Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [53]
The only good thing was I started writing more songs. Everyone says all my songs are about myself. That’s not completely true, because if I did all the things I write about, I wouldn’t be here, I’d be all worn out in some old people’s home. But I’ve seen things, and that’s almost the same as doing ’em.
Like one of my songs was, “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man.” This one I didn’t really write about myself. There was a little girl, she was a bit on the plump side, not much. She came backstage one night, crying, and she said, “Loretta, my husband is going with another woman, so he brought her here tonight. “See that guy sitting out there? See that girl sitting beside him?”
I looked at that other girl and I thought, “My God, don’t tell me you’re going to let something like that take your husband away from you!” Cause, to me, she was twice the woman that other gal was. So I looked back at her and said, “Why she ain’t woman enough to take your man!” Just like that, as soon as I said it, I knew I had a hit song. She was all prepared to take a backseat because her husband fell for another woman. But that’s not something I’d let myself do. By the way, that girl fought for her man, and a few months later she wrote to me and said they were back together again. I still see her, and she’s still married to that same guy.
That’s the same way I wrote “Fist City.” There was a gal in Tennessee who was after my man, like I said before. I was up singing every night and she’d come around to the clubs and she’d hang around him. So finally I wrote this song that said, “You better lay off my man … or I’ll grab you by the hair of your head and lift you off of the ground.”
And I would. I’ve been in a couple of fights in my life. I fight like a woman. I scratch and kick and bite and punch. Woman are much meaner than men. So I warned any girl making eyes at Doo then, and I’m still jealous enough to warn ’em today—if you see this cute little old boy near me wearing his cowboy hat, you’d better walk a circle around us if you don’t want to go to Fist City. (Although I guess I’d better be careful what I say. For all I know, there might be a dozen gals out there ready to take me on.)
Doolittle knows he don’t have to worry about me, even if we’re not together on the road all the time. Once in a while he’ll pick up some rumor, but Nashville is famous for rumors. After twenty-five years of being married, I ain’t cheated on him.
People ask me sometimes, doesn’t it get lonely on the road? Don’t you ever meet a man you’d like to spend some time with? Usually I just answer a flat-out no. But that’s really too simple an answer. The truth is, everybody finds themselves attracted to different people at different times. Anybody who says that ain’t true is just a liar. I’m normal in that respect. I’ve met men I could like—but I haven’t ever seen one yet who could take the place of my family. So I stay out of trouble.
I wrote a song about that once called, “I’m Dynamite,” and in it was a line, “Please don’t light the fuse.” See, the way I look at it, it’s up to the woman to keep out of trouble. Maybe if I was the type who liked to go to parties and drink, I’d get in trouble. That’s why I don’t condemn Doo for what he’s done. As long as you keep up with this traveling life, with all the people and parties, there’re bound to be temptations. As for what Doo has done, it’s not anything I haven’t thought about doing myself.
But I’ve seen what happened to women when they started messing around. They lost their families and they went downhill in a hurry. I’ve had friends like that. I’d rather write a song about it—that’s my way of staying out of trouble. My marriage means too much