Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [91]
That didn’t bother me any, but a couple of female singers were sitting around the dressing room on the night of the awards, griping ’cause Olivia Newton-John didn’t even come to America for the awards. She was on tour in Spain somewhere. Well, all I could remember was me winning the top female singer’s award in England four years in a row and how nice people were to me there. So I told the girls to cut it out. I hate to hear all that jealousy coming out.
Anyway, Olivia Newton-John did win the Top Female Vocalist Award. I don’t think the applause was very big, and some of the Nashville people were still grumbling backstage.
Later they even organized something they called the Association of Country Entertainers, to make sure country musicians get their fair share of awards. But I stayed neutral. I don’t want to get involved in politics and jealousy. Besides, I never heard people complaining when Lynn Anderson’s record of “Rose Garden” crossed over into popular music sales, or when Tammy Wynette crossed over with “Stand by Your Man,” or Johnny Cash had a big record with “A Boy Named Sue.”
See, it’s like a double standard. If they were from Nashville, it was all right to win pop awards. But because Olivia Newton-John wasn’t from Nashville, they didn’t like her winning our awards. Well, I know that a lot of country fans—some of ’em my fans—have bought Olivia Newton-John’s records, so she must have something going for her. I’ve got no complaints. Look, she walked off with the Grammy Award for 1974 pop music. When you’re hot, you’re hot, that’s all.
Anyway, me and Conway did get the award for top country duo from the Country Music Association. And later I won the top female singer and top duet from the Academy of Country Music.
Besides, two nights later, I won the Music City News award for top female vocalist, and the fans vote in that one—not the big shots. They gave me that award at the United Talent show at midnight, at the Opry, and all the disc jockeys stood up and cheered. Conway got up on stage and said, “Who’s this Oliver Newton-June anyhow?” I got so embarrassed, I almost fell through the floor. I gave Conway a dirty look that said, “No more of that.” But he was being funny—he likes Olivia, he told me.
I can remember Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells standing up for me when I came along. So Olivia Newton-John, when you come to Nashville, you give me a call, and I’ll help you any way I can. There’s room for all of us, honey.
27
Death Threats
We all know what our enemies will do….
—“Five Fingers Left,” by Loretta Lynn
There’s another part of my career I ain’t too happy about, and that is all the bad mail and telephone calls I get. It first hit a few years ago when I started winning all the awards. Then it seemed like every crazy person in the world was after me.
We’re supposed to have this unlisted telephone number at home, but sometimes my fans get it anyway. I don’t mind their calls too much. But when some nut calls up and says to leave $250,000 downtown, or else they’ll cut off my son’s head, now that’s just plain bad manners, folks.
Or one of my babies would pick up the phone and there’d be some character on the other end saying something she couldn’t understand. When those things started getting worse, we changed our number again, but people catch up with you.
I once asked my manager why I got this kind of stuff. He said other performers also get bad calls and he explained: “The same thing that makes you appeal to all the good fans also touches off some spark in the screwball. There’s a few public figures who manage to stir up a lot of people, one way or the other, Loretta—and you just happen to be one of them.”
That scares me, because I think