Behind closed doors Author: Alanna Nash
553 pages • Paperback
Alfred A. Knopf, 1988
Interview with Loretta Lynn:
Patsy Cline was really the only close girlfriend that I had when I come to Nashville. Patsy dearly loved [to eat] rabbit. My husband hunted a lot, and just Thursday before she was killed, I fried three rabbits. She went up into the kitchen and she just eat rabbit, eat rabbit, eat rabbit…I said, “Well looks like we was kind of raised the same way, ain’t we, Patsy?” ‘Cause she had it rough, too, you know. But we had a lot of laughs. And she’d always tell me how to dress. When I first come to Nashville, I made my own clothes, and I didn’t have a lot of money to buy material. So I would make the little fittin’ dresses and hang fringe on ‘em. I had two dresses. And I always had two shows a day. If it was at night, like in a tavern, I’d have four half-hour shows. So I would take the fringe off one dress after I’d do my first show and sew it on the other. I kept doin’ that backwards and forwards. Patsy give me some clothes and some long danglin’ earrings. I don’t know what I would have done without Patsy.
The author of Dolly: A Biography offers brief biographical profiles of and conducts Q & A interviews with 27 popular performers, from the octogenarian “King of Country Music” Roy Acuff to Tammy Wynette, the “Heroine of Heartbreak.” Nash asks knowledgable, penetrating questions and leads the singers into intimate areas with ease. Many speak with refreshing candor. Wynette: “Acting is a very special talent. One that I don’t think I have.” The late Marty Robbins: “I love attention . . . My ears are tuned for the name Marty Robbins.” Brenda Lee: “I grew up not really knowing who or what I was. I was what I read I was.” Charley Pride: “I don’t have skin hang-ups. I’m no color. I’m just Charley Pride, the man.” Loretta Lynn: “I’ve had so many death threats that I don’t get out of the bus that much.” Minnie Pearl reveals the hurtful experiences that led to the creation in 1936 of her comedy character. She also notes the “special type of camaraderie that exists among country music performers.” Fans will delight in this hefty volume, replete with integrity, earthy banter and engaging anecdotes that capture the twang of their favorite honkytonk heroes and heroines. Photos not seen by PW. Music Book Club selection. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.—Library Journal
“Behind Closed Doors presents 27 performers–among them Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, the Judds, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, and Conway Twitty–talking about themselves, telling just how hard the climb was to get to the top. There is poignancy here, large amounts of dignity and truckloads of toughness by some survivors who have endured. This is one terrific book.”—The Coast Book Review Service
“A tremendous piece of work…Interviewing is an art, a very special skill gifted to but a few. One of the very best is Alanna Nash.”—Country Music Round-Up
“Contacts and clout may have helped Nash get these interviews in the first place, but it is her skill as an interviewer and her nerve in asking the tough questions that make them worth reading…The best interviews, like those inBehind Closed Doors, somehow find a way to get past the public persona to the real person behind it, to get beyond image and hype all the way to honesty and candor. That is difficult to do, and sometimes impossible, but Nash makes it look easy. Recommended.”—Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine
