Faith Hill took to the stage for an emotional tribute to Loretta Lynn. Hill and husband, Tim McGraw, honored the later singer during CMT’s Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Celebration of the Life & Music of Loretta Lynn on Oct. 30. The couple joined Lynn’s loved ones and fellow country music stars at the Opry less than a month after she passed away on Oct. 4. Hill remembered meeting Lynn thirty years ago while backstage at the Opry. “It is our honor and privilege to be here close to where our dear friendship began,” Hill said. “And to celebrate this extraordinary woman and her remarkable life.” Hill and McGraw spoke highly of Lynn’s ability to write songs both for and about women. “Lynn was unabashedly honest about hardships and joys of being a wife and mother, a woman loving life — loving, lying, cheating, having babies, not having babies…she sang about it all,” Hill said. “She was fierce and proud of who she was, where she came from, and how she lived her life.”
Lynn was called a ‘trailblazer’ by McGraw, who appreciated her efforts in paving the way for his wife and daughters. Hill added, “She didn’t push boundaries for women in country music, she shredded them. She gave us this bold new space to find our own way to dream and soar into the music we make, the careers, and lives we have. She was always good, kind, and supportive of all of us. Every single person in this room has a story they could share. She was so dang wise and funny.” After choking back tears, Hill paused a moment. “I am honored to have been in your presence, Loretta,” she concluded. “I am grateful to have had so many memories with you. I am proud to be a woman in country music, proud to be a mom, I am proud to have the privilege of following you down the musical path you blazed for all of us.”
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Following Lynn’s death, Hill was also one of the many artists posting tributes to the country icon on social media. “Loretta Lynn was and always will be a national treasure,” she captioned an Instagram photo of her and Lynn. “She not only ‘pushed the envelope’ as the old saying goes…this woman was the envelope filled with stories of life. A real life, as a woman. What it meant to be a woman. To be a wife, to be a mother. Speaking plainly, truth telling, you know…the real s—. So, by the time her undeniably trail blazing testimonies reached the airways, that thing the music industry described as ‘pushing the envelope,’ Loretta had established herself as an original. The original.” Lynn died on Oct. 4 at the age of 90.
