October 15, 2025 • 63 mins
Country-pop legend Crystal Gayle joins Raymond Arroyo for an intimate conversation about family, faith, and finding her own voice beyond her sister Loretta Lynn’s towering shadow. From her Kentucky roots in Butcher Holler to her record-breaking crossover hit “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” Gayle reveals how she transformed from a shy small-town girl into a Grammy-winning superstar and international touring artist.
In this candid Arroyo Grande interview, Crystal Gayle opens up about growing up in a musical family, crafting her smooth signature sound with producer Allen Reynolds, and becoming one of the first artists to successfully bridge country and pop decades before Taylor Swift or Shania Twain. She also reflects on her long marriage, faith, and why she still performs today—with the same warmth and humility that defined her rise to fame.
Watch as Raymond Arroyo explores the extraordinary journey of a woman who blazed her own trail—from Coal Miner’s Daughter to Crossover Queen.
🔔 Subscribe for more inspiring conversations: Arroyo Grande, available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, and everywhere you listen, watch & stream.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you know Crystal Gail is the sister of the
Queen of Country, Loretta Lynn. Today, the legendary Miss Gail
tells me how she escaped the shadow of her sister,
remade herself, and discovered her own sound. This very special
Arroyo Grande could make my brown eyes blue. Come on,
(00:28):
I'm Raymond Arroyo. Welcome to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to
the show. Now turn those notifications on so you know
what's coming and if you'd like to support the show
or come with us to Grease next year, visit Raymond
Arroyo dot com. Crystal Gail is a Billboard chart topping
artist who's responsible for a string of hits that have
(00:49):
won her Grammy's, numerous Academy of Country Music Awards, American
Music Awards, and after being inspired by her sister, Loretta
Lynn to pursue music, the story of how she found
her sound and broke down barriers as one of the
first crossover artists of her generation needed to be heard.
(01:10):
Before Taylor Swift and Shania Twain, it was Crystal Gail
who crossed over from country into pop and made a
path for those ladies along the way. She touched millions
around the world. I just loved spending time with a
great Crystal Gaylee. Watch you really come from this incredible
musical family. And I mean people know your sister Loretta Lynn.
(01:33):
The whole family was musical though.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Our whole family, you know, my mother and my dad,
I mean the musical My mother, she'd play the banjo
and then she'd sing pretty poly you know, in Kentucky
where I was born, we moved when I was about.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Four into Butcher Holler.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Butcher Holler, well see yeah, Butcher Holler. I was the
only one born in hospital that was in Paintsville. So
but we moved when I was about for and to Wabash, Indiana.
So that's why my background, my musical sound is different
than my sisters.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I was going to ask you that, how did that
How did living in Indiana shape your sound, because Loretta
has a very different I mean that's deep in the holler.
And then you've got Crystal Gale, which is say, very
smooth crossover metropolitans, sophisticated sound with a country warmth underneath it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It just happened, I think growing up in Indiana. You know,
I had the Kentucky accent and then I moved to Indiana,
where you know, we sound a little different than everybody there.
So you try to adapt. You don't want to stand
out too much. Yeah, I know my brothers and sisters did.
Because I was too young to have the problems.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Right, you're the baby of the class.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I have the baby, and uh, you know, you adapt
to it. So when we moved to after you know,
I got married, we lived in Bloomington, Indiana. My husband
went to au there.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Did you meet in high school? Yes? I won't talk
about your marriage later, but okay, go on.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And then we moved to Nashville. So my dialect was
you know, Kentucky, Indiana and here in Tennessee. So I
didn't know how to say anything.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You were a gumbo, definitely was.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And you know, when I worked with Alan Reynolds, sometimes
he'd say, you know you're not saying that word, right,
I'd bring the dictionary in. Yes i am.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Here's the quotation marked the perfect to stop it. I
was surprised to learn that you were shy as a kid.
I was very shy, and your mother did what to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
My mother made me sing for anybody that walked in
the house. I mean, I hid and she'd find me,
and you know, I think it was trying to get
me out of the show. And my father died when
I was eight, So I did go into this little
(04:06):
shell that quiet. My sister Loretta, she had a dream
and she dreamed Dad died when he died, and she
said she was wringing her hands. Well when she got
to Kentucky, because we took he died in Indiana and
we went back to Kentucky, I was the one wringing
(04:26):
my hands and she had seen it. Oh my god,
you know, I just went inside. You know, my mother
had to. Actually, she did take me to doctor too, because.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I was she was worrying. You were two withdrawn.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, and he told me to quit, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Did, I just stop doing that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's an older doctor and he just the way he
said it was just like I've got to listen to him.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did that. Did the singing become a habit? Because I
know your brothers, your brothers are playing guitar, you have
another sister who sings, so yeah. So I mean the
w whole clan is a musical family.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We know in Kentucky, the porch was where everybody went
to have fun, played the guitar, whatever instrument, and just
you could hear the neighbor across the other hollar. But
then when we went to Indiana, it was in the
living room. You know, music was of our form of entertainment.
It wasn't We didn't have the video games, we didn't
(05:22):
have all those things that you know we have now.
So it was a part.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Of us well, and it came out of family and
it was a communal activity, which we've I would argue
we've lost in today's culture, that communal where multi generations
come together around an event or a moment. Crystal that's
almost gone. It is, I mean your music. I mean
there's music that people gather around and basically it's that
(05:50):
in sporting events, but local community activities like this or
family it's very rare.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I loved, you know, in Indiana where we grew up
and we have the small little carnival or where everybody came.
You know, it was just I love the small towns.
You know, that's when people get together and really they
make it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
One of the things I love about country music is
like jazz, it came up from the local people and
the sharing of those sounds and beats and rhythms and nationalities.
It kind of all blended, and you learned from neighbors
and from friends and from parents. What did you pick
up from your immediate family that you see in your
(06:31):
work even today.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, I think a lot of love. You know that
you were there and everybody would sing, and just that
family life. And I always thought everybody had a wonderful
family like I did. And then you finally grew up
and you realize, well, not really. And I was very
(06:56):
lucky to have really good parents and brothers and sisters,
you know. And Loretta would never let me forget I
was the baby. I mean, if she was here right now,
I'm still the baby baby.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah. Well you and you did emulate her at the beginning.
I mean, how could you not. I mean, she's she's
taking off. You're still a young kid, I know, in
the early day, did you tour You toured with her
for a little bit, or went on the road with
her something.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
When I was in high school and junior high she'd
let me come out and sing a little bit. But
when I started in the beginning, she took me out
on the road. And it really didn't last long because
of you know, her and mooney. They were trying to Okay,
she's got to stand here. I thought I was causing
them problems. I didn't realize that's how they were normal.
(07:43):
So I said, I've got to go home. You know,
I don't want to cause them because they.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Were bickering over where you should go when you should I.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Was causing them, you know, problems. So so that was
I went on my own after that, you know, I started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But in your in your early day, I mean you
get you get a recording contract very early with Decca.
How old are you? Sixteen?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, somewhere in there. And I got to do demos
and go in the studio and you know, learn a
little bit. And I was working actually with the Wilbur Brothers.
They had Shipfire music, so they'd let me do their
demos and it was so much fun. And then when
Owen Bradley said, who who was the head of Decca?
(08:24):
When you graduate, we'll release the single and he did Wow,
which was I cried the Blue right out of my.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Eyes another eye song.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It was a vision of something to come. You were emulating,
and I mean, I guess it's natural. I mean, you
talked about the love and your family. You would naturally
emulate or try to shape your music based on this
successful sistery. Oh yes, and you did early on.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh definitely. I knew all her songs, I inside out
and backwards.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It was just I loved her music and.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
She was a wonderful song st I mean, she wrote.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
She wrote the song, mom, It's different this time, sparkling
look of love. And as we're going down the road
in the bus, you know, I'm watching her and she says,
you get to sing it like this.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
She was giving you orders off intonation and tong everything.
She was a very kind of straightaway lady.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I mean, I never had it like this. When we're
rehearsing later on and we're doing some shows, she said,
quit singing it pretty. I said, not singing it pretty well?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's your style. Why wouldn't you sing it pretty? She
was something else, but you. She gave you some. I
mean early on the country thing, just really that straight
ahead country. And I've heard those recordings. They're beautiful recordings
even when you listen to them now, But for whatever
reason they didn't click. Why not?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, with music, you never know what's going to
be a hit. And you know, I actually early on
you know, I was watching my sisters. She go out,
she have hit after hit, and I thought, oh, this
sounds easy. I was going to go in a studio
and your court and I'm gonna have a hit after
it just like no, it doesn't happen like that, and
(10:12):
it just uh it hasked to work together. I was
actually on the wrong label. I was on Decca, which
turned into mc A. But I was only on there
because of being her sister. So when the contract was
over and uh ohen, he gave me my ultimatos and I,
(10:33):
you know, I chose to I was going to go
home for a while. And Lynn Schultz, who was with
United Artists, he asked me, I said what label you on?
I said, I'm not on any and he said what.
He well, you come over Monday and talk to me. Wow,
And I signed with you a And.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
But before you left, before you left Decca, they took
your name Gail. Oh, okay, Brenda Gail.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Took my name because of Brenda Lee because she was
on Decay. She was on DECA. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Did you ever hesitate and go? I don't want to name.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
There were times that I thought you know, I'd like to,
you know, get my get me back. Yeah, and I
started to and then I thought, you know this is
me now, huh. And people know me my music. And
you know, Loretta said, the name is bright and shiny,
and she said, that's what you are.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Did she come up with the name.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
She came up with Crystal. Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Why where did it come from?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, where it really first came from was the Crystal Hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
In life.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
She said it was because of a chandelier.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Because you were shy, and because you were shiny and sparkley.
So she started cleaning the story up this kind of
a little bit, but it was really.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
She was hot the Crystal Hambergers.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
They were good. They were good in their day. So
you just stuck with Crystal after this, and Gaiale was
always your middle middle Gale.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
We did change the spelling my realing this g A
I L. And so we Loretta thought, since the y
in Crystal, let's put the yan Gail go.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And you know, and ever it has been. Tell me
about Alan Reynolds, who you meet at United Artists. Yes,
tell me how he shaped and brought out and helped
you find your unique sound.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, Alan Reynolds was someone I'd never thought i'd find
in Nashville. He actually wanted to know what I thought
about the music, and not just say this is what
you can record. And you know, he'd always said, you know,
if you don't like the song, I mean, you're going
to be singing it, so you better like it. So
(12:45):
we listened to all these songs, and we'd go in
the studio and he had his own studio, Jack's Tracks,
and which is called Alentown now because Garth Brooks owns it.
Oh wow, and he's He let me go in and
sing a song. He said, sing the song all different
ways so you can see and hear your voice the
(13:08):
way that you like it the best. So we'd listen back,
and so he let me work on my sound.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You were kind of a belter at the beginning, yes,
which for those who don't know, that's a that's a
ethel murmur. You hit the big bah.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Everything was belting.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Ah. But that's not the crystal crystal Gale sound at all.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
No, it's not. So what happened well, just getting the
special songs that would lean to not belt uh huh.
And let me go back a little bit with my
sister Loretta. She told me to quit singing her songs.
She said, don't sing or record anything that I would.
(13:53):
She said, you will only be compared. And I really
think that's why I had a success because people didn't.
