Country Music People March 2020 | Page 5

LORETTA LYNN DECLARES COUNTRY MUSIC “DEAD” L oretta Lynn stirred up some controversy when she was a guest on Martina McBride’s Vocal Point podcast and declared country music to be dead. “They’ve already let it [die],” Lynn told McBride about the current state of country music. “I think it’s dead. I think it’s a shame. I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is. Rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die, and I’m here to start feeding it.” When McBride remarked that Lynn seemed “mad”, Lynn replied, “Yeah. I’m getting mad about it. I am. Because it’s ridiculous. “I’m not happy at all. I think that they’re completely losing it. And I think that’s a sad situation because we should never let country music die. I think that every type of music should be saved, and country is one of the greatest. It’s been around, as far as I’m concerned, longer than any of it.” Naturally this was reported by mainstream media as some fact that a bona fide country legend would know, when in reality followers of country music know what she really means and is echoing the feelings of nearly all longtime fans. Mainstream country music, the country music that fills the country charts and is played back-to-back by US country radio owes so little to what is generally considered to be country music that it is effectively dead. However, as CMP readers are well aware, country music is alive and well... It just takes a little more finding these days and its appearance on a country chart is an all too rare occurrence. In the days following Loretta’s comments the 87-year-old icon followed up on Instagram saying, “I’m still getting lots of chatter about my thoughts last week on the state of country music... I’ve loved hearing from all my fans and so many of the other artists. Let’s keep it country, y’all.” Martina sits down for intimate chats with fellow recording artists, celebrity chefs, and a variety of notable guests passing through her hometown of Nashville. Special guests include: Garth Brooks, Pam Tillis, Dustin Lynch, Sara Evans, Runaway June, Don Was, Loretta Lynn, Howie Mandel and more! New episodes release weekly on Friday. https://luminary.link/Martina MARCH 2020 - cmp 5