Lynn Anderson Interview
(CSC) 1. It is great to chat with you! Please tell us about your latest musical project….
(Lynn Anderson)
Well the last album was called “Cowgirl,” and it is a Western CD. It received seven awards from the Western Music Association in 2008, including the “Cowboy Hall Of Fame Award” for best Western record. It was a biggie for me!
(CSC) 2. What was the experience like for you making this record?
(Lynn Anderson)
It was full circle for me. The very first record that I ever did was a song called “Ride, Ride, Ride” that was written by my mother with a horse in the trailer on the way to Miss Rodeo
(CSC) 3. You were born in
(Lynn Anderson)
My mother! Although while I was growing up, mother was writing country songs and I would play around with horses. (Laughs) I would go to these horse shows, and she was bored silly, so she’d sit up in the grandstand and write songs while I was riding around in circles. It was because of her songs and people like Merle Haggard and Buck Owen, who used to hang out at the house that I learned to love performing. My mom wrote Merle Haggard’s very first hit record, the very first one that he got onto the charts called “All My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers,” and that’s where his bands name came from; “The Strangers.” Then his first #1 single, “The Fugitive” was written by her too. Basically those two songs were what established his style. He was in prison in Folsom when I met him, right down the road from where we lived. He’d come and listen to mom’s songs, write a little bit, and visit. That whole outlaw image, which is what he is, was what started that branded man kind of thing for him.
(Country Stars Central)
Were you able to visit him in prison, or was he permitted to leave for periods of time?
(Lynn Anderson)
Well he would get out on probation and come over to work on songs and sing. I do remember him coming over to the house several times and listening to music way back then!
(CSC) 4. You had a television special of your own that featured legendary performer Tina Turner as a guest, what was that opportunity like for you, and how did you arrange for her to be a guest?
(Lynn Anderson)
Wow, well I’ve really been blessed my whole life. I’ve been able to work with a lot of the old timers. I started out on the Lawrence Welk show, so I got to work with everybody from Bob Hope and Red Skelton to Bing Crosby and Dean Martin. I did the summer replacement show for Dean Martin for two years, so being able to work with Tina Turner on my special, and the idea of having her as a guest on my show just blew me away because she was one of my childhood idols. I lover singers of course, but somebody like Tina who is a consummate entertainer, I mean she absolutely blew me away. There’s a picture of she and I that is one of my favorite pictures ever. I’m covered up in this white chiffon from my neck to my toes, and she’s got this black leopard-skin outfit that barely covered her; it’s absolute as opposite chicks as you could possibly get. (Laughs) But what a lady she was, and I really enjoyed working with her!
(CSC) 5. Please tell us about your equestrian talents, and how you became involved with them.
(Lynn Anderson)
That is the other side of my family. My grandparents on my daddy’s side were always horse people, so the music came from mom, and the horses came from dad. I just always loved them, I don’t know why; it’s been in my blood since I was a kid. My mom and dad still do wear cowboy clothes. My grandmother used to always work with kids and horses, and she’s the one that taught me to ride. She used to tell me, “There’s nothing better for the inside of a kid than the outside of a horse.” And still to this day I’ve been working with handicapped children and horses for about thirty years. We started a program here in Tennessee called “Saddle Up” that is still in existence, there’s a rocky top riders program in Texas that uses horses to work with handicapped kids, and there’s a new place in Taos New Mexico where I live that is called the Equine Spirit Sanctuary. We use animals and I particularly use horses to work with the kids. It’s a really nifty program and I think that animals bring out the best in people.
(CSC) 6. What would you say is the most challenging part about riding horses, and competing in competitions?
(Lynn Anderson)
The hardest part was learning how to ride bareback. My grandmother told me that anybody can ride in saddle, but if you learned how to ride in bareback, then you could always ride in any form. So I would ride around without a saddle. When I was a kid, I’d train my horses to where they would go just like the Indians would do from having the pressure on their neck; you’d turn them to the right with one hand, and turn them to the left with the other. I would get them to listen to my voice and it was really kind of wild you know. I have ridden bareback a few times lately, but not so often anymore.
(CSC) 7. You mentioned that your parents still wear their Western Outfits, how old are they now? That’s great you still have them with you!
(Lynn Anderson)
Yeah… we get together often, and they are 82 years old. Daddy still wears that cowboy hat, and I’ve got to be real careful with him there. (Laughs) Mom runs out of breath and she’s not as strong as she used to be, but they’re great people, and like I said before, mother wrote every song in this latest album. She’s such a clever writer; she wrote a song on it called, “You’ve Been A Bad Cowboy, Go To My Room…” like you don’t send him to his room, you send him to my room. (Laughs) And she’s 82!! They are clever lyrics, a lot of fun, and really entertaining. She writes very different from anybody else. There was actually a great article that was written about me recently in the magazine “Cowboys & Indians.” They gave me a great review of the album that said, “The words to this album are to Western music exactly like a Georgia O’Keeffe painting.” Comparing my mother’s words to Georgia O’Keeffe, who is the greatest female Western artist, is really is a great compliment!
(CSC) 8. Your hit song “Rose Garden,” was covered by Martina McBride for her “Timeless” record, what was that like being able to see your song come to life through other artists in the business?
