Crystal Gayle reveals that she started singing before she could walk (Photo: Paul Natkin/Getty)
“We didn’t have much money but people would come and hear us sing in the living room,” she recalls. Three of her siblings became country singers, the most famous being honky-tonk legend Loretta Lynn. “I was the only one born in the hospital,” Crystal adds, adding a laugh. “I was the accident.”
The shy, soft-spoken singer, known here for classic hits like Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue and Talking In Your Sleep, was only nine years old when older sister Loretta found fame.
“I always knew I was going to sing,” Krystal recalls. “I sang in the church choir, with swing bands, and with my brother’s band on the weekends. I sang for fun and to be a part of it all.”
But with her elegant delivery and warm, velvety voice, dubbed “the diamond in the world of rhinestones,” young Brenda Gill Webb has always been destined for international fame.
She was only 16 when she made her debut on Nashville’s famous Grand Ole Opry, filling up on ailing Loretta. She sang the dark tape to Marty Robbins.
“I was scared to death, but it was amazing,” she says. “I still have the shiny silver dress I was wearing. My mom made it for me.” Fifty years later, Loretta introduced her to the Opry.
Before that, her closest place to the sacred theater was to look at it from the rafters above it with the children of Ernest Taub, known as the Texas Troubadour.
“We’d go around the back halls and climb up the rafters and watch Jim Reeves…all the places we weren’t supposed to go…”
Crystal started playing clubs while he was still in school. “I opened Tex Ritter and was in awe. I’ve seen all his films. Just being in his presence was special.
“I loved playing rodeos and dates outdoors under the stars, I still do it.”
Her eyes are blue and not brown, but in all other ways, Krystal is exactly what she wishes she was. Her voice is soft and friendly, her knee-length hair will make Rapunzel jealous, and if 52 years of fame go to her head, she hides it incredibly well.
Loretta helped convince Decca Records to sign it and wrote her first US single, 1970 I Cry (The Blue Right Out Of My Eyes). The label changed its name.
“I was going to be Brenda Gayle, but they already had Brenda for me and they didn’t want two Brendas,” she says with a smile.
Loretta suggested the stage name Crystal, which was inspired by the restaurant brand Krystal Hamburger.
Gale only emerged from her older sister’s shadow when Lynn told her to stop trying to be her.
“I put my foot in the door,” says Crystal. But soon I realized I had to make it on my own. She gave me the best advice. She told me, ‘Stop singing my songs, don’t sing anything I’d like to sing because we already have Loretta and we don’t need another; go your own way, go halfway.’
“And she was right, I had to do my own thing and go a different route.”
Krystal reveals that she grew up with seven siblings who don’t have much money (Photo: Crystal Gale)
This decision made Gale one of the most successful crossover artists of the late ’70s and ’80s. In addition to Brown Eyes, she received 20 American Numbers Ones, a Grammy, a wagon train filled with prestigious awards, a custom-made Barbie doll, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
However, her feet remain firmly on the ground. As Loretta’s famous song says, Gayle is proud to be the daughter of a coal miner. Unfortunately, their father Melvin, better known as Ted, a resident farmer and miner, contracted black lung disease.
The mines closed when she was four years old and the family moved to Wabash, Indiana. Her mother, Clara, worked in a restaurant, before becoming a nurse.
My father died four years later. Mom has remained strong for us. She did two jobs of keeping food on the table.”
His death hit the young Brenda hard. “I developed a nervous habit and got into a shell. I didn’t sit nor cry, it was more internal. My mother took me to see a strict German doctor who told me to quit…and I quit. I guess I needed a father figure to say it.”
“My father was shy and quiet; I was very much like him.”
Crystal Gayle is a singer from Nashville (Photo: Mark Reinstein/Getty)
Another sister, Peggy Sue Wright, became a country star in the 1960s, and brother Willie “Jay” Lee Webb was briefly signed to Sun Records. But after Loretta, it was Krystal who achieved the most success.
She was nineteen when I cried (the right blue outside of my eye) striped. “The first time I heard it on the radio, I was driving around Louisville; I wanted to stop the car and shout ‘Does anyone know this is my song?’,” she laughs.
The move to United Artists made her even more successful. “They collaborated with Allen Reynolds, the greatest producer ever. He wrote my first top-ten song, “The Wrong Way Again” which turned out to be the right way, ironically.
The blows kept coming. Grammy Award Winner 1977 Don’t Make Your Brown Eyes Blue? He was the most impressive, sophisticated, and mature, with half-whispered, half-sobbing vocals and jazz piano phrasing.
The song was composed by Richard Lee who was originally intended for Mrs. Shirley Bassey.
The album from which it was taken, We Must Believe In Magic, was the first album by a country female artist to sell over a million copies; And Gayle’s follow-up song “Talking In Your Sleep” was equally successful.
After Brown Eyes, Crystal became a TV regular, appearing in Dean Martin’s Christmas In California before filming with Bob Hope and getting her own TV show.
“I went to China with Bob,” she remembers. “He was loved, we were like a family. We played against Beijing and Shanghai.”
Krystal’s smile widens as she remembers highlighting her other career working with an equally respected American star.
Kermit the Frog! I did a puppet show in London, it was so much fun. Mom was so excited that I decided to take her with me, and wanted to meet Miss Piggy. In the show story, Miss Piggy was jealous of me and wouldn’t meet me, but she came to meet my mom! “
Krystal’s fame is beyond controversy. Happy is still married to her childhood sweetheart Bill Gatzimos – the father of her two children and her longtime manager. The only time the police entered her story was in 2007 when a fugitive convict stole their 45-foot tour bus.
“We had parked it at the bus company warehouse in Nashville because we were traveling to the next shows. Luckily, we took most of the gear. They weren’t supposed to give the key to anyone, but he was a good con man. He got off a prisoner truck and fled to Tennessee.” .
Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gale (Photo: Beth Gwen)
Krystal has worked with Swedish rock star Soren “Solo” Carlson of Diamond Dogs and British rock band The Crunch. The duo launched their first collaboration on Lonely Street Choir last year.
“Solo called me during the pandemic. I loved his music and his writing and felt like it would be fun. The first song was great. I loved the feel of it. He had a ’70s rock feel. We’re working on one more song.”
She continues, “I’m in the studio working on a few other things. I just got Covid a second time and had to cancel shows but I want to tour as soon as possible and I’m planning to do a resume but in a different way.”
“I’ve had a great life. I don’t refer to fans, they are my friends and I have made a lot of friends all over the world. For me it was just as outstanding as recording some songs and winning awards.”
- Crystal Gayle’s solo band, Lonely Street Choir, which includes a solo, is now out. To see the news crystalgayle.com
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