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Loretta Lynn’s death on Oct. 4, 2022, robbed country music of one of its brightest and longest-shining stars. Her recording career lasted nearly 60 years, and her music-making career goes back even further. Lynn had several iconic moments during her career, but a memorable event that didn’t make the list happened when Conway Twitty laughed at Lynn for breaking her first Grammy Award.

Loretta Lynn (left) once said Conway Twitty laughed when she broke her first Grammy, but he stopped laughing when fate intervened.
(l-r) Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty | Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

Loretta Lynn won three Grammy Awards, including one with Conway Twitty

Lynn grew up poor in rural Kentucky. Listeners heard a rough sketch of her childhood in her autobiographical song “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” That’s probably Lynn’s signature song, but she didn’t earn any Grammy Awards nominations for the 1970 tune.

However, she earned a Grammy statuette with her second nomination. She and Conway Twitty won the Grammy in 1972 for best vocal country performance by a duo or group for their song “After the Fire Is Gone.” It was the first of six nominations in seven years for the tandem, though they didn’t win the other times. However, the pair won vocal duo of the year at the Country Music Awards every year from 1972 to 1975.

Lynn’s first Grammy (she later won two more) took a tumble at the airport and broke. Twitty laughed at Lynn’s misfortune, but he didn’t chuckle for long.

Karma got revenge when Loretta Lynn broke her first Grammy Award

Lynn enjoyed a long and storied music career, but the 1970s might have been the best decade for her. She won seven times at the CMAs between 1972 and 1975 after also winning female vocalist of the year there in 1967. 

She earned eight Grammy Awards nominations in the 1970s, but the win Lynn shared with Twitty might have been the most memorable, and not just because it was her first. It also came with a memorable story she recounted for the Recording Academy (via YouTube):

“My first Grammy, it was [for] mine and Conway’s song. I dropped mine in the Los Angeles airport and broke it. And Conway laughed at me, and about two minutes later, he dropped his and broke it. So don’t laugh at nobody.”

Loretta Lynn recalls Conway Twitty laughing when she broke her first Grammy

We’re guessing the Recording Academy fixed or replaced Lynn’s Grammy Award. She might have set a precedent by breaking the golden gramophone. Olivia Rodrigo dropped and broke one of her Grammys, and so did Taylor Swift. 

Did Lynn and Twitty have an affair?

Related

Loretta Lynn’s Net Worth Belies Her Humble Childhood as a Coal Miner’s Daughter 

Lynn’s marriage to Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn wasn’t the picture of domestic bliss. He sometimes became abusive and often cheated on her even as she was working hard to help support her family. Loretta Lynn made such sweet music with Twitty that some wondered if they had an affair together. Yet Lynn said their relationship was strictly professional.

“Everybody thought me and Conway had a thing going. And that’s the farthest from the truth,” Lynn told PBS. “I loved Conway as a friend, and my husband loved him. Conway was really the only one in the music business that Doo gave a dag-gone for.”

Lynn and Twitty teamed up for 11 albums and six Grammy Awards nominations, which was nothing to laugh at, especially for Twitty.

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