A Conversation Between Alana Springsteen And Crystal Gayle

(Both Crystal Gayle and Alana Springsteen will appear at Stagecoach festival in Indio, California this weekend. I brought the two generations of country superstars together for what was supposed to be a moderated conversation. However, with Springsteen taking on the role of interviewer with the skill of one born to do it I just sat and listened enjoyably to the absolutely fascinating back and forth between the two artists. – Steve Baltin)

Alana Springsteen: I do remember the first time that I saw you live. It was one of my first trips to Nashville and it was at the CMT Next Women of Country event. I don’t know if you remember this, but at the time I think it was Maren [Morris]

that was playing and like Kelsea [Ballerini] and it was that whole squad of girls. I was only like 14 at the time, but I remember you walking out on the stage and I think you sang “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue” and it just floored me. Your vocals, your presence, just bringing that soft elegance to everything you do just inspired me so much.

Crystal Gayle: Well, thank you. I know we will meet, and we’ll be able to talk in the dressing rooms at the Opry for sure. But you’re great. You really do sing great.

Springsteen: Thank you so much. The Opry has become like home away from home at this point. I played when I turned 21, I actually played on my birthday, and it was my Opry debut and just such a memorable night. I love how much of a family it is. I got to meet Jeannie Seely and all of that and it’s just like everybody keeps their doors open, you just walk in, you hang out and that’s what the community here is. It’s so special.

Gayle: That’s what I call the real show of the Opry is the dressing rooms. You’ll walk by one and they’re playing bluegrass and then you’ll go by another and it’s so much fun backstage.

Springsteen: Do you have a favorite dressing room that you use all the time?

Gayle: They normally will put me in the women of country and that’s nice. All the dressing rooms are great. I love roaming around and going in when I probably shouldn’t be going into someone’s room but you it’s just so much fun, the Opry and Dan who puts it all together, he has a great crew and they’re wonderful there. They take great care of us.

Springsteen: It’s special. Maybe we’ll get to play on the same day and hang out one of these times.

Gayle: That would be wonderful.

Springsteen: This will actually be my first Stagecoach. So, I’m really excited to take it all in. I’ve never even been as a fan. It’ll be a whole new experience for me, But I’ve played several festivals and it’s different, each one, depending on what your day looks like, depending on how much press you have. I was just in Australia for CMC Rocks, and it felt like summer camp, like Nashville took over the backstage and I was just hanging out with everybody, like you said Crystal. popping into dressing rooms when you probably shouldn’t be, all of that. I’m excited to see what the Stagecoach vibe is. How was it when you played?

Gayle: You’re there and the acts that are close to you, within walking distance, you can talk to and be a part of. But normally for me I just go on and do my show and there are so many things through the day that if you have to move on, you move on out with your bus and go to the next gig and that’s what a lot do. But it’s fun, it’s outdoors and there are so many people there and they’re just having so much fun. The audience let you feed off them in the sense of they make everything come together.

Springsteen: I love that. I feel that way about live music. It really is just that moment of connection that’s unlike anything else. And I’m sure you feel the exact same way. But for me growing up, it was a really loud family, really big house, a lot of big personalities. And I didn’t always feel like there was room for me. I found music as my escape. So, when I started performing live, it was the first time that I had felt seen, and that I could connect with people in that kind of way. And I find myself constantly chasing that live show connection. It’s so special.

Gayle: When I started, I was very shy. So, my mother, when I was growing up, she’d make me sing for everybody that came in the house because she wanted to get that shyness out. But going on stage, forever, I didn’t want to say anything, and I just wanted to sing because that’s what I’d love to do. And now they want me to be quiet, so they don’t want me to talk as much as I do. It was something that, for me, I was so shy that being out in front of people it just developed. And I was so glad that I didn’t have what goes on today. You have to be ready out of the box, because I needed that from one single to the next single. Some people think that “Brown Eyes Blue” was my first single. It was not. So, I built on my career. I was a solo act going out on the road by myself. Then I got a couple of musicians and then I got a band.

Springsteen: That’s incredible. You were talking about your mom making you sing in front of everybody and that sounds like my granddad. My grandparents were basically like my parents growing up. It was like having two sets of parents and my granddad is just this extroverted personality. He’s a pastor. He’s always talking, always the center of attention. I just have these memories of being like five, six, seven years old, we’d be in a restaurant, he’d put me on top of a table, and he’d say, “Hey, sing for everybody. Sing ‘Amazing Grace’ or something like that.” You get used to being the center of attention and what that feels like. At first, it is so outside your comfort zone, at least it was for me. But now it’s that energy that I crave and it’s so special. But you were talking about your journey at the beginning and how single to single everything grew. I’m curious about your perspective on all this because obviously it is such a different time in music. For me, I came up at a time where social media was everything. And the first music that I really released was during COVID. We couldn’t be in front of people and couldn’t have that live connection. So, I started doing livestreams and really connecting with people through social media, through TikTok, through Instagram, all of that. It just changes the game. It changes everything about what we do. I’m curious for you, you have such an iconic brand. People think Crystal Gayle, they think the elegant voice, they think the hair, they think just your whole persona, that soft confidence that you carry. And I wonder what that was like to build that. Did you feel that you had control over that narrative? Because for me, it’s like we have a direct line to fans. It’s not so much going through gatekeepers, and we can just get on our phones and be in front of a million people any given second. So what did it feel like to you coming up?

