Loretta Lynn made an entire, legendary career out of simply being honest and saying what was on her mind.
The country legend sadly passed away yesterday at the age of 90, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
And though she put on countless memorable and iconic performances over the decades, her final one occurred in 2017 at her 87th birthday party.
A couple weeks before her actual birthday on April 14th, she had a celebration where she was joined by her sister Crystal Gayle and other family members, as well friends Tanya Tucker, Alan Jackson, Brandi Carlile, Dennis Quaid and many others, to mark the very special occasion.
And of course, they had to end the night by singing her signature song and country classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which was the title track to her 1971 album.
The song became a mega hit, peaking at #1 on the country charts and later being certified Gold by the RIAA. It was also used for the name of her best-selling autobiography, as well as the 1980 Oscar-winning movie starring Sissy Spacek.
At the party, Loretta initially decided not to sing with everyone, but rather wanted to be up there taking it all in… though, being the country queen that she is, quickly changed her mind once the song started and everybody else was singing around her.
You can kind of see her try to lean in and harmonize with her sister, fellow artist Crystal Gayle, who is 19 years Loretta’s junior, but Crystal didn’t seem to realize what Loretta was wanting to do.
And eventually, Mrs. Loretta got fed up, and you can hear her say in the background (to much applause from the crowd):
“Let me have that damn mic.”
Hilarious… if the country queen wants to sing, she sings.
This performance came not too long before she suffered a stroke in May of 2017, as she turned 87 on April 14th of 2017 and had this celebration.
Like many of you, I’ve always admired Loretta’s quick wit and humor, and no matter what her age, she never, ever lost that.
This is a fun video to watch that perfectly encapsulates what we all love so much about the music icon:
“Coal Miner’s Daughter”
