Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn.Photo: Jim Smeal/BEI/Shutterstock
WhenLoretta Lynnand little sisterCrystal Gayleposed for their joint PEOPLE cover story in 1978, they were two of country music’s biggest stars. But behind the scenes, they were like any other siblings.
“I had brought two identical blouses that were different colors to the shoot, and I didn’t know which one to wear. So, I was told which one I was going to wear!” Gayle recalled to PEOPLE last year. “That’s what a big sister can do.”
Gayle, now 71, added that she’s always leaned on Lynn, whodied at her home in Tennesseeon Tuesday morning at the age of 90, for no-nonsense guidance.
“She got me my first recording contract [in 1970], and she told me the best advice: ‘Don’t sing anything that I would because we’re only going to be compared,'” Gayle said. “She was right.”
Ten years before Gayle got her recording contract, Lynn released her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” A string of Top 10 hits — including “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind),” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” and “Fist City” — followed, shooting her to international stardom.
Loretta Lynn.Russ Harrington
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Unlike her big sister, Gayle grew up in Wabash, Indiana, where their father had moved to a retired miners' colony and their mother had worked as a nurse’s aide. She was the first of the Webb children to be born in a hospital.
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At age 16, Gayle performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Lynn’s place.
“Loretta was sick,” Gayle told PEOPLE in 2016. “I know Mooney, her husband, talked somebody into letting me go on stage that night.”
When Lynn wrote a tune for singer Brenda Lee titled “I’ve Cried (the Blue Right Out of My Eyes),” Gayle argued, “Lee’s eyes are brown, so I got it.” While the track was a modest hit for Gayle when it was released in 1970, it became one of her signature songs.
In the years that followed, Gayle’s career continued to rise thanks to a string of elegant country-pop hits, including her 1977 single “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.” With success of her own, Gayle was made out to be rivals with Lynn, particularly after she bested her big sister for CMA female vocalist in 1977.
Loretta Lynn, Doo Lynn and Crystal Gayle.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Gayle unintentionally added fuel to the fire of falling-out rumors when she addressed how Lynn’s husband helped nurture her early career during an interview.
Despite the speculation, Gayle insisted in 2021 that there was never any bad blood.
“We’re sisters, so of course we’re going to have our words,” she said, “but it was never anything major. We’d laugh about it and go on with our careers.”
Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn.
“We fight a little bit, but that’s just sisters,” she said. “And we never fight over the music business.”
“Crystal has a style of her own,” she added. “But I’m country and that’s the way I’m gonna stay. It’s fed me real good. If I tried to go pop, I couldn’t make it.”
At the time, Gayle said she also planned to avoid the grind that she’d seen wear down Lynn.
“I’ve learned from her mistakes,” she said. “She never knows ahead of time what she’s doing. When the time comes, she’s told. I’m more my own boss. I’ve learned to say ‘No."’
“It’s very special that she would do it,” Gayle told PEOPLE. “She came in and sang it, and said, ‘What’s next?’ If I’d had 10 tracks done, she would have sung every one of them that day. I should have had more than one.”
Though Gayle said in 2021 that she hadn’t seen Lynn in “a while because [of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said she was “so proud and honored to be her sister.”
source: people.com