I'd find people that didn't know we were related, or
someone say you can't be your sister, you don't sound
like her, but they didn't realize. You know, there's about
nineteen years in between, so that yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Were you were you were you at all. You had
to be a little confused when she said that. I mean,
that's a hard thing to say. Look, don't don't use
don't use my sound as a model, and don't do
anything I would do that had to kind of rock
your world a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
At the beginning, I realized that she it did me
because I wanted to sing the songs, you know, I
do the shows. I wanted to sing her songs instead
of someone else's. But she said don't. She said, you
just you need to go mo R easy listening. She said,
you go that route, and that's why my music is
so different.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Mor Middle of.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The road, Middle of the road.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Mor, why do they call it MOL?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't know. Wow, Middle of the Road.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well say, I never would think of you. I don't
think of you as middle of the road. You have
your own I went and red reviews, early reviews of
your work, and even contemporary reviews. There are words that
pop outsultry, asserted, molasses toned with a sweet edge. I
mean the descriptions of you are they are unique. You
(15:20):
really did carve your own brand of music, certainly country influenced,
but it was something new.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It was going in the studio with Alan Yea and
working on the songs like he actually found done it
make my brown eyes blue?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah? Oh tell me that story, because it almost didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
No, it didn't. It was a song that Richard Lee,
great writer. He wrote my first number one, I'll get
Over You.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'll get over You one.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
If I can go back a little, I first met
Richard when we were getting ready to move to Nashville.
I was working in Bristol, Tennessee at a telethon and
he was too, and that was our first encounter and
he was heading to Nashville, you know, to make it
as a He's a great singer, I mean really think,
oh yeah, as well as writer. But I just remember
(16:09):
doing that show and after I got off my show.
I was trying to do those eyelashes. One popped off
right when I was done. I was mortified. But then
when he came to town and he hooked up with
people that I knew, and then you know, I'll get
over you. And then he was actually sending brown Eyes
(16:31):
out to California for a couple of people to hear,
and Alan said, we'll play it for me, and he's
at the end of it. He said, you're not sending
that anywhere. So we almost lost that song, really and
I loved it so much. It was the first take
in the studio went down.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well about that, I mean, this is extraordinary. Well they
do scratch takes. Explain to people what a scratch take is,
because this is just kind of a rough right.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Well, you go in, the machine goes on and you record.
This was what you hear is what went down on
that first take. I did try to re sing it.
It just did not work. We'd only put strings on it,
and that's what went down. It was a performance with
everyone with I mean pig Robin, who played the piano
(17:17):
on that. I mean, I think he set the mood
for everybody, and it just we were somewhere in some
little bar somewhere singing and playing it, and it just it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's what I was going to ask you, what did
you see when you first sang that song here, because
you've said you're a little bit like an actor, which
I hear every time you sing it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I sometimes I think of and I'm going to say
Billie Holiday when I was singing, because I just I
loved her voice, and I just and not trying to
sing like her because I can't, but it's just I
just feel like I was there with her singing. So
it's you know, when you sing or when I sing,
(18:02):
and when everything's going right on a concert.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
It's it's really it's like flying.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yes, it is. And then there's sometimes when you're not
feeling good and you still have to go out there
and perform. You know, I've had some of the worst
headaches and gone on stage and.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's just raising children and feeding children.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, a little of everything.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Which is its own. I mean, we'll talk about that
in a minute, but tell me. I want to get
back to Don't make My Brown Eyes Blue. There is
such a there is such a spirit in that song,
and I guess it's why people love to hear it,
and it's become your theme song in many ways. Yes,
it is because it does set a mood. I mean
the moment you hear it, you know, the beginning of
(18:44):
that song, you kind of sink into it and you
can't leave it.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It says so much and so little, that is what
I feel. I mean, it does. It says that everything
in those words, and it's a part of me, because
you know, I one, I don't say a lot, but
you know I'd rather short and sweeten to the point,
and I feel that song puts everything out there, right.
(19:12):
I don't know it was what. I just loved it
when I heard it, and I wanted it to be
my first single off of that album, huh, which is
titled We Must Believe In Magic? And I had to
talk fast because they wanted up tempo. That's what they
always leave with an up timber and I think they
(19:32):
probably were happy that they did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, I'll bet well that was even in parentheses. Later
they what was the next album? It was the next
album and they released it and said including Don't Make
Your Brother.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
They must have done the hits.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, they slipped that in. Why do you think it
clicked with the public. I mean, this was number one
Hot Country, number two on the Hot one hundred, and
it remains a perennial classic.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I mean on Billboard it was, but on cash Box
it was number one in the pop. Yeah, so I
feel I like that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Well, you're the first crossover Let's face it, you were
the first crossover artist, Cristel.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It was a song. I think that it sounded so different,
and it opened doors for people to listen to country
music and for my music to be played in other
styles of music, like when I would go to overseas
hearing my music come out of shops. I love that
(20:27):
hearing myself.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Why not? It holds up? It still holds up. There's
something magical about that song. And I've heard you sing
it live a number of times. It's still magical. Here's
here's the question. How do you preserve this force? Do
you do anything special? Do you do scales? Do you do?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know? Every now and then, I will. I probably
don't take care of it as much as I should.
It's just something that I don't know. You know, I
do do vocalizing, I do sing as Lee Green. Would
you know? We traveled together quite a bit and done
(21:07):
a lot of dates together through the years, and he'd say,
you know, try singing other songs you wouldn't normally sing
for vocalizing, which I do that a lot too. He
and just little things.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Help. Did you ever take lessons?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
No? Not, you know I should.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
No, it didn't hurt you. Don't you worry. I was
friends and interviewed Keeley Smith a number of times. You
remember Keely Smith. There is a pure quality and an
honesty and and authenticity in her voice that I hear
in yours. It's a sweetness and it's not manufactured, if
you know what I mean. It's it's authentic. And to
(21:47):
preserve that over a long period of time, which Keeley
did as well, it is a natural gift. Do you
feel that that it's a gift.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I feel it's a gift to have a voice I
can sing, that I can sing if it was any
I love singing and and God gave me a gift
of music and and uh, you know, I've recorded wonderful
songs to him. I have several albums that I love
(22:19):
and you know, I that's and my mother would say that,
you know she was she read the Bible inside, you know,
several times and uh, and it was just you know,
her wanting to pull out my gifts and uh and
she did. She was a nurse and she actually took
(22:40):
a mail order nursing course because she worked at a
nursing home. I mean she could have been a doctor
or she could have been all you know, but you know,
being from the Hills and didn't have the opportunity. But
she did the course, and I mean she was healing
things that the doctors was coming and saying, okay, how
did you do this? And we call it the healer.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, she had that. I mean, there is a Loretta.
When you mentioned Loretta having a dream about your father's death,
Loretta also had this kind of supernatural sensibility. Yes, did
you see that And do you see it in your
own life?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh, definitely in my life and my mom's. And it
was just I think it came from the hills.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
When my first time I went to Ireland, I saw Kentucky,
I felt Kentucky. I felt we have Irish blood in Scottish,
you know it we have parts of everywhere really, but
I felt at home over there. It felt like my
(23:47):
people in the sense of it was rooted and that's
who came over and settled into those areas of you know,
the Appalachian Virginia, and they moved in and brought the folklore,
the music. My mother would sing those folk songs, those
(24:09):
hill songs, and I loved it. I've still got her
on tape singing really wow.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You see. And that's what Maybe that's what it is.
Maybe it's your mother's influence that not only reached you,
but reached your sister Loretta. And as we talked about
before we started, you were the only two siblings that
I can find who hit number had number one, hits
(24:36):
huge acclaim in the same area of music in American life.
I don't see two other siblings that have had that
kind of success.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
We were lucky. I was lucky.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
But there's something in the blood.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's something in the blood. It's something that my sister
was very, very smart in the business. That's why she said,
don't do anything. And she knew that I would not
be listened to. She would only be compared. She'd say, wasn't.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
The rival read between you two? There were a lot
of those articles.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh a lot of articles. I mean, we would we
look at each other and you know, sort of laugh
and and she says, well, as long as I spell
your name.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Right, don't worry about it. Yeah. I dug through some
of those old articles and a lot of them will
go back in the day, like People magazine. So you
don't know whether to how much credibility this has. You know,
where I didn't go to her house for seven years,
I haven't stepped foot. Was any of that true? You know?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
None? I mean they take one little thing and they
build something with it. You know, we were both busy
on the road and half the time they would be
doing all these articles, and it was like we hadn't
seen each other for a little bit when you talked,
because we were out about that to cause the problems.
I mean, hey, we were sisters, you know, sisters. We
(25:58):
get together, we laugh, we have fun, We can argue
if we wanted to. But that was okay. M That's
a nature of a sister and nature of sisters.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Do you ever stand back and look at Shanaiah Twain
and Taylor Swift and realize that you really were the
original groundbreaker here that crossed over from country into pop
and bridge those worlds and open the doors for those women.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I feel like that my music did open a lot
of doors. And also look at Olivia Newton John. She
came from pop into country. She won Female Vocals one year,
and I know there was all this like what happened scandalous, yes,
and totally just laugh. I mean, hey, she had a
huge song and it was number one in country and
(26:48):
so you know, but her her music came into country.
And Kenny Rogers, I mean he also opened the doors.
I mean we would also be a compare Kenny and
I and they call our music slick music. Oh snarticle, Yes,
because we weren't just that country country.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You weren't hollering in the high.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
We weren't hollering you could, I.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Know, but you did make there is a sound and
I've always appreciated it because if you look at all
the women around you, a lot of women recording at
the same time, they were belters. They were kind of
big voice, you know. You you had your smooth lane
that you just kept writing. You found your sound and
you really never abandoned it.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
But sometimes within my albums or certain songs, like there
were some songs that belted, then maybe it didn't sound
it like half the way, and they may have all
these songs that did have it arranged to it. But
maybe because I have the softness in the lower part.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And sweetness in the high end. There's a sweetness in
the high end of your voice. That's you know that
you maintain today. No, no, it's all true. I'm not
telling anything. They know the go listen to the albums,
even the most recent when you'll hear it, nothing's changed.
Tell me about the long hair, which I remember watching
(28:10):
on the Muppet Show and I remember seeing you on
television and I still see you and the hair is
still long, flowing locks. Why keep the hair?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I don't know, other than I had a jacket on
and I put my hair in my jacket once and
it was coming out it looked like I had, you know,
rolled it under. And my mother said, you cut your hair.
I thought, I thought, I mean, I thought she was
going to hard attack. And that always stuck with me.
And also when my kids were little and I was
(28:43):
really contemplating cutting then and they said, Mom, you want
me Crystal Gale, And I thought, you know, well, it's
hard to get rid of something that's been with you
as long as it has been. And I know, I'm
sure people joke at it, do this and that all
through the through the years. But that's a nature of people.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It's your trademark and it's how people know you. And
I agree. I think there's somewhere I read you said
it's like a child.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It is has taken a lot of care through the years.
I could not fix hair, so it was easy to
wash it and let it dry and I was ready
for stage and leave it. Yeah, because I couldn't afford
a hairdresser. I mean, Lorett, didn't you tell me cut it,
you know, rat it up, you know, do all that
you know, And I just couldn't do that. So I
(29:34):
saved some money, you.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Know, indeed indeed. But but it's iconic. I mean, it's
become iconic. So I'm not one of those people think
you should cut it. Leave it. It looks exactly like
Crystal Gale. Your kids are right.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
And I love being able to do Sesame Street and
the Muppet Show, you know, with the little kids around.
And I was in New York and I actually had
my hair up at that time. This little girl in
a carriage and she looked up and said, Mommy, mom,
does she know me? She said, she's letting her know
she had seen me on my history. Yes, when I
(30:11):
sang with Big Bird.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I love it. I mean, you've had what incredible career.
You toured with Bob Hope. Yes, And I knew Bob
and Dolores so well. They were great people. But tell
me about touring with him.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I got to do some concerts, but I got to
go to China. Historic, yes, very historic. It was just incredible,
so many things you could write the book about China,
And it was just an incredible trip. But he was
an incredible person. When we landed in we were in Beijing,
(30:46):
and when we land there, landed there and got to
the hotel, he calls, and it was late at night
to welcome us to the hotel and being on and
I was just so sweet and just Dolores. I got
to go shopping with her and I thought I could shop.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Oh No, Dolores was was great. Yeah, nobody liked Doloris Hope.
