22 Years Ago, the Queen of Country Joined Forces With a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer for the Most Successful Crossover Album of Her 60-Year Career
Every profitable feminine nation music artist owes all of it to Loretta Lynn. Fueled by her hardscrabble upbringing in rural Kentucky, songs like “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and the autobiographical “Coal Miner’s Daughter” propelled her to an Entertainer of the Year trophy at the 72 CMA Awards. She was the first woman ever to carry that title. On this present day (April 27) in 2004, the 72-year-old Lynn gave us one more masterpiece with Van Lear Roseproduced by none aside from ex-White Stripes frontman Jack White.
Van Lear Rose was one other homage to Lynn’s blue-collar childhood, named for the coal mines in Van Lear, Kentucky, the place her father labored.
Jack White, simply 28 years previous at the time, featured on the Grammy-winning single “Portland, Oregon.” Additionally, he supplied electrical and acoustic guitar, organ, piano, percussion and backing vocals for Lynn’s forty second studio album.
The “Fist City” singer’s first unique work since 2000’s Still Country, Van Lear Rose topped out at No. 2 on the nation albums chart and No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the most profitable crossover album of Lynn’s 60-year profession at that time, successful the Grammy for Best Country Album the following yr.
“Lynn and White weren’t straining to make history, just a damn good Loretta Lynn album,” learn one Rolling Stone review. “But it sure sounds classic anyway.”
[RELATED: 4 Nostalgic Loretta Lynn Songs That We Could Listen to Forever]
The Unlikely Friendship Between Loretta Lynn and Jack White
An impromptu roadside visit to Loretta Lynn’s Dude Ranch led Jack White and ex-wife Meg to dedicate their 2001 album, White Blood Cellsto the “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” singer.
To thank them, the nation star invited the duo over for hen and dumplings and home made bread. That sparked a friendship between the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” from Kentucky and the metropolis boy born and raised in South(west) Detroit. And that friendship led to an unlikely however attractive musical collaboration.
Loretta Lynn died on Oct. 4, 2022, at age 90. And Jack White penned a moving tribute to his touring companion and “mother figure” on Instagram.
“Loretta used to say to make it in the business, you had to either be great, different, or first, and she thought that she was just different and that’s how she made it,” he wrote. “But I think she was all three of those things and there’s plenty of evidence to back that up too.”
Featured picture by Carlo Allegri/Getty Images
