“I’m Going to Heaven Tonight”

she asked if i wanted to try to write a song
we sat at her office and wrote a song called
"dont tempt me"
and i just remember that we were laughing the whole time
and that i felt like i'd really made a friend.

then she asked me out to the house to write another song.
this time we went to her writing cabin and we were playing guitars
and talking about what we could sing about.
she said "go look in that refrigerator todd"
so i did, and when i opened it
a bunch of yellow legal pads with her words written all over them, fell out onto the floor.
the refrigerator was stuffed completely full of bits of lyrics by loretta lynn
that went back to the sixties.
she said smoke one of your doobies
and go thru those.
see if anything jumps out at you.

i sat there on the floor going thru them.
i couldn't believe what i was seeing.
i quickly found a lyric that said
"i love you more than she ever will
but the only way she can get a man is steal.
i don't know if i should tell you this or not
but she's got everything it takes to take everything you've got."

and i said "loretta, my god, what is this?"
and she said "oh yeah i remember that little bitch"
she asked me to sing it
knowing i'd only seen the lyrics
so i just sang a melody without thinking
and she said that was it.

then she made up the rest
as if "we" were doing it.
i couldn't keep my mouth shut
but not cuz i was talking.
she said "always keep the poetry out"
she said they ruined lyrics.
swoon...
i'll never forget that.

she wanted to know about elvis costello
because she was working with him
and she thought he wanted to use too many chords.

she mentioned the scruffy kid from Minnesota
who got caught out with his name.
she said he had some songs she admired
and that he seemed to still be doing really good.
i said "bob dylan?"
and she said yes.
she said he was good at lyrics.

when she recorded the song i wrote with her
she did it in the cabin johnny cash passed away in.
john carter told me that she would park her bus by the cabin
and stay overnight just below his bedroom window.
one night at three a.m.
he woke to the sound of some old country music
and looked out his window to see
loretta lynn
spinning barefoot in the grass
like a teenager.
she was 80.
the next day he asked her what she was doing
and she said
"i was dancing with your dad"

he said the next night she did it again.

i have to admit i had a genuine crush on her.
i loved her so much.
she was so funny...
i would laugh till i was coughing
she was magic.

my buddy mark told me
that earlier in the day on Tuesday
loretta said,
"i'm going to heaven tonight."