She could shop and and and she was another organizer.
She could she ran the whole show. What did you
learn from Bob Hope? Did you learn anything as a
performer from him?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He actually we did some jokes together. So he showed
me how to do timing and uh and that helped too,
because when my sister Peggy se would travel with me,
she's the jokester, so you know, we we'd do sometimes
she'd had to nudge me a little bit, you're line,
your turn, your turn, but she's great.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Wow. How did One from the Heart originate? This is
the Tom Waits Copola project, Francis fort Popolo's film. You
did the soundtrack to that with Tom Waits of Old People.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Tom had? I mean, he took the train from I
think New York to LA He didn't like to fly.
I'm not sure if he still takes the train, but
he heard me singing a song called crimea River. They
was on the the the train, the music they were playing,
and they called and said, hey, he would like you
(32:16):
to to meet to to do this album. And that
was really what inspired him to want that, And so
we go out and and working with Tom was just incredible.
I mean, I love his writing. You know, I got
early on. And you know when Bill was in law
(32:36):
school here, you know, we get to see him at
exit in and I didn't know. I mean I couldn't
go up and say, hey, hey, how are you doing town?
But oh yeah, yeah, and he would write in the night,
in the evening, and then he'd bring it into the
studio and I would learn the song and we would
(32:58):
record it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Wait a minute, he didn't it to you ahead of time.
I mean you didn't have no No.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
This was just he would write and we would. It
was just so musical. I mean he'd played the piano.
You know, if I sang it wrong to him, he'd
tell me what the melody But maybe I changed somebody
who knows, and he didn't care. But it would just
it all worked.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, it's a beautiful blending. And you wouldn't think, I friend,
you know, when you listen to these two voices apart,
you're like Crystal Gail tom Waits. One of these things
is not like the other. Uh, you know, to steal
something from Sesame Street. But it chelled beauty. I mean
you kind of completed each other in some ways.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
It we were so different. Yeah, that I think that's
what it blended.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
He was gruff in the certain songs that we'd do,
and then I'd come in with more of that smooth sound.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
And smooth off the rough edges. Yeah, there are a
lot of rough edges anyway. Uh, how, how and why
Crystal do you steal tour? It's hard out there.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
It is very hard. It can be. You try to
you try to make out. You know, when you look
at the paper, Okay, it's this far, they're here and there,
and you think, okay, that'll be okay. But sometimes a
hard can be hard. Yeah, But when you do the
shows and you see the wonderful friends that you've made
(34:19):
through the years that are coming and I have, I've
made a lot of friends, good friends.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I love how you refer to your fans as friends,
because I think they feel that with you.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well, I've they're wonderful friends and from all walks of life.
And I've lost a bunch of wonderful friends through the
years that you know, I think of all the time
when I go back and they'll be at a place there,
or their families coming. You know, it's but they are.
That's what really the heart and soul of country music
(34:51):
is family. It's friendship. It's you know, you hear a
lot of the drinking songs or the or the beers
and all that, but it's it's it's still, it's got
it's warmth, it's fan love, it's it's all that mixed together,
and that's that's the time I grew up in it.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I love the the fairs. I love the little carnivals.
I love the the little outdoor venues that you would
go and people bring their picnics.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Do you do you still think people are craving that
oh gatherness, that family spirit if you will.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yes, you know. Now now the shows are so big
and they're in the stadiums, it's I mean they go
to them, but that's a new generation. You know, they've
missed this other where. It's you know, in between shows,
because you maybe do two shows the same day, you
go and picnic with them. You know, they'd bring enough
(35:46):
fried chicken, or.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
They come see you backstage or bring you things. Yes,
you know, it was just h you know there's an
intimacy there. Yes, And you've got great to I mean
you're at the Waco Hyppodrome, You've got your Arlington, Texas,
You're all over Texas, you're all over Florida.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Texas is a world of his own. And I love Texas.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
And I'm sure the people, the audience there is very forward.
Oh yes, they're not a retiring audience in Texas. Which
I which I always like, how do you get every
time I listen to your songs and I usually put
them on the surround sounds so you can really hear them.
You get under a lyric, inside a lyric in a
way that well, we were talking about Keeley Smith. Keeley
(36:31):
Smith got very angry. She said, a lot of these
people she was talking about he's dead. Now I can
say it, she said, Tony Bennett, I don't know why
he's still recording. I said, why would you say that?
People love him? And she said, he's singing along and
his voice is raw. He shouldn't do that anymore. You
get inside a lyric every time you sing? How do
you do that? How do you approach your song?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
When I through the years for recording, the melody would
have to appeal to me first, and then I listened
to the lyrics really close to see if it's something
that I could say and want to put across. And
I think in your delivery of when you're singing a song,
you know like I don't know when I've been so blue.
(37:14):
I mean, you're into those lyrics. It's not just don't
know when I've been so blue. You don't just sing Yeah,
you're you're singing the words. You're making the musical.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
How do you prepare? Sinatra used to recite it like
like a like a play. He would write the lyrics
out and walk around reciting it like a play, which
a comedian of work with we told me recently, Tom dreason.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Some people do that for vocalizing too. You would you
would say the words, just say the words and sing like,
don't know when been, So you would do it in
that way. So maybe that was his form of vocalizing
as well. But also it's a form of learning the
song too. Yeah, the lyrics, because a lot of songs
are more involved in verse after verse. At the verse they.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Get tricky, Yes, they get tricky. They can you have
sung in addition to your very romantic songs, some of
your songs, I mean these are songs about drinking and
hard living and I mean dumping the guy and the
truth about Crystal Gaal is you've been married to the
same guy you met in high school.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yes, tell me how.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
First of all, how did you and Bill meat and
how do you maintain a relationship in music all of
this time?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Well, there's give and take, you know, definitely, you have
to overlook a lot there can be. You know, I have,
as you said, Irish blood but also Indian blood, so
you know he mix those two.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
And I'm married to one of those. I know.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You know it really just works. I mean with children,
when a girl and boy, Chris and Katherine, well, Chris
actually does a lot of producing, songwriting, does a lot
of things here in Nashville and doing great with it.
And you know you when they were little, Bill stayed
(39:08):
home and didn't tour like with me with it was
going to be long because we wanted them to have a.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Home life stability, yes, and not just get on a.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Bus and go right, but to work on a relationship.
I mean, hey, I mean there's days we probably want
to kill each other.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
It's a nature of relationships, right, But you know you
have to you commit to the long ride. You commit
to the long ride. But it is interesting though that's
been your life, Yes, and yet you're singing these songs
for women who lived a very different life and and
even popularize that. Do you feel any of that duality
(39:50):
when you're performing those songs?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Well, like I said, with singing, you are acting right,
and it's not this is I think people they get
into songs. They might not be their life, but it
can be the melody. It could be a few words,
It could be maybe a phrase that.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You said somebody you know who went through that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yes, I got so many fan letters through the years
telling me that my music helped them through a dark
part of their life, whether it was a breakup, maybe
a home life that wasn't as good as it could
have been. And they'd say they would lock themselves self
away into my music and it helped them get through.
(40:36):
And that to me was more important than getting an
award and.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Christ, what do you think they're reacting to when they
write the When they write that and have that reaction.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I think that they want me to know that I
have been a part of their life and they're part
of my life because I've kept a lot of those letters.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
How bad? Tell me what it was working like working
with Jane Martin.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Oh, he was so great Dean Martin. I loved it.
I got to do his TV shows and and then.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
There's a he loved you too. I watched I just
watched those clubs. It was mutual.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We would eat at a restaurant that he loved Miglia.
I think it was called in l A. I have
this not there anymore, but I mean it was so incredible.
But every time we'd go there, he'd be there. So
we would visit with him a little bit there.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
One time I met him. That's where it was, in
that restaurant. Yeah, he would sit in.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
The booth there, his place, that was the booth.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, somebody told me that, and I said, when you go,
make sure you go to lat Familia. He'll be at
the booth at seven o'clock. And darn it, seven o'clock
he walked in and there he was right up in
this that was that was place. So you were in
touch with him for years. I mean, you stayed in touch,
you know.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
As well as you can, you know. And of course,
uh and I've been able to know his family too,
and this it's just when I look at all the
wonderful people, as you said, Dean Martin, I mean, that
was just a highlight to be able to work with
him when stars were stars, stars were stars, and you know,
(42:14):
I look at I got to meet Elizabeth Taylor. She
was a star, I mean, and I mean, how did
you meet her? We were doing the inauguration gala and
it was at the end of the show and I
immediately went right to her, and she could have could
not have been more gracious. You know, some would have
(42:35):
just pushed you off, which I've had those, but I
mean she was Elizabeth Taylor, what I knew. And the
other artist was Katherine Heppern really and I got to
meet her. It was a night of one hundred stars.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I had gone to the bathroom, came back and the
girl that was taking me around, she said, where have
you been? And she said, Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn wants to
meet the girl with the long hair. So I was
so happy I had long hair.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
You see that long hair, and that long hair works
every time. Tell me about you. You mentioned earlier your
gospel albums, and this is in the nineties. You recorded
a pair of them, right, Yes, it was two. He's
Beautiful and the other one is.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Some Someday someday.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Why those songs and why gospel?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
What's a part of my life? And actually at that
time I wanted people to know that part of my
life and know that who I am being a Christian
when I grew up. I mean, being a Christian doesn't
mean you have to go to church every Sunday or
do all the it's the way you live your life.
(43:53):
But putting those songs out I wanted to. I wanted
them to hear and I love them.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I mean they're beautiful song.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
One album was filled with new songs, and then the
other one is the songs I sing in church, still
singing church and love them and you know, it's uh,
it's great to have people around you that love the music,
(44:20):
the gospel music and and and that sing themselves.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Well. This used to be a feature in Nashville. Yes,
every major artist because they did come from the same
family faith ethos that you talked about. There was Elvis
recorded about some of the best recordings he ever did.
Are those beautiful gospel albums your sister. I mean, I
(44:44):
could go doubriba you. There was always that faithful expression
through the music. Are you worried that we're losing that?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
We definitely have lost quite a bit out in the world,
and the morality is different. The things that I see
online that I would have never seen TV shows or
whatever's out there. I mean, I'm like, Okay, put the
(45:15):
gospel back on, and I just think it would be
nice if we had a little bit more thought a
little bit more of ourselves in what we do things,
and but I guess we don't.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
What about musically, I mean, when you look back at
when you came to Nashville and now you think what.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Uh, well, definitely it's it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
You're being so diplomatic, Crystal.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
You know, I look at it that you know, I
wouldn't never been able to. I would personally would not
have worn some of the things that people wear on
stage now just because of the know who I am.
But I mean some things are very beautiful, but you know,
I think you know, they need to stay where they
should be. Yeah, the type of shows they are, but.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Keeping your clothing on is a nice prerequisite.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to have number ones
for that way.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
That's right. You earned them. You earned them with your
with your vocal cords, not with other things. But has
the music it's gotten a lot more corporate, it seems
to me, you know, with to.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Me, I do not know how a song makes it anymore.
Is it streaming, is it radio? I don't know, because
it's just so people have hits and I've never heard
I've never heard the song, and they're selling out stadiums,
and I'm like, I'm missing something somewhere. I guess if
I was online all the time, I would know them,
(46:50):
but it's hard to be online, and for me it is.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, because you're in conquering all the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, you know, you have to take a break. I mean,
you can get online and before you realize it, it's
been two hours, and I'm like, wait a minute, I
could have been.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Doing something else exactly.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
And it's not that I don't want to be on
and see and read and I do and I answer
stuff for people, but I feel like you have to
take a break from that.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah. I love an album you did with your son,
who I met earlier, and it's Crystal Gail sings the
Heart and Soul of Hogy Carmichael, whom you knew. Tell
me about Hogy Carmichael.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Hogy Carmichael. I was so excited I got to meet
him and saying with him, Oh, yes, I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
How old were you when you met him?
