By Jason Boucher

Loretta Lynn passed away yesterday, she was 90 years old. Lynn was a pioneer in the world of country music and she is still the most awarded female country recording artist of all time. She also toured more than 57 years of her life but stopped after a stroke in 2017. One of the many tributes we read today came from Jack White, who produced her Grammy-winning album in 2004 called, Van Lear Rose.

“What a sad day today is,” White continued, “I said years ago that I thought she was the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century. I still believe that. Loretta used to say to make it in the business, you had to either be great, different, or first, and she thought that she was just different and that’s how she made it, but I think she was all three of those things and there’s plenty of evidence to back that up too.”

“I learned so much from her working together on this album Van Lear Rose and there was times where I just had to take a pause and step outside because she was just so brilliant, I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing and hearing. I almost felt like she didn’t even realize it, you know. But she was just a genius and just brilliant at what she did and we were lucky to have her and people can learn from example the rags to riches part of it and the beautiful natural voice part of it. She was like a mother figure to me and also a very good friend at times. She told me some amazing things that I’ll never tell anybody. Rest in peace Loretta. God bless you.”

Listen to her 42nd album, Van Lear Rose, produced by Jack White below.