Loretta Lynn - Politics

Politics

At the height of her popularity, Lynn was subject to much controversy. She possibly had more banned songs than any other artist in the history of country music, including "Rated "X"," about the double standards divorced women face, "Wings Upon Your Horns," about the loss of teenage virginity, and "The Pill", lyrics by T.D. Bayless, about a wife and mother becoming liberated via the birth control pill. Her song, "Dear Uncle Sam", released in 1966 during the Vietnam War, describes a wife's anguish at the loss of a husband to war. It has been included in live performances during the Iraq War.

Though Lynn has been outspoken about her views on often-controversial social and political subjects, she stated, "I don't like to talk about things where you're going to get one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics." She has visited the White House six times since 1976, under both Republican and Democratic presidents, and in her autobiography, she said her father was a Republican and her mother was a Democrat. In 2002's Still Woman Enough, she discusses her longtime friendship and support for Jimmy Carter, yet during the same time period she made her only recorded political donations ($4,300) to Republican candidates and Republican-aligned PACs. She is known to have a friendly relationship with both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, who awarded her Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 At other times, she has also questioned both political parties: "Dear Uncle Sam" was written in 1966 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration to "recount the human costs of the Vietnam War", and she made a return to her live sets during the Iraq War under George W. Bush's presidency.

While a recognized "advocate for ordinary women", she is also famously suspicious of the Women's Liberation movement. She once stated, "I'm not a big fan of Women's Liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they're due." Along these lines, her music has spanned from "The Pill" and "Rated X" to more culturally-conservative gospel albums.

She allowed PETA to use her song "I Wanna Be Free" in a public service campaign encouraging people not to chain their dogs outside.

She often claimed to have been married when she was 13 years old. She was actually married when she was 15, which was not unusual in the South at the time.