The New Zealand Herald

Lynn’s great 87th honky tonk bash

- Kristin Hall

Country music queen Loretta Lynn has big plans for her 87th birthday this April in the form of an all-star tribute concert featuring Jack White, Garth Brooks, George Strait and many more.

The Coal Miner’s Daughter singersong­writer announced details of the April 1 show in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Bridgeston­e Arena.

She released her album Wouldn’t It Be Great last year, but hasn’t performed publicly since a stroke in 2017 and missed being honoured at the CMT Artists of the Year show last October due to an illness.

Other artists scheduled to perform are Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark, Darius Rucker and the Pistol Annies.

Lynn said she’s not planning any duets during the concert, instead saying she just wants the artists to sing for her. “I know what I want to hear and I am pretty sure they will be singing them.”

Still, the Country Music Hall of Famer said she would eventually like to perform again.

“Feels like I have been gone a hundred years,” she told AP.

Despite health problems, including fracturing a hip, she has continued to put out music and earned a Grammy for best country solo performanc­e for her song Wouldn’t It Be Great, which she wrote about her late husband Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn.

“I sang that song to him,” Lynn said. “It was the last song I sang to him. And he always said, ‘Honey, that’s a hit.’ I said, ‘Honey, you think so?’ ”

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