Gayle: Like you said, we didn’t have social media. So, you did a lot of concerts, you talked to the fans, you were right there with them. And what the negativity on social media could be, we got in right into one -on -one, if someone didn’t like your music, they were going to tell you. Or, you went out, you performed, and you hoped that the radio stations were playing your music. I could tell when I was performing, I did a lot of clubs, and people would dance, and then when people started sitting down, it scared me. But that’s because my music was being played, so they knew me. It wasn’t just an act going out and playing and everybody’s having a great time. They still had a great time, but it was like, “Wow, they’re sitting down” (laughs). It didn’t scare me.

Springsteen: That’s crazy to hear that kind of reverence. They’re like, “We’re seeing somebody that’s on the radio.” That’s incredible. Do you remember the first show that felt like that to you?

Gayle: I think it was in Louisiana. I did a lot of clubs and I saw a lot of different fights going on here and there but you built yourself and it helped me because I needed that. Like I said being shy so I needed that extra time in front of people to people to learn where to stand, what to do. Even though, as you know, my sister’s Loretta Lynn, and I got to travel with her a little bit. I learned a lot. She was great on stage. But still, I was that shy little girl, and she always called me her baby. So, when I went out there, just building and making wonderful friends, I don’t call them fans because they’ve been friends through the years and everywhere I go, I expect to see certain people and I always do.

Springsteen: That’s the thing that reeled me in with country music. That’s why I fell in love with country. My dad listened to everything growing up, from classic rock to R &B to pop music to a little bit of country. And what I loved about country was just the storytelling. It’s so cliche, but there’s just an authenticity to it. I’m just who I am and I’m writing music about my life. And that’s what got me. And I think as much as it’s changed, it’s still the same. Like you said, it’s still connection. It’s about the fans. It’s about being your authentic self. And I think what’s so inspiring for me is to watch somebody like you do that and still bring their own personality, their own edge to it. Artists like you made me believe that I could do that too. I could be my authentic self and fit in the country music genre while also getting to express my unique style.

Gayle: Well, you do great. And being in the business, as you said, it’s the love of music. If you’re lucky, you get to travel all over the world and you are. I look at my career and I’ve just been so blessed with all the people within my career that have been there to help me guide me. I love being able to watch my sister do it and then come along and she’d say, “Well, let’s do something different with you.” I knew my sister’s song inside out and backwards. And that’s when she said, “Don’t sing them anymore.” So, I knew I had to find myself.

Springsteen: I’m just so inspired by you and it’s such a cool opportunity to sit down with somebody who came before me and paved that path. We’re standing on your shoulders at this point. It’s so interesting and I’m really grateful to get to have a conversation with you guys.

Gayle: I did The Muppet Show and it was probably two weeks in London with that, and it was so much fun. All these special things, I rode in an F -15 and F -16 fighter jet, just looking at the career that I was able to do, spend the night in the White House, it was just a fun time. But I was saying, “Wait a minute, I’m just a country girl from Kentucky and I’m doing all this.”

Springsteen: It’s pretty crazy. I relate to you in that way. I’m from a really small town in Virginia Beach called Pungo. And it’s just this cross-section between like redneck farm culture and surf culture. So, I grew up like five minutes from the beach but surrounded by corn fields and strawberry fields and all of that. It really was where or what. I just grew up singing. When I started out I got to go into Mexico and coming back, I’m thinking, “That was just right across the border.” I’m seeing the difference of where I grew up and how things were. But then definitely when I started doing the tours, the go -go -go pace of this industry and how you can feel like at the end of a month, “Where have I been? What have I done? I can’t even remember cause you’re just one thing to the next.” Sometimes I feel like the only way that I can remember things is going through my camera roll, like looking at pictures. I’m like, “Oh, we did that, and we did this.” It’s fun, but how do you feel like you were able to stay present? Do you look back and wish that you had done anything differently to really mark those moments and make memories?

Gayle: I sometimes wish I had written more of what I was doing at the time but you know you you’ll sit and you’ll see a picture and then the whole story comes back and you know like I said going to China and just seeing and being with the people there and talking to them, not just being there to be an entertainer, but walking out among and just being able to be one of them and feel it. And of course, you know, when I was in England, walking down the streets and all these wonderful stores and hearing my music come out of the storefronts. That was special.

Springsteen: That’s amazing. Did you keep a journal at all?

Gayle: Some, but it was more like just in the moment, doing the concert, meeting people after the concerts, and then packing up and going to the next date. I’ve always said I’ve seen a lot of hotel rooms and dressing rooms through my career. They all start to run together at some point. You’re like, “Wait, have I been here?” It’s like deja vu. I think I know this room.

Springsteen: It was such, it was such a pleasure. Crystal, you’re absolutely wonderful. Thank you for the advice. Thank you for the hangs.

Gayle: You’re great.