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Oh gosh, was it your special? No, it was a
country music special.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
And they sent me to California where he lived, and
we did the songs together with a medley of his
songs that he'd written. And he wasn't in really good
health at that time, and but so it was in pain.
But when that camera came on, you didn't. You could not.
He was a showman. I mean he was so great. Wow,
(48:11):
And I knew right then I wanted to do an
album of his music. He was from Indiana, Bloomington, and
so there was that connection. But you know those songs
are you know you sing a song of his, the.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Skylark, Your Skylark is so beautiful?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Have you any thing to say to me? I mean,
they're just the lyrics and the music. Now, Stardust I
did that, and that song he had written as just piano.
I mean, it was a music. The lyrics were added
later by Mitchell Parish. Yes, And I could tell by
(48:52):
singing that song it was not written at the same time.
That song.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
It's a hard song to sing. Yeah, yeah, it just
falls across the meadow of my mind. What a beautiful
song that is. But that album tell me about why
you wanted to preserve those songs, because in many ways
that's what you're doing, and they are they're exquisitely rendered.
(49:19):
I'm really upset that you haven't recorded more of that
Great American Songbook because it does suit you.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
It does and that voice that is a calling that
style of music. I just wanted to sing though. Man,
there was so many to choose from the nearness. I mean,
it's not the pale moon that excites me, you know,
the delights me. Oh No, it's just the nearness of you.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Oh my goodness. Now I get to sing with Crystal
Gail take Me Home Lord, Okay.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
But I love that. That's where you can act in
the in the song. It's acting. You can actually get
into the.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Lyrics, into that moment. Yes, tell me about the album
that you did of Country Classics, which is you Don't
Know Me And I love this album because Loretta and
your sister Peggy's Who and you sing together on this. Yes.
What does that represent to you?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Oh? It was just an incredible time. And my sister,
you know, through the years, we've been wanting to do
an album. Man, we just we talk about it. We
listened to songs. She said, we want to do a
pop album. I said, now, let's do what we really
know and then she said, I want to do this
and it was just but we just had fun. So
(50:36):
we never really well, you know, we just wanted to
be sisters. So but when I was doing this, I said, Loretta,
can will you do this song that we've sung on
shows many times? So I had the track put down
and she came in and if I'd had ten tracks,
she would have sung every one of them, if I'd
(50:57):
had other songs. It was like, what's that? She was
having so much fun and I wish I had had
that thought that maybe she'd do a little bit more.
But you know, it was just great to be with
her in the studio. And she's an incredible singer. Oh,
she was the best singers ever.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Well, you all there must be something in that gene pool,
because I'll just say this when you listen to when
she passed away, we were doing commemorations of her, and
I pulled the early stuff and then I pulled her
last album. You remember she recalled her Yeah, yeah, all
the divorce and coal Miner's daughter. There's very little differentiation
(51:40):
in the voice. Yes, I mean the power that voice
is remarkable, I know, and I feel the same way
when I listened to you do you think it's just jeans?
Speaker 2 (51:50):
It's something I'll say. You know, you do what you
love to do. And uh, I've always said though, when
when it's time for me to quit singing, I'll know it.
You know, I don't want to be out there singing.
And when I'm fighting all over the place, it's everything.
You know, I'll hear it when you have Okay, that's it.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Well you're not there yet. Good stay what you're doing.
Who do you listen to them?
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Oh? There's so many that I love.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
You know, you listen to listen to mostly people of people,
both both so Laney Wilson.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Love her voice, you know, just there's something that appeals
to me. But I mean there's so many that through
the years that have a bunch of new singers. Yeah,
you know Annie Bosco, Oh gosh, you know the names?
Speaker 1 (52:46):
Or is it only country or do you listen to folks?
Do you listen to rock? Do you listen to.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
You listen to it all, you know, as you know,
the radio is usually on certain stations and you listen
and there's some great singers out there. And I know,
you know, like you're saying, Taylor Swift's greats. I love
her music, Scenia, I love what she's done through the years.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
They owe a lot of thanks to Crystal Gaiale. That's
all I'll say. Send you thank you cards. Girls. Okay,
there is a questionnaire I ask everybody who sits off
with me. This is the Royal Grande questionnaire. I don't
want you to think about these. I just want whatever
pops in the top of your head. Okay, it's not
a quiz. If I have one, you definitely have one.
(53:30):
Who is the person you most admire?
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Well, well, that is a hard one, though, it really is.
You want the first one. You know. What came to
my mind was my mother and not really you know,
and you're with us. I think, you know, when my
dad died, she's very strong. She stayed strong for the
whole family and the values.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
I think of what would my mother do? That's where
I go. It's not what someone else would do, but
what would she do in the situation of just.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
And it sounds like from what you told me, she
really is the font of your music and your sister's music,
your family, your brother's music. Who still play with you? Right?
I mean there's still from time to time what they
did they dan?
Speaker 2 (54:22):
You know, we've lost all my brothers and it's just
the girls left now and uh, except you know, we
lost Loretta, Peggy and Betty and myself with the last
of the sisters, and you're holding the flag we're hanging
in there.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Who's the person you most despise?
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Well, well, gosh, I don't like to really despise anybody.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
I'll take that answer. That's a good that's what I
expected from Crystal Gale.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Well, it's just, you know, why, why put your thoughts
in a person that you know you might And if.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Someone told me the other day, there's too much the world.
I don't hate anybody.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
There's too much.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
And that's probably the right answer. But despite my provocative question,
what's your best feature?
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Oh my best feature? Oh my? Oh, let's see, Well,
is it the hair that's one or my eyes?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Eyes?
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I give people talking bit eyes. But my my grandson,
who is Bjorn, he's five, and he looked at me
the other day says, yeah, yeah, why do you have
angry eyebrows? And if you go on some of these
memes on these shows that you have all these eyebrows, Well,
the shape of my eyebrow is in there, in there
(55:42):
because the angry eyebrow, but it's not.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
I thought it was so eyebrows are off the list,
the best feature of the list now, so we're up
the eyes and hair. See, I would have thought your.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Voice, Oh well I've never really that's not a bad tea.
You always want the voice you don't have.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
What voice would you want if you couldn't have yours?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Well, you know you always wanted the soprano. I've always
been more the low the base, ye alto. I always
wanted more of a soprano high voice.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
Isn't that weird? Every time I hear you, all I
hear is your beautiful highs. That beauty because the tone
is a light tone. It's not a heavy tone. You
don't bring the base up with you when you get
to those high notes, they're clear, beautiful. Note. See you
got the soprano and you didn't know what you had
it to us, to the people listening, you're already a soprano.
(56:33):
What's your favorite book?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
I don't think there's one favorite other than if you
want to go to Yeah, but as far as just
picking up book, and I could say my sister's you
know in her biography?
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Oh that that is a good bio. See that is
a good biour. Wasn'tre a movie made off of that.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Yeah, I think it was.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, it did kind of concern your family. That's a
good answer at Crystal, What do you know that no
one else knows?
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Well? Life is short, life is turn around what you
thought you were going to do, Take that trip, do
those things you want to do, because you never know.
But I think a lot of people realize that they
just don't. You know, you gotta go do it. Yeah,
and it's just you know, life is, it's wonderful and
(57:24):
there's ups and downs. I always say, because you know,
you'll have dreams of growing up. You dream this is
what I want to do. But those dreams can change
and you mold your life and it might not be
you know, people want to be a singer. But I
always look at if you love people and life, whatever
(57:48):
you do in life, you're going to do well with it.
Whether it's waiting tables, whether it's being a nurse. My
mother was a nurse, she loved it. I my brother's
worked in factories. I mean they did a great job.
My my brother Junior was worked in Chrysler. He didn't
go to college. But who did they call to fix
some machines? My brother who could take them apart, put
(58:11):
them back together if he wanted so. You know, it
was just he loved it and he loved playing music,
and he'd say, you know that's you know, it was
he loved life.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
What do you fear?
Speaker 2 (58:26):
I fear that I always want to take care of
things before something happens. I'm one of those that I
like to think of what might happen if I do this?
What road do I go down? It's just, you know,
I want to take the safest route, like I want
(58:50):
to to check out places if we travel, where we go.
I fear just you know, I just want to keep
my family safe. I want to Maybe it's more for
them than me, you know, I fear for other people.
You know.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
Do you have a regret?
Speaker 2 (59:07):
I'm sure I do, but I don't like to go
there either, because it's like you can regret doing certain things,
but you did the things you did, and it took
you to this point. It took me to this point.
And you know, whether you know I didn't record a song,
or I didn't record a song, or you know, you're
(59:28):
you're going down your own road and you make those
decisions at that moment, and to go back, I don't
know what I do. Maybe make the same decision at
the same time, you would make the same decision, and
it might lead to the same road in the end.
But so I try not to say, you know.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
You don't look back? And could you know you don't
look back?
Speaker 2 (59:53):
My husband prices I do.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
Every husband says you do. But that's a different that's
a different We all think that because you know why,
you all have these retentive memories and we're like a
bag of stones. We remember nothing. So I've been married
for thirty years. I know these things. The one thing
I know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Do bring up things you know about tenant night? Did
we did not want to hear it?
Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Why did you say that? What about this? I know
this routine? Tell me what is the best piece of
advice Crystal Gale ever received.
Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
I would say the advice, but I've gotten quite a few.
I'll bet the best would be when my sister told
me to quit singing her songs, do a different style
and go my own way and just being myself, you know,
being true to myself. And I've always had to turn
(01:00:50):
down more money because if I didn't like what they
wanted me to, you know, advertise, you know, I did
not want to be that person to tell someone else
to do it. And I'm not going to do that
or use that shampoo or use that you know, It's
just it was not me I wanted to. I.
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Oh, I'll bet you got more shampoo offers than anybody
in the business.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I did get a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
I'll bet I'll bet Katherine Hepburn would have bought it.
You should have. You should have done a few extra
those What happens when this is.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Over, Crystal, when I put my feet up and sit back.
If as far as touring and being a part of everything,
when that is over, I'll look back on it and
enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
But you've given us a lot to enjoy over many years.
And it goes on, and I hope people will go
see you alive because it's really special.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
But guess what, my brown eyes have not turned blue,
and I'm really upset about it. Thank you, Thank you
for the interview. Thank you, beautiful music. You know what
I love about Crystal Gail. She found her own path
despite the incredible trail blazed by her sister, and she
ended up blazing her own trail for other women. She
also had that internal sense not only her music, but
(01:02:10):
the values that defined her career. And the wonderful thing
is Crystal Gail is still touring. She's all over Texas
in Waco and Arlington, then she's onto Kentucky, Alabama, Florida.
Check out her website at Crystalgale dot com for all
the dates and the latest. You will be so happy
you went to her show, and I hope you'll come
back to Royo Grande soon. While of a dry, constricted,
(01:02:34):
narrow life, when if you fill it with good things,
it can flow into a broad, driving Arroyo Grande, I'm
Raymond Arroyo. Make sure you subscribe like this episode and
look my brown hat turned blue. Thanks for diving in.
