How Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn Met
Did you know that Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn first met in a recording studio in 1967? They met each other in producer Owen Bradley’s recording studio. During that time, Conway Twitty was living in Oklahoma City however, he had the habit of going to Nashville early for his session to hang out in “Bradley’s Barn.” Also, it was the state-of-the-art studio that Owen Bradley built. Conway assumed that by being early, he could meet musicians and recording artists who were ending a session before his.
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On one time, Conway Twitty quietly entered the studio where Loretta Lynn was finishing her recording session. On one particular time, Loretta said to Bradley that she wanted to meet Conway. The producer brought in Conway Twitty right up behind her unnoticed. Owen reminded her of the conversation about Conway then he instructed her to turn around. Loretta Lynn was startled that made her jump and described Conway as “like a cartoon character.”
At that time, Conway Twitty didn’t know that Loretta Lynn was a fan of his. Lynn wasn’t a rock n’ roll fan, however, she loved “It’s Only Make Believe.” It was Conway Twitty’s No. 1 rock hit from 1958. Loretta Lynn even had a poster of Conway displayed on her home before she ever got to the music industry.
The Classic Country Music Duo
Three years after they first met, they decided to record together, unfortunately, Conway Twitty met a surprising opposition. For seeing previous collaborations with other artists, his associates were worried that his budding friendship with Loretta Lynn would sour with the clash of egos in the studio. Conway said that to the authors of “The Conway Twitty Story,”
“It made sense to us and Mooney (Loretta’s husband), but not to anybody else. Everybody else fought us on it. Of course, I was my own boss and stood firm. As for Loretta, she finally just had to tell everybody ‘Hey, we’re gonna do it and that’s the way it is.’”
Their intuitions were wrong and the first duet album of Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” became their first No. 1 album on September 15, 1973. The title track of the album became their third chart-topping single three weeks earlier.
Mooney, Loretta Lynn’s husband, got the credit for recognizing the song’s potential. He was in charge of Loretta Lynn’s office one day when one of the co-songwriters played the demo for him. Jim Owens wrote “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” with Becki Bluefield. Mooney liked the demo and told Jim, “
“Let me keep this song. I’ll see if I can get Loretta and Conway to do it.”
And the rest was history.
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