardest things Ive ever gone through. Patsy had two little kids, a little girl and little boy. For her to just up and leave this world, that was awful. Awful for her, awful for me, awful for the world.

A few years back, Jack White, the rock n roll singer, me and him worked on an album togetherVan Lear Rose. Jack told me he went and saw the Coal Miners Daughter moviewhen he was a lot youngerand that he sat in the theater all day long and wouldnt leave. They just let him stay in there and he watched the movie over and over. Years later, I met Jack and Meg; theyre a duo called The White Stripes. I made them chicken n dumplings out at my house. And then I did a show with them up in New York City. So me and Jack got together to try a few songs in the studio. Well, we ended up doing a whole record. And we did that in just ten days in this studio in an old house over in east Nashville. And me and Jack won two Grammys for that record!

The first song on Van Lear Rose is about Mommy. She died before it came out, of course, but she would have loved it. You know, Mommy sang a lot, too. Of course, she just sang at home, but she was good. Real good. Her twin sister was a singer, too. They had a whole thing going. They sung The Great Titanic and In the Pines. Like I said, back in them hills, you dont just make up a song, you sing true stuff. And thats what Mommy did. Shes the one that taught me how to sing. And I still sing those songsThe Great Titanic and In the Pines. Its like theyre a part of me.