There Was Some Truth to Loretta Lynn's Stage Breakdown in Her Biopic

In March 1977, a 45-year-old Loretta Lynn spoke with Esquire about music, love, exhaustion, and anything that popped into the country music star's head. At one point, Loretta brought up that her memoir, Coal Miner's Daughter, was being made into a movie, but she wouldn't be able to play herself.

That was OK by her, as Loretta had no interest in reliving those memories. "It was bad enough doing it once," she said. "

She got married at the age of 13 and was a mother of four by 18. Loretta said that was too much for such a young girl, saying she "paid for it." It was already a long life that began in poverty, in rural Kentucky, and ended in October 2022 when she passed away at the age of 90.

In between, she rose high, fell hard, and put her mind and body through quite a few tests. There are even stories of the occasional breakdown on stage. Are they true? Here's what we know.

It's possible Loretta wrote about a specific incident in her memoir. There is a scene in the film adaptation when actor Sissy Spacek, who was playing Loretta, passed out on stage. In the real world, Loretta was hospitalized several times for exhaustion.

She told Esquire she pushed herself hard because her band was like her family. "I guess I have sixty-seven people on the payroll by the week," she explained. "Two months I’m off, that’s eight paydays." She also loved to sing.

Loretta also talked about the debilitating migraines she often got. "These migraines, if you was to cut your arm off it wouldn’t be no worse," she said before going into a story about wanting to use her pearl-handled gun to end the pain.

Thankfully, the migraines subsided after Loretta was given "water pills" by her doctor.

Two years before she spoke with Esquire, Loretta found herself in the hospital. According to People, she took too many pills in an effort to treat various ailments that included bleeding ulcers and undiagnosed blackouts. Loretta said they were her "pills that put her to sleep," but she later realized she was addicted to them.

With the help of a psychiatrist, Loretta was able to get a handle on her addiction.

In July 1984, Loretta's 34-year-old son drowned while going for a horseback ride. Jack Benny Lynn had taken his favorite horse out at the family's 5,000-acre ranch outside of Waverly, Tenn. While trying to navigate the precarious Duck River, Jack was swept away.

A search party later found his body in the water near a bluff, with his horse standing dutifully nearby.

That same morning, Loretta's tour bus was parked at the Big Chief Auto Truck Plaza outside Mount Vernon, Ill. When someone from her entourage went to the back of the bus to see if she wanted coffee, Loretta was found unconscious. This was before she knew her son had died.

Once again, she was rushed to the hospital due to exhaustion, only to find out about Jack the following day. "She took it much better than we expected," said her manager.

Unfortunately, her initial reaction was a calm before the storm. Loretta was taken to a hospital in Nashville, where she stayed until Jack's funeral. She cried throughout the service and continued to do so as they drove to the burial plot on the ranch's property.

Her daughter Betty said, "Mother’s strength will pull her through." She said Loretta has been sick and works too hard, but would be fine. Loretty Lynn always found a way to be fine.