See you next time. Fue Arroyo Grande is produced in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts DP Studios and is available on
(01:02:56):
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Spoken Consonants, Sciences, Haspocused Percast and Exerce and Spoken Scisspocus
broadcasts
Did you know Crystal Gail is the sister of the
Queen of Country, Loretta Lynn. Today, the legendary Miss Gail
tells me how she escaped the shadow of her sister,
remade herself, and discovered her own sound. This very special
Arroyo Grande could make my brown eyes blue. Come on,
(00:28):
I'm Raymond Arroyo. Welcome to Arroyo Grande. Go subscribe to
the show. Now turn those notifications on so you know
what's coming and if you'd like to support the show
or come with us to Grease next year, visit Raymond
Arroyo dot com. Crystal Gail is a Billboard chart topping
artist who's responsible for a string of hits that have
(00:49):
won her Grammy's, numerous Academy of Country Music Awards, American
Music Awards, and after being inspired by her sister, Loretta
Lynn to pursue music, the story of how she found
her sound and broke down barriers as one of the
first crossover artists of her generation needed to be heard.
(01:10):
Before Taylor Swift and Shania Twain, it was Crystal Gail
who crossed over from country into pop and made a
path for those ladies along the way. She touched millions
around the world. I just loved spending time with a
great Crystal Gaylee. Watch you really come from this incredible
musical family. And I mean people know your sister Loretta Lynn.
(01:33):
The whole family was musical though.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Our whole family, you know, my mother and my dad,
I mean the musical My mother, she'd play the banjo
and then she'd sing pretty poly you know, in Kentucky
where I was born, we moved when I was about.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Four into Butcher Holler.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Butcher Holler, well see yeah, Butcher Holler. I was the
only one born in hospital that was in Paintsville. So
but we moved when I was about for and to Wabash, Indiana.
So that's why my background, my musical sound is different
than my sisters.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I was going to ask you that, how did that
How did living in Indiana shape your sound, because Loretta
has a very different I mean that's deep in the holler.
And then you've got Crystal Gale, which is say, very
smooth crossover metropolitans, sophisticated sound with a country warmth underneath it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It just happened, I think growing up in Indiana. You know,
I had the Kentucky accent and then I moved to Indiana,
where you know, we sound a little different than everybody there.
So you try to adapt. You don't want to stand
out too much. Yeah, I know my brothers and sisters did.
Because I was too young to have the problems.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Right, you're the baby of the class.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
I have the baby, and uh, you know, you adapt
to it. So when we moved to after you know,
I got married, we lived in Bloomington, Indiana. My husband
went to au there.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Did you meet in high school? Yes? I won't talk
about your marriage later, but okay, go on.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And then we moved to Nashville. So my dialect was
you know, Kentucky, Indiana and here in Tennessee. So I
didn't know how to say anything.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
You were a gumbo, definitely was.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
And you know, when I worked with Alan Reynolds, sometimes
he'd say, you know you're not saying that word, right,
I'd bring the dictionary in. Yes i am.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Here's the quotation marked the perfect to stop it. I
was surprised to learn that you were shy as a kid.
I was very shy, and your mother did what to
sort of.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
My mother made me sing for anybody that walked in
the house. I mean, I hid and she'd find me,
and you know, I think it was trying to get
me out of the show. And my father died when
I was eight, So I did go into this little
(04:06):
shell that quiet. My sister Loretta, she had a dream
and she dreamed Dad died when he died, and she
said she was wringing her hands. Well when she got
to Kentucky, because we took he died in Indiana and
we went back to Kentucky, I was the one wringing
(04:26):
my hands and she had seen it. Oh my god,
you know, I just went inside. You know, my mother
had to. Actually, she did take me to doctor too, because.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
I was she was worrying. You were two withdrawn.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yeah, and he told me to quit, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Did, I just stop doing that.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It's an older doctor and he just the way he
said it was just like I've got to listen to him.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Did that. Did the singing become a habit? Because I
know your brothers, your brothers are playing guitar, you have
another sister who sings, so yeah. So I mean the
w whole clan is a musical family.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
We know in Kentucky, the porch was where everybody went
to have fun, played the guitar, whatever instrument, and just
you could hear the neighbor across the other hollar. But
then when we went to Indiana, it was in the
living room. You know, music was of our form of entertainment.
It wasn't We didn't have the video games, we didn't
(05:22):
have all those things that you know we have now.
So it was a part.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Of us well, and it came out of family and
it was a communal activity, which we've I would argue
we've lost in today's culture, that communal where multi generations
come together around an event or a moment. Crystal that's
almost gone. It is, I mean your music. I mean
there's music that people gather around and basically it's that
(05:50):
in sporting events, but local community activities like this or
family it's very rare.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
I loved, you know, in Indiana where we grew up
and we have the small little carnival or where everybody came.
You know, it was just I love the small towns.
You know, that's when people get together and really they
make it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
One of the things I love about country music is
like jazz, it came up from the local people and
the sharing of those sounds and beats and rhythms and nationalities.
It kind of all blended, and you learned from neighbors
and from friends and from parents. What did you pick
up from your immediate family that you see in your
(06:31):
work even today.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, I think a lot of love. You know that
you were there and everybody would sing, and just that
family life. And I always thought everybody had a wonderful
family like I did. And then you finally grew up
and you realize, well, not really. And I was very
(06:56):
lucky to have really good parents and brothers and sisters,
you know. And Loretta would never let me forget I
was the baby. I mean, if she was here right now,
I'm still the baby baby.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Yeah. Well you and you did emulate her at the beginning.
I mean, how could you not. I mean, she's she's
taking off. You're still a young kid, I know, in
the early day, did you tour You toured with her
for a little bit, or went on the road with
her something.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
When I was in high school and junior high she'd
let me come out and sing a little bit. But
when I started in the beginning, she took me out
on the road. And it really didn't last long because
of you know, her and mooney. They were trying to Okay,
she's got to stand here. I thought I was causing
them problems. I didn't realize that's how they were normal.
(07:43):
So I said, I've got to go home. You know,
I don't want to cause them because they.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Were bickering over where you should go when you should I.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Was causing them, you know, problems. So so that was
I went on my own after that, you know, I started.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
But in your in your early day, I mean you
get you get a recording contract very early with Decca.
How old are you? Sixteen?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, somewhere in there. And I got to do demos
and go in the studio and you know, learn a
little bit. And I was working actually with the Wilbur Brothers.
They had Shipfire music, so they'd let me do their
demos and it was so much fun. And then when
Owen Bradley said, who who was the head of Decca?
(08:24):
When you graduate, we'll release the single and he did Wow,
which was I cried the Blue right out of my.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Eyes another eye song.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
It was a vision of something to come. You were emulating,
and I mean, I guess it's natural. I mean, you
talked about the love and your family. You would naturally
emulate or try to shape your music based on this
successful sistery. Oh yes, and you did early on.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Oh definitely. I knew all her songs, I inside out
and backwards.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
You know.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
It was just I loved her music and.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
She was a wonderful song st I mean, she wrote.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
She wrote the song, mom, It's different this time, sparkling
look of love. And as we're going down the road
in the bus, you know, I'm watching her and she says,
you get to sing it like this.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
She was giving you orders off intonation and tong everything.
She was a very kind of straightaway lady.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I mean, I never had it like this. When we're
rehearsing later on and we're doing some shows, she said,
quit singing it pretty. I said, not singing it pretty well?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That's your style. Why wouldn't you sing it pretty? She
was something else, but you. She gave you some. I
mean early on the country thing, just really that straight
ahead country. And I've heard those recordings. They're beautiful recordings
even when you listen to them now, But for whatever
reason they didn't click. Why not?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, with music, you never know what's going to
be a hit. And you know, I actually early on
you know, I was watching my sisters. She go out,
she have hit after hit, and I thought, oh, this
sounds easy. I was going to go in a studio
and your court and I'm gonna have a hit after
it just like no, it doesn't happen like that, and
(10:12):
it just uh it hasked to work together. I was
actually on the wrong label. I was on Decca, which
turned into mc A. But I was only on there
because of being her sister. So when the contract was
over and uh ohen, he gave me my ultimatos and I,
(10:33):
you know, I chose to I was going to go
home for a while. And Lynn Schultz, who was with
United Artists, he asked me, I said what label you on?
I said, I'm not on any and he said what.
He well, you come over Monday and talk to me. Wow,
And I signed with you a And.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
But before you left, before you left Decca, they took
your name Gail. Oh, okay, Brenda Gail.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Took my name because of Brenda Lee because she was
on Decay. She was on DECA. Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Did you ever hesitate and go? I don't want to name.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
There were times that I thought you know, I'd like to,
you know, get my get me back. Yeah, and I
started to and then I thought, you know this is
me now, huh. And people know me my music. And
you know, Loretta said, the name is bright and shiny,
and she said, that's what you are.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Did she come up with the name.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
She came up with Crystal. Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Why where did it come from?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, where it really first came from was the Crystal Hamburgers.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
In life.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
She said it was because of a chandelier.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Because you were shy, and because you were shiny and sparkley.
So she started cleaning the story up this kind of
a little bit, but it was really.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
She was hot the Crystal Hambergers.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
They were good. They were good in their day. So
you just stuck with Crystal after this, and Gaiale was
always your middle middle Gale.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
We did change the spelling my realing this g A
I L. And so we Loretta thought, since the y
in Crystal, let's put the yan Gail go.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And you know, and ever it has been. Tell me
about Alan Reynolds, who you meet at United Artists. Yes,
tell me how he shaped and brought out and helped
you find your unique sound.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Well, Alan Reynolds was someone I'd never thought i'd find
in Nashville. He actually wanted to know what I thought
about the music, and not just say this is what
you can record. And you know, he'd always said, you know,
if you don't like the song, I mean, you're going
to be singing it, so you better like it. So
(12:45):
we listened to all these songs, and we'd go in
the studio and he had his own studio, Jack's Tracks,
and which is called Alentown now because Garth Brooks owns it.
Oh wow, and he's He let me go in and
sing a song. He said, sing the song all different
ways so you can see and hear your voice the
(13:08):
way that you like it the best. So we'd listen back,
and so he let me work on my sound.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You were kind of a belter at the beginning, yes,
which for those who don't know, that's a that's a
ethel murmur. You hit the big bah.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Everything was belting.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Ah. But that's not the crystal crystal Gale sound at all.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
No, it's not. So what happened well, just getting the
special songs that would lean to not belt uh huh.
And let me go back a little bit with my
sister Loretta. She told me to quit singing her songs.
She said, don't sing or record anything that I would.
(13:53):
She said, you will only be compared. And I really
think that's why I had a success because people didn't.
I'd find people that didn't know we were related, or
someone say you can't be your sister, you don't sound
like her, but they didn't realize. You know, there's about
nineteen years in between, so that yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Were you were you were you at all. You had
to be a little confused when she said that. I mean,
that's a hard thing to say. Look, don't don't use
don't use my sound as a model, and don't do
anything I would do that had to kind of rock
your world a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
At the beginning, I realized that she it did me
because I wanted to sing the songs, you know, I
do the shows. I wanted to sing her songs instead
of someone else's. But she said don't. She said, you
just you need to go mo R easy listening. She said,
you go that route, and that's why my music is
so different.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Mor Middle of.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
The road, Middle of the road.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Mor, why do they call it MOL?
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I don't know. Wow, Middle of the Road.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Well say, I never would think of you. I don't
think of you as middle of the road. You have
your own I went and red reviews, early reviews of
your work, and even contemporary reviews. There are words that
pop outsultry, asserted, molasses toned with a sweet edge. I
mean the descriptions of you are they are unique. You
(15:20):
really did carve your own brand of music, certainly country influenced,
but it was something new.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It was going in the studio with Alan Yea and
working on the songs like he actually found done it
make my brown eyes blue?
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah? Oh tell me that story, because it almost didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
No, it didn't. It was a song that Richard Lee,
great writer. He wrote my first number one, I'll get
Over You.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I'll get over You one.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
If I can go back a little, I first met
Richard when we were getting ready to move to Nashville.