(Lynn Anderson)
That was quite a compliment! It was interesting that four of the musicians that she used on that session were guys that used to work for me at one point or another including the bandleader, Steve Gibson, who worked on the road with me for many years. Her recording of it was it’s true to note for note as you could possibly get. I’m an admirer of Martina’s, so the idea of her learning it almost exactly like I did it was quite a thrill! When the album came out, we did a TV special at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. When she stared singing “Rose Garden,” I stepped out from the side of the stage and started singing it with her. We’ve got some pretty good interviews of us talking during that time as well, and then a disc jockey in LA at the radio station out there spliced my record and hers together but it was a little uncanny to hear it that way. She really did a nice job of it and really paid a lot of attention to detail!
(CSC) 9. Speaking of the Grand Ole Opry, how can you best describe that venue?
(Lynn Anderson)
I always call it the high church of country music. It’s the epitome of the greatest place to stand and sing if you’re a country music singer…that’s the place to be! I think it’s interesting now how many diversified people they’re putting on that stage and there seems to be so many people that aren’t country who would like to be a part of country music, I don’t know how to feel about that. Of course when I started out, all the country people wanted to be Pop. (Laughs) So now all the Pop people want to be country. (Laughs) It’s interesting, we can’t really complain you know but hopefully the lines between the genres will come down. When I was doing it (Pop music), there was a Richard Carpenter song called, “Top Of The World,” and I worked with them at a political campaign years ago, (they had already had four singles out from that album, and “Top Of The World” was not one of them) so I asked them, “What are you going to do with that song?, it could be a country hit!” And he said to me, “Oh my golly we would love it if you would do “Top Of The World” because Karen hates that song, she calls it that stupid hillbilly song.” So he told me that if I chose to record it, he would back me and help promote the song! To make a long story short, it was a #1 country song for me, but they went back into the studio in LA, put a steel guitar on it, and released it as a single with Karen. It was “Country Song Of The Year,” it won the CMA, and it won a Grammy. So it was #1 country for me and #1 Pop for Karen because at the time, it was one or the other! My brother-in-law actually wrote a lot of the hit songs for them (The Carpenters). My other half is Mentor Williams, he wrote “Drift Away” for Dobie Gray.
(CSC) 10. You played the Grand Ole Opry quite often; do you have a few stories to share from working with the other ladies of the Opry?
(Lynn Anderson)
Well I’m not a member of the Opry, I hope one of these days I might be, and I might be too old now. (Laughs) They’re really going specifically for the younger artists nowadays; I’ve worked with a lot of those girls over the years. I remember Jan Howard from when she was married to Harlan when I first got to town; she and my mom are great friends; I got to travel in Europe last year with Jeannie Seely and boy is she a character, I love her!! Connie Smith and my friend Marty Stuart are wonderful, they’ve got some great ladies on there and I hope I’ll get to be a member one of these days. A lot of people kind of assume that I’m a member but I’ve never been a member. I don’t know why, I guess it’s because I was from California. I was one of those you know… I was kind of like an outsider. There I was the Lawrence Welk kid doing country music, and they thought of me like Sheryl Crow trying to break into country music now.
(CSC) 11. Who are some of your favorite female country singers of all time?
(Lynn Anderson)
I love Trisha Yearwood, I think she’s wonderful. Obviously Martina is a fine singer, Emmylou Harris; I think she’s just an incredible lady and a wonderful talent. I think with the new gals, I like Jennifer Nettles, I really like her voice, I think she’s very unique. Carrie Underwood has got a great voice too, and Taylor Swift! It’s funny with Taylor because a lot of people either really like her, or they don’t. I think she’s really the epitome of a young kid that’s got it together at her age being able to write what she does, and perform like she does. It will be interesting to see where an artist like her is in twenty or thirty years but she’s got the chops and the talent. Like I said though, I think my favorite of all the new girls is still Jennifer Nettles. I really think she’s classy.
(CSC) 12. What are the worst and the best places you’ve ever had to perform?
(Lynn Anderson)
(Laughs) Boy that’s a tossup! Probably the worst one lately was in the town square in Taos New Mexico. They had us opening the arts in the park festival and anything that’s got a grandstand in the middle of the park with dirt around it and a lot of people; you’re bound for a mess. Then shortly after that it rained, and there was mud and dogs and people running for cover while there was lighting striking. (Laughs) As for my favorite, I love to work at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The last time I was there, Dr. John was in the lounge, I was in the main room, and then Ringo Starr and The All Starrs were in the arena. So after my show we got to go step up on stage and sing with Ringo and Dr. John and sing, “I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends,” and “(All We Are Saying Is) Give Peace A Chance” in front of 80,000 people. I recently traveled to Norway and we were up in the Arctic Circle, it was in July, and in the summertime it is light over there for the most of the day. I went on at midnight and it was still daylight, when I got offstage they planned it so that it was dark, but then by the time I got back to the hotel, it was daylight again. They brought in a horse for me to ride through the crowd; it was a Norwegian Fjord Horse. Getting to see the world because of music is just wonderful. We’ve got pictures of the stage and behind it there were these beautiful waterfalls. What a lucky person I am to be doing something I love so much!
(CSC) 13. Moving forward, what can your fans expect next from you?
(Lynn Anderson)
We are doing Americana, which basically to me is the natural progression into what used to be traditional country. I think that for those of us who are adults, a lot of us can’t really hope to get played on the mainstream country radio stations anymore, but I think there’s still a market out there for traditional country music. So that’s basically where we’re going, Mentor and I are writing songs and working with some of the guys from the Burrito Brothers, and The Eagles (West Coast Country Music), which is where I came from! So I think you can expect to hear from me some straight country music with a little more of that California/country feel. That’s my heritage and that’s where we’re going.
For more info on Lynn Anderson, check out her official MySpace page here; http://www.myspace.com/lynnandersonshow
