CRYSTAL GAYLE-Be TRUE TO YOURSELF

The Grammy-winning singer looks back at her life and career

- Amanda Champagne

Crystal Gayle’s mother liked to say that her youngest child could sing before she could walk. “I think music was in my soul from the very beginning,” the Grammy-winning artist tells Closer. Like her other siblings, including her eldest sister, the late country music icon Loretta Lynn, Crystal grew up surrounded by song. “My mother would sing, so I’m sure as a baby I was just singing along,” Crystal says. “She’d sometimes pick up the banjo and sing ‘Pretty Polly’ and all these great old songs.”

As a solo artist, Crystal found success with a country-pop hybrid sound that made her a star in 1977 with the hit, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.” She continued her streak into the 1980s, becoming one of the most successful crossover artists of the era. This season, Crystal’s on tour. (Visit her official website for dates.) She also recently duetted with Pat Boone on a new version of her 1982 hit “You and I,” which appears on Pat’s new album, Country Jubilee.

Tell us a little about your childhood.

My daddy worked in the mines, but then we moved to Indiana when I was about 4, because the mine had closed. He was working at a factory mill when he passed. I was about 8 when that happened.

That must have been so hard for you to lose your dad so young.

I was very shy ,and afterward I sort of went more inside. Different people handle grief differently. So my mother would make me sing for everybody. I think she was trying to pull out my personality again.

Do you remember what you sang?