I was working in Bristol, Tennessee at a telethon and
he was too, and that was our first encounter and
he was heading to Nashville, you know, to make it
as a He's a great singer, I mean really think,
oh yeah, as well as writer. But I just remember
(16:09):
doing that show and after I got off my show.
I was trying to do those eyelashes. One popped off
right when I was done. I was mortified. But then
when he came to town and he hooked up with
people that I knew, and then you know, I'll get
over you. And then he was actually sending brown Eyes
(16:31):
out to California for a couple of people to hear,
and Alan said, we'll play it for me, and he's
at the end of it. He said, you're not sending
that anywhere. So we almost lost that song, really and
I loved it so much. It was the first take
in the studio went down.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well about that, I mean, this is extraordinary. Well they
do scratch takes. Explain to people what a scratch take is,
because this is just kind of a rough right.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Well, you go in, the machine goes on and you record.
This was what you hear is what went down on
that first take. I did try to re sing it.
It just did not work. We'd only put strings on it,
and that's what went down. It was a performance with
everyone with I mean pig Robin, who played the piano
(17:17):
on that. I mean, I think he set the mood
for everybody, and it just we were somewhere in some
little bar somewhere singing and playing it, and it just it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
That's what I was going to ask you, what did
you see when you first sang that song here, because
you've said you're a little bit like an actor, which
I hear every time you sing it.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
I sometimes I think of and I'm going to say
Billie Holiday when I was singing, because I just I
loved her voice, and I just and not trying to
sing like her because I can't, but it's just I
just feel like I was there with her singing. So
it's you know, when you sing or when I sing,
(18:02):
and when everything's going right on a concert.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
It's it's really it's like flying.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yes, it is. And then there's sometimes when you're not
feeling good and you still have to go out there
and perform. You know, I've had some of the worst
headaches and gone on stage and.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's just raising children and feeding children.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, a little of everything.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Which is its own. I mean, we'll talk about that
in a minute, but tell me. I want to get
back to Don't make My Brown Eyes Blue. There is
such a there is such a spirit in that song,
and I guess it's why people love to hear it,
and it's become your theme song in many ways. Yes,
it is because it does set a mood. I mean
the moment you hear it, you know, the beginning of
(18:44):
that song, you kind of sink into it and you
can't leave it.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It says so much and so little, that is what
I feel. I mean, it does. It says that everything
in those words, and it's a part of me, because
you know, I one, I don't say a lot, but
you know I'd rather short and sweeten to the point,
and I feel that song puts everything out there, right.
(19:12):
I don't know it was what. I just loved it
when I heard it, and I wanted it to be
my first single off of that album, huh, which is
titled We Must Believe In Magic? And I had to
talk fast because they wanted up tempo. That's what they
always leave with an up timber and I think they
(19:32):
probably were happy that they did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah, I'll bet well that was even in parentheses. Later
they what was the next album? It was the next
album and they released it and said including Don't Make
Your Brother.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
They must have done the hits.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, they slipped that in. Why do you think it
clicked with the public. I mean, this was number one
Hot Country, number two on the Hot one hundred, and
it remains a perennial classic.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
I mean on Billboard it was, but on cash Box
it was number one in the pop. Yeah, so I
feel I like that.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Well, you're the first crossover Let's face it, you were
the first crossover artist, Cristel.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It was a song. I think that it sounded so different,
and it opened doors for people to listen to country
music and for my music to be played in other
styles of music, like when I would go to overseas
hearing my music come out of shops. I love that
(20:27):
hearing myself.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Why not? It holds up? It still holds up. There's
something magical about that song. And I've heard you sing
it live a number of times. It's still magical. Here's
here's the question. How do you preserve this force? Do
you do anything special? Do you do scales? Do you do?
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You know? Every now and then, I will. I probably
don't take care of it as much as I should.
It's just something that I don't know. You know, I
do do vocalizing, I do sing as Lee Green. Would
you know? We traveled together quite a bit and done
(21:07):
a lot of dates together through the years, and he'd say,
you know, try singing other songs you wouldn't normally sing
for vocalizing, which I do that a lot too. He
and just little things.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Help. Did you ever take lessons?
Speaker 2 (21:22):
No? Not, you know I should.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
No, it didn't hurt you. Don't you worry. I was
friends and interviewed Keeley Smith a number of times. You
remember Keely Smith. There is a pure quality and an
honesty and and authenticity in her voice that I hear
in yours. It's a sweetness and it's not manufactured, if
you know what I mean. It's it's authentic. And to
(21:47):
preserve that over a long period of time, which Keeley
did as well, it is a natural gift. Do you
feel that that it's a gift.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I feel it's a gift to have a voice I
can sing, that I can sing if it was any
I love singing and and God gave me a gift
of music and and uh, you know, I've recorded wonderful
songs to him. I have several albums that I love
(22:19):
and you know, I that's and my mother would say that,
you know she was she read the Bible inside, you know,
several times and uh, and it was just you know,
her wanting to pull out my gifts and uh and
she did. She was a nurse and she actually took
(22:40):
a mail order nursing course because she worked at a
nursing home. I mean she could have been a doctor
or she could have been all you know, but you know,
being from the Hills and didn't have the opportunity. But
she did the course, and I mean she was healing
things that the doctors was coming and saying, okay, how
did you do this? And we call it the healer.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, she had that. I mean, there is a Loretta.
When you mentioned Loretta having a dream about your father's death,
Loretta also had this kind of supernatural sensibility. Yes, did
you see that And do you see it in your
own life?
Speaker 2 (23:18):
Oh, definitely in my life and my mom's. And it
was just I think it came from the hills.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
When my first time I went to Ireland, I saw Kentucky,
I felt Kentucky. I felt we have Irish blood in Scottish,
you know it we have parts of everywhere really, but
I felt at home over there. It felt like my
(23:47):
people in the sense of it was rooted and that's
who came over and settled into those areas of you know,
the Appalachian Virginia, and they moved in and brought the folklore,
the music. My mother would sing those folk songs, those
(24:09):
hill songs, and I loved it. I've still got her
on tape singing really wow.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
You see. And that's what Maybe that's what it is.
Maybe it's your mother's influence that not only reached you,
but reached your sister Loretta. And as we talked about
before we started, you were the only two siblings that
I can find who hit number had number one, hits
(24:36):
huge acclaim in the same area of music in American life.
I don't see two other siblings that have had that
kind of success.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
We were lucky. I was lucky.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
But there's something in the blood.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
It's something in the blood. It's something that my sister
was very, very smart in the business. That's why she said,
don't do anything. And she knew that I would not
be listened to. She would only be compared. She'd say, wasn't.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
The rival read between you two? There were a lot
of those articles.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Oh a lot of articles. I mean, we would we
look at each other and you know, sort of laugh
and and she says, well, as long as I spell
your name.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Right, don't worry about it. Yeah. I dug through some
of those old articles and a lot of them will
go back in the day, like People magazine. So you
don't know whether to how much credibility this has. You know,
where I didn't go to her house for seven years,
I haven't stepped foot. Was any of that true? You know?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
None? I mean they take one little thing and they
build something with it. You know, we were both busy
on the road and half the time they would be
doing all these articles, and it was like we hadn't
seen each other for a little bit when you talked,
because we were out about that to cause the problems.
I mean, hey, we were sisters, you know, sisters. We
(25:58):
get together, we laugh, we have fun, We can argue
if we wanted to. But that was okay. M That's
a nature of a sister and nature of sisters.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Do you ever stand back and look at Shanaiah Twain
and Taylor Swift and realize that you really were the
original groundbreaker here that crossed over from country into pop
and bridge those worlds and open the doors for those women.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I feel like that my music did open a lot
of doors. And also look at Olivia Newton John. She
came from pop into country. She won Female Vocals one year,
and I know there was all this like what happened scandalous, yes,
and totally just laugh. I mean, hey, she had a
huge song and it was number one in country and
(26:48):
so you know, but her her music came into country.
And Kenny Rogers, I mean he also opened the doors.
I mean we would also be a compare Kenny and
I and they call our music slick music. Oh snarticle, Yes,
because we weren't just that country country.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
You weren't hollering in the high.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
We weren't hollering you could, I.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Know, but you did make there is a sound and
I've always appreciated it because if you look at all
the women around you, a lot of women recording at
the same time, they were belters. They were kind of
big voice, you know. You you had your smooth lane
that you just kept writing. You found your sound and
you really never abandoned it.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
But sometimes within my albums or certain songs, like there
were some songs that belted, then maybe it didn't sound
it like half the way, and they may have all
these songs that did have it arranged to it. But
maybe because I have the softness in the lower part.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
And sweetness in the high end. There's a sweetness in
the high end of your voice. That's you know that
you maintain today. No, no, it's all true. I'm not
telling anything. They know the go listen to the albums,
even the most recent when you'll hear it, nothing's changed.
Tell me about the long hair, which I remember watching
(28:10):
on the Muppet Show and I remember seeing you on
television and I still see you and the hair is
still long, flowing locks. Why keep the hair?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I don't know, other than I had a jacket on
and I put my hair in my jacket once and
it was coming out it looked like I had, you know,
rolled it under. And my mother said, you cut your hair.
I thought, I thought, I mean, I thought she was
going to hard attack. And that always stuck with me.
And also when my kids were little and I was
(28:43):
really contemplating cutting then and they said, Mom, you want
me Crystal Gale, And I thought, you know, well, it's
hard to get rid of something that's been with you
as long as it has been. And I know, I'm
sure people joke at it, do this and that all
through the through the years. But that's a nature of people.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
It's your trademark and it's how people know you. And
I agree. I think there's somewhere I read you said
it's like a child.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
It is has taken a lot of care through the years.
I could not fix hair, so it was easy to
wash it and let it dry and I was ready
for stage and leave it. Yeah, because I couldn't afford
a hairdresser. I mean, Lorett, didn't you tell me cut it,
you know, rat it up, you know, do all that
you know, And I just couldn't do that. So I
(29:34):
saved some money, you.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Know, indeed indeed. But but it's iconic. I mean, it's
become iconic. So I'm not one of those people think
you should cut it. Leave it. It looks exactly like
Crystal Gale. Your kids are right.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
And I love being able to do Sesame Street and
the Muppet Show, you know, with the little kids around.
And I was in New York and I actually had
my hair up at that time. This little girl in
a carriage and she looked up and said, Mommy, mom,
does she know me? She said, she's letting her know
she had seen me on my history. Yes, when I
(30:11):
sang with Big Bird.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
I love it. I mean, you've had what incredible career.
You toured with Bob Hope. Yes, And I knew Bob
and Dolores so well. They were great people. But tell
me about touring with him.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I got to do some concerts, but I got to
go to China. Historic, yes, very historic. It was just incredible,
so many things you could write the book about China,
And it was just an incredible trip. But he was
an incredible person. When we landed in we were in Beijing,
(30:46):
and when we land there, landed there and got to
the hotel, he calls, and it was late at night
to welcome us to the hotel and being on and
I was just so sweet and just Dolores. I got
to go shopping with her and I thought I could shop.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Oh No, Dolores was was great. Yeah, nobody liked Doloris Hope.
She could shop and and and she was another organizer.
She could she ran the whole show. What did you
learn from Bob Hope? Did you learn anything as a
performer from him?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He actually we did some jokes together. So he showed
me how to do timing and uh and that helped too,
because when my sister Peggy se would travel with me,
she's the jokester, so you know, we we'd do sometimes
she'd had to nudge me a little bit, you're line,
your turn, your turn, but she's great.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
Wow. How did One from the Heart originate? This is
the Tom Waits Copola project, Francis fort Popolo's film. You
did the soundtrack to that with Tom Waits of Old People.
How did that happen?
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Tom had? I mean, he took the train from I
think New York to LA He didn't like to fly.
I'm not sure if he still takes the train, but
he heard me singing a song called crimea River. They
was on the the the train, the music they were playing,
and they called and said, hey, he would like you
(32:16):
to to meet to to do this album. And that
was really what inspired him to want that, And so
we go out and and working with Tom was just incredible.
I mean, I love his writing. You know, I got
early on. And you know when Bill was in law
(32:36):
school here, you know, we get to see him at
exit in and I didn't know. I mean I couldn't
go up and say, hey, hey, how are you doing town?
But oh yeah, yeah, and he would write in the night,
in the evening, and then he'd bring it into the
studio and I would learn the song and we would
(32:58):
record it.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Wait a minute, he didn't it to you ahead of time.
I mean you didn't have no No.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
This was just he would write and we would. It
was just so musical. I mean he'd played the piano.
You know, if I sang it wrong to him, he'd
tell me what the melody But maybe I changed somebody
who knows, and he didn't care. But it would just
it all worked.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, it's a beautiful blending. And you wouldn't think, I friend,
you know, when you listen to these two voices apart,
you're like Crystal Gail tom Waits. One of these things
is not like the other. Uh, you know, to steal
something from Sesame Street. But it chelled beauty. I mean
you kind of completed each other in some ways.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
It we were so different. Yeah, that I think that's
what it blended.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
He was gruff in the certain songs that we'd do,
and then I'd come in with more of that smooth sound.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
And smooth off the rough edges. Yeah, there are a
lot of rough edges anyway. Uh, how, how and why
Crystal do you steal tour? It's hard out there.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
It is very hard. It can be. You try to
you try to make out. You know, when you look
at the paper, Okay, it's this far, they're here and there,
and you think, okay, that'll be okay. But sometimes a
hard can be hard. Yeah, But when you do the
shows and you see the wonderful friends that you've made
(34:19):
through the years that are coming and I have, I've
made a lot of friends, good friends.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
I love how you refer to your fans as friends,
because I think they feel that with you.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Well, I've they're wonderful friends and from all walks of life.
And I've lost a bunch of wonderful friends through the
years that you know, I think of all the time
when I go back and they'll be at a place there,
or their families coming. You know, it's but they are.
That's what really the heart and soul of country music
(34:51):
is family. It's friendship. It's you know, you hear a
lot of the drinking songs or the or the beers
and all that, but it's it's it's still, it's got
it's warmth, it's fan love, it's it's all that mixed together,
and that's that's the time I grew up in it.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I love the the fairs. I love the little carnivals.
I love the the little outdoor venues that you would
go and people bring their picnics.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Do you do you still think people are craving that
oh gatherness, that family spirit if you will.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yes, you know. Now now the shows are so big
and they're in the stadiums, it's I mean they go
to them, but that's a new generation. You know, they've
missed this other where. It's you know, in between shows,
because you maybe do two shows the same day, you
go and picnic with them. You know, they'd bring enough
(35:46):
fried chicken, or.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
They come see you backstage or bring you things. Yes,
you know, it was just h you know there's an
intimacy there. Yes, And you've got great to I mean
you're at the Waco Hyppodrome, You've got your Arlington, Texas,
You're all over Texas, you're all over Florida.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Texas is a world of his own. And I love Texas.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
And I'm sure the people, the audience there is very forward.
Oh yes, they're not a retiring audience in Texas. Which
I which I always like, how do you get every
time I listen to your songs and I usually put
them on the surround sounds so you can really hear them.
You get under a lyric, inside a lyric in a
way that well, we were talking about Keeley Smith. Keeley
(36:31):
Smith got very angry. She said, a lot of these
people she was talking about he's dead. Now I can
say it, she said, Tony Bennett, I don't know why
he's still recording. I said, why would you say that?
People love him? And she said, he's singing along and
his voice is raw. He shouldn't do that anymore. You
get inside a lyric every time you sing? How do
you do that? How do you approach your song?
Speaker 2 (36:52):
When I through the years for recording, the melody would
have to appeal to me first, and then I listened
to the lyrics really close to see if it's something
that I could say and want to put across. And
I think in your delivery of when you're singing a song,
you know like I don't know when I've been so blue.
(37:14):
I mean, you're into those lyrics. It's not just don't
know when I've been so blue. You don't just sing Yeah,
you're you're singing the words. You're making the musical.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
How do you prepare? Sinatra used to recite it like
like a like a play. He would write the lyrics
out and walk around reciting it like a play, which
a comedian of work with we told me recently, Tom dreason.
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Some people do that for vocalizing too. You would you
would say the words, just say the words and sing like,
don't know when been, So you would do it in
that way. So maybe that was his form of vocalizing
as well. But also it's a form of learning the
song too. Yeah, the lyrics, because a lot of songs
are more involved in verse after verse. At the verse they.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Get tricky, Yes, they get tricky. They can you have
sung in addition to your very romantic songs, some of
your songs, I mean these are songs about drinking and
hard living and I mean dumping the guy and the
truth about Crystal Gaal is you've been married to the
same guy you met in high school.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yes, tell me how.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
First of all, how did you and Bill meat and
how do you maintain a relationship in music all of
this time?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Well, there's give and take, you know, definitely, you have
to overlook a lot there can be. You know, I have,
as you said, Irish blood but also Indian blood, so
you know he mix those two.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
And I'm married to one of those. I know.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You know it really just works. I mean with children,
when a girl and boy, Chris and Katherine, well, Chris
actually does a lot of producing, songwriting, does a lot
of things here in Nashville and doing great with it.
And you know you when they were little, Bill stayed
(39:08):
home and didn't tour like with me with it was
going to be long because we wanted them to have a.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Home life stability, yes, and not just get on a.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Bus and go right, but to work on a relationship.
I mean, hey, I mean there's days we probably want
to kill each other.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
It's a nature of relationships, right, But you know you
have to you commit to the long ride. You commit
to the long ride. But it is interesting though that's
been your life, Yes, and yet you're singing these songs
for women who lived a very different life and and
even popularize that. Do you feel any of that duality
(39:50):
when you're performing those songs?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Well, like I said, with singing, you are acting right,
and it's not this is I think people they get
into songs. They might not be their life, but it
can be the melody. It could be a few words,
It could be maybe a phrase that.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
You said somebody you know who went through that.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yes, I got so many fan letters through the years
telling me that my music helped them through a dark
part of their life, whether it was a breakup, maybe
a home life that wasn't as good as it could
have been. And they'd say they would lock themselves self
away into my music and it helped them get through.
(40:36):
And that to me was more important than getting an
award and.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Christ, what do you think they're reacting to when they
write the When they write that and have that reaction.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I think that they want me to know that I
have been a part of their life and they're part
of my life because I've kept a lot of those letters.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
How bad? Tell me what it was working like working
with Jane Martin.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Oh, he was so great Dean Martin. I loved it.
I got to do his TV shows and and then.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
There's a he loved you too. I watched I just
watched those clubs. It was mutual.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
We would eat at a restaurant that he loved Miglia.
I think it was called in l A. I have
this not there anymore, but I mean it was so incredible.
But every time we'd go there, he'd be there. So
we would visit with him a little bit there.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
One time I met him. That's where it was, in
that restaurant. Yeah, he would sit in.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
The booth there, his place, that was the booth.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, somebody told me that, and I said, when you go,
make sure you go to lat Familia. He'll be at
the booth at seven o'clock. And darn it, seven o'clock
he walked in and there he was right up in
this that was that was place. So you were in
touch with him for years. I mean, you stayed in touch,
you know.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
As well as you can, you know. And of course,
uh and I've been able to know his family too,
and this it's just when I look at all the
wonderful people, as you said, Dean Martin, I mean, that
was just a highlight to be able to work with
him when stars were stars, stars were stars, and you know,
(42:14):
I look at I got to meet Elizabeth Taylor. She
was a star, I mean, and I mean, how did
you meet her? We were doing the inauguration gala and
it was at the end of the show and I
immediately went right to her, and she could have could
not have been more gracious. You know, some would have
(42:35):
just pushed you off, which I've had those, but I
mean she was Elizabeth Taylor, what I knew. And the
other artist was Katherine Heppern really and I got to
meet her. It was a night of one hundred stars.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, And.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
I had gone to the bathroom, came back and the
girl that was taking me around, she said, where have
you been? And she said, Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn wants to
meet the girl with the long hair. So I was
so happy I had long hair.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
You see that long hair, and that long hair works
every time. Tell me about you. You mentioned earlier your
gospel albums, and this is in the nineties. You recorded
a pair of them, right, Yes, it was two. He's
Beautiful and the other one is.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Some Someday someday.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Why those songs and why gospel?
Speaker 2 (43:31):
What's a part of my life? And actually at that
time I wanted people to know that part of my
life and know that who I am being a Christian
when I grew up. I mean, being a Christian doesn't
mean you have to go to church every Sunday or
do all the it's the way you live your life.
(43:53):
But putting those songs out I wanted to. I wanted
them to hear and I love them.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I mean they're beautiful song.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
One album was filled with new songs, and then the
other one is the songs I sing in church, still
singing church and love them and you know, it's uh,
it's great to have people around you that love the music,
(44:20):
the gospel music and and and that sing themselves.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
Well. This used to be a feature in Nashville. Yes,
every major artist because they did come from the same
family faith ethos that you talked about. There was Elvis
recorded about some of the best recordings he ever did.
Are those beautiful gospel albums your sister. I mean, I
(44:44):
could go doubriba you. There was always that faithful expression
through the music. Are you worried that we're losing that?
Speaker 2 (44:54):
We definitely have lost quite a bit out in the world,
and the morality is different. The things that I see
online that I would have never seen TV shows or
whatever's out there. I mean, I'm like, Okay, put the
(45:15):
gospel back on, and I just think it would be
nice if we had a little bit more thought a
little bit more of ourselves in what we do things,
and but I guess we don't.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
What about musically, I mean, when you look back at
when you came to Nashville and now you think what.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Uh, well, definitely it's it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
You're being so diplomatic, Crystal.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
You know, I look at it that you know, I
wouldn't never been able to. I would personally would not
have worn some of the things that people wear on
stage now just because of the know who I am.
But I mean some things are very beautiful, but you know,
I think you know, they need to stay where they
should be. Yeah, the type of shows they are, but.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
Keeping your clothing on is a nice prerequisite.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to have number ones
for that way.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
That's right. You earned them. You earned them with your
with your vocal cords, not with other things. But has
the music it's gotten a lot more corporate, it seems
to me, you know, with to.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Me, I do not know how a song makes it anymore.
Is it streaming, is it radio? I don't know, because
it's just so people have hits and I've never heard
I've never heard the song, and they're selling out stadiums,
and I'm like, I'm missing something somewhere. I guess if
I was online all the time, I would know them,
(46:50):
but it's hard to be online, and for me it is.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yeah, because you're in conquering all the other stuff.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well, you know, you have to take a break. I mean,
you can get online and before you realize it, it's
been two hours, and I'm like, wait a minute, I
could have been.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
Doing something else exactly.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
And it's not that I don't want to be on
and see and read and I do and I answer
stuff for people, but I feel like you have to
take a break from that.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Yeah. I love an album you did with your son,
who I met earlier, and it's Crystal Gail sings the
Heart and Soul of Hogy Carmichael, whom you knew. Tell
me about Hogy Carmichael.
Speaker 2 (47:30):
Hogy Carmichael. I was so excited I got to meet
him and saying with him, Oh, yes, I was so nervous.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
How old were you when you met him?
Speaker 2 (47:40):
Oh gosh, was it your special? No, it was a
country music special.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
And they sent me to California where he lived, and
we did the songs together with a medley of his
songs that he'd written. And he wasn't in really good
health at that time, and but so it was in pain.
But when that camera came on, you didn't. You could not.
He was a showman. I mean he was so great. Wow,
(48:11):
And I knew right then I wanted to do an
album of his music. He was from Indiana, Bloomington, and
so there was that connection. But you know those songs
are you know you sing a song of his, the.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
Skylark, Your Skylark is so beautiful?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Have you any thing to say to me? I mean,
they're just the lyrics and the music. Now, Stardust I
did that, and that song he had written as just piano.
I mean, it was a music. The lyrics were added
later by Mitchell Parish. Yes, And I could tell by
(48:52):
singing that song it was not written at the same time.
That song.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
It's a hard song to sing. Yeah, yeah, it just
falls across the meadow of my mind. What a beautiful
song that is. But that album tell me about why
you wanted to preserve those songs, because in many ways
that's what you're doing, and they are they're exquisitely rendered.
(49:19):
I'm really upset that you haven't recorded more of that
Great American Songbook because it does suit you.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
It does and that voice that is a calling that
style of music. I just wanted to sing though. Man,
there was so many to choose from the nearness. I mean,
it's not the pale moon that excites me, you know,
the delights me. Oh No, it's just the nearness of you.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
Oh my goodness. Now I get to sing with Crystal
Gail take Me Home Lord, Okay.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
But I love that. That's where you can act in
the in the song. It's acting. You can actually get
into the.
Speaker 1 (49:58):
Lyrics, into that moment. Yes, tell me about the album
that you did of Country Classics, which is you Don't
Know Me And I love this album because Loretta and
your sister Peggy's Who and you sing together on this. Yes.
What does that represent to you?
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Oh? It was just an incredible time. And my sister,
you know, through the years, we've been wanting to do
an album. Man, we just we talk about it. We
listened to songs. She said, we want to do a
pop album. I said, now, let's do what we really
know and then she said, I want to do this
and it was just but we just had fun. So
(50:36):
we never really well, you know, we just wanted to
be sisters. So but when I was doing this, I said, Loretta,
can will you do this song that we've sung on
shows many times? So I had the track put down
and she came in and if I'd had ten tracks,
she would have sung every one of them, if I'd
(50:57):
had other songs. It was like, what's that? She was
having so much fun and I wish I had had
that thought that maybe she'd do a little bit more.
But you know, it was just great to be with
her in the studio. And she's an incredible singer. Oh,
she was the best singers ever.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Well, you all there must be something in that gene pool,
because I'll just say this when you listen to when
she passed away, we were doing commemorations of her, and
I pulled the early stuff and then I pulled her
last album. You remember she recalled her Yeah, yeah, all
the divorce and coal Miner's daughter. There's very little differentiation
(51:40):
in the voice. Yes, I mean the power that voice
is remarkable, I know, and I feel the same way
when I listened to you do you think it's just jeans?
Speaker 2 (51:50):
It's something I'll say. You know, you do what you
love to do. And uh, I've always said though, when
when it's time for me to quit singing, I'll know it.
You know, I don't want to be out there singing.
And when I'm fighting all over the place, it's everything.
You know, I'll hear it when you have Okay, that's it.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Well you're not there yet. Good stay what you're doing.
Who do you listen to them?
Speaker 2 (52:18):
Oh? There's so many that I love.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
You know, you listen to listen to mostly people of people,
both both so Laney Wilson.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Love her voice, you know, just there's something that appeals
to me. But I mean there's so many that through
the years that have a bunch of new singers. Yeah,
you know Annie Bosco, Oh gosh, you know the names?
Speaker 1 (52:46):
Or is it only country or do you listen to folks?
Do you listen to rock? Do you listen to.
Speaker 2 (52:50):
You listen to it all, you know, as you know,
the radio is usually on certain stations and you listen
and there's some great singers out there. And I know,
you know, like you're saying, Taylor Swift's greats. I love
her music, Scenia, I love what she's done through the years.
Speaker 1 (53:08):
They owe a lot of thanks to Crystal Gaiale. That's
all I'll say. Send you thank you cards. Girls. Okay,
there is a questionnaire I ask everybody who sits off
with me. This is the Royal Grande questionnaire. I don't
want you to think about these. I just want whatever
pops in the top of your head. Okay, it's not
a quiz. If I have one, you definitely have one.
(53:30):
Who is the person you most admire?
Speaker 2 (53:34):
Well, well, that is a hard one, though, it really is.
You want the first one. You know. What came to
my mind was my mother and not really you know,
and you're with us. I think, you know, when my
dad died, she's very strong. She stayed strong for the
whole family and the values.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (53:56):
I think of what would my mother do? That's where
I go. It's not what someone else would do, but
what would she do in the situation of just.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
And it sounds like from what you told me, she
really is the font of your music and your sister's music,
your family, your brother's music. Who still play with you? Right?
I mean there's still from time to time what they
did they dan?
Speaker 2 (54:22):
You know, we've lost all my brothers and it's just
the girls left now and uh, except you know, we
lost Loretta, Peggy and Betty and myself with the last
of the sisters, and you're holding the flag we're hanging
in there.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
Who's the person you most despise?
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Well, well, gosh, I don't like to really despise anybody.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
I'll take that answer. That's a good that's what I
expected from Crystal Gale.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Well, it's just, you know, why, why put your thoughts
in a person that you know you might And if.
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Someone told me the other day, there's too much the world.
I don't hate anybody.
Speaker 2 (55:01):
There's too much.
Speaker 1 (55:02):
And that's probably the right answer. But despite my provocative question,
what's your best feature?
Speaker 2 (55:11):
Oh my best feature? Oh my? Oh, let's see, Well,
is it the hair that's one or my eyes?
Speaker 1 (55:20):
Eyes?
Speaker 2 (55:21):
I give people talking bit eyes. But my my grandson,
who is Bjorn, he's five, and he looked at me
the other day says, yeah, yeah, why do you have
angry eyebrows? And if you go on some of these
memes on these shows that you have all these eyebrows, Well,
the shape of my eyebrow is in there, in there
(55:42):
because the angry eyebrow, but it's not.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
I thought it was so eyebrows are off the list,
the best feature of the list now, so we're up
the eyes and hair. See, I would have thought your.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
Voice, Oh well I've never really that's not a bad tea.
You always want the voice you don't have.
Speaker 1 (56:01):
What voice would you want if you couldn't have yours?
Speaker 2 (56:03):
Well, you know you always wanted the soprano. I've always
been more the low the base, ye alto. I always
wanted more of a soprano high voice.
Speaker 1 (56:12):
Isn't that weird? Every time I hear you, all I
hear is your beautiful highs. That beauty because the tone
is a light tone. It's not a heavy tone. You
don't bring the base up with you when you get
to those high notes, they're clear, beautiful. Note. See you
got the soprano and you didn't know what you had
it to us, to the people listening, you're already a soprano.
(56:33):
What's your favorite book?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
I don't think there's one favorite other than if you
want to go to Yeah, but as far as just
picking up book, and I could say my sister's you
know in her biography?
Speaker 1 (56:48):
Oh that that is a good bio. See that is
a good biour. Wasn'tre a movie made off of that.
Speaker 2 (56:53):
Yeah, I think it was.
Speaker 1 (56:54):
Yeah, it did kind of concern your family. That's a
good answer at Crystal, What do you know that no
one else knows?
Speaker 2 (57:02):
Well? Life is short, life is turn around what you
thought you were going to do, Take that trip, do
those things you want to do, because you never know.
But I think a lot of people realize that they
just don't. You know, you gotta go do it. Yeah,
and it's just you know, life is, it's wonderful and
(57:24):
there's ups and downs. I always say, because you know,
you'll have dreams of growing up. You dream this is
what I want to do. But those dreams can change
and you mold your life and it might not be
you know, people want to be a singer. But I
always look at if you love people and life, whatever
(57:48):
you do in life, you're going to do well with it.
Whether it's waiting tables, whether it's being a nurse. My
mother was a nurse, she loved it. I my brother's
worked in factories. I mean they did a great job.
My my brother Junior was worked in Chrysler. He didn't
go to college. But who did they call to fix
some machines? My brother who could take them apart, put
(58:11):
them back together if he wanted so. You know, it
was just he loved it and he loved playing music,
and he'd say, you know that's you know, it was
he loved life.
Speaker 1 (58:24):
What do you fear?
Speaker 2 (58:26):
I fear that I always want to take care of
things before something happens. I'm one of those that I
like to think of what might happen if I do this?
What road do I go down? It's just, you know,
I want to take the safest route, like I want
(58:50):
to to check out places if we travel, where we go.
I fear just you know, I just want to keep
my family safe. I want to Maybe it's more for
them than me, you know, I fear for other people.
You know.
Speaker 1 (59:05):
Do you have a regret?
Speaker 2 (59:07):
I'm sure I do, but I don't like to go
there either, because it's like you can regret doing certain things,
but you did the things you did, and it took
you to this point. It took me to this point.
And you know, whether you know I didn't record a song,
or I didn't record a song, or you know, you're
(59:28):
you're going down your own road and you make those
decisions at that moment, and to go back, I don't
know what I do. Maybe make the same decision at
the same time, you would make the same decision, and
it might lead to the same road in the end.
But so I try not to say, you know.
Speaker 1 (59:48):
You don't look back? And could you know you don't
look back?
Speaker 2 (59:53):
My husband prices I do.
Speaker 1 (59:55):
Every husband says you do. But that's a different that's
a different We all think that because you know why,
you all have these retentive memories and we're like a
bag of stones. We remember nothing. So I've been married
for thirty years. I know these things. The one thing
I know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
Do bring up things you know about tenant night? Did
we did not want to hear it?
Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
Why did you say that? What about this? I know
this routine? Tell me what is the best piece of
advice Crystal Gale ever received.
Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
I would say the advice, but I've gotten quite a few.
I'll bet the best would be when my sister told
me to quit singing her songs, do a different style
and go my own way and just being myself, you know,
being true to myself. And I've always had to turn
(01:00:50):
down more money because if I didn't like what they
wanted me to, you know, advertise, you know, I did
not want to be that person to tell someone else
to do it. And I'm not going to do that
or use that shampoo or use that you know, It's
just it was not me I wanted to. I.
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Oh, I'll bet you got more shampoo offers than anybody
in the business.
Speaker 2 (01:01:12):
I did get a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
I'll bet I'll bet Katherine Hepburn would have bought it.
You should have. You should have done a few extra
those What happens when this is.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Over, Crystal, when I put my feet up and sit back.
If as far as touring and being a part of everything,
when that is over, I'll look back on it and
enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
But you've given us a lot to enjoy over many years.
And it goes on, and I hope people will go
see you alive because it's really special.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
But guess what, my brown eyes have not turned blue,
and I'm really upset about it. Thank you, Thank you
for the interview. Thank you, beautiful music. You know what
I love about Crystal Gail. She found her own path
despite the incredible trail blazed by her sister, and she
ended up blazing her own trail for other women. She
also had that internal sense not only her music, but
(01:02:10):
the values that defined her career. And the wonderful thing
is Crystal Gail is still touring. She's all over Texas
in Waco and Arlington, then she's onto Kentucky, Alabama, Florida.
Check out her website at Crystalgale dot com for all
the dates and the latest. You will be so happy
you went to her show, and I hope you'll come
back to Royo Grande soon. While of a dry, constricted,
(01:02:34):
narrow life, when if you fill it with good things,
it can flow into a broad, driving Arroyo Grande, I'm
Raymond Arroyo. Make sure you subscribe like this episode and
look my brown hat turned blue. Thanks for diving in.
See you next time. Fue Arroyo Grande is produced in
partnership with iHeart Podcasts DP Studios and is available on
(01:02:56):
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Spoken Consonants, Sciences, Haspocused Percast and Exerce and Spoken Scisspocus
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Host
Raymond Arroyo
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