alan messer

Charlie and Ira Louvin wrote some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking classic country songs as the Louvin Brothers, and are probably best known for “The Christian Life” (covered by the Byrds) and “Great Atomic Power.” Charlie Louvin speaks from his home during preparations for his 80th birthday show in Los Angeles next month. This interview by Nikki Darling.

Who was the first person you voted for?
Harry Truman, the last real president we had. I’ll tell you what—if he was asked a question, he didn’t have to hold a committee meeting. He’d give you an answer as fast as you asked it. There are no more people left in the world like that. I was twenty-one in July 1948 and Harry Truman was runnin’ for president. And I’ll tell you what—I’m eighty years old and things don’t seem to be improving on that front. It seems the rougher times get, the longer we live. Somebody’s getting even with us.
What did you think of Wanda Jackson?
She’s entitled to her own—she got into rock ‘n’ roll and she got into country and then she got into religion and it ruined her career, and you can’t play bars and such if your music is religious. And now all these years later she’s trying to get into country again. But I don’t think she’s had very much luck with it.
Have you ever met the Byrds?
I have three years ago—the big one, I don’t remember his first name. And he came to town and asked me to record “My Baby’s Gone” with him and he promised me a record of it but I never got it. And so I don’t know if it was good or bad or what. And I’d heard about the Byrds from Emmylou Harris, and I never met Gram Parsons. I heard his stuff, though, and my sons really like rock ‘n’ roll, but their daddy’s always been in country so they have to be respectful.
How do you feel about younger musicians covering your music?
The highest form of respect for an artist is if you record their songs and decide that you like them, and then when you become an artist, you record those songs. And of course I’m very grateful for that.
Who is somebody that people would be surprised you listen to?
Well, I’m a big fan of Charlie Daniels—he’s kind of a personal friend of mine and I like his music. If I meet somebody and they’re nice and I don’t necessarily like their music, I’ll listen to it and I’ll like it. If you’re a snob, you’re a snob. We’ve got that in country and I know they got in rock ‘n’ roll.
You’ve worked with both Elvises—what would you say has been the biggest change in music in the time between them?
Well, I would say Elvis obviously would be the biggest, and the largest selling artist—a billion records, they’re saying, and believe me that’s quite a few LPs. And then of course the Beatles, but nobody has caught Elvis—he still sells like he’s alive. I think from time to time he even makes the charts. Now that’s almost unbelievable if you think about it—but it’s true. But I enjoyed meeting Costello—he’s a nice guy. I heard he recorded a song that my brother and I did. He does love country music and is a huge Louvin fan. I don’t knock nobody for their choice of music—if I play a song for you and you don’t like it, I don’t have any reason to tell you that you cant like it. If your ears like it, they like it. That’s what makes the world go round.
What made you start performing secular music?
We started singin’ gospel music, but the market for gospel—you play a lot of churches and that’s near close to beggin’, and if you don’t get enough, the preacher send the basket around again. And we had won every award for gospel there was to win, but that still wasn’t as big as the market is for secular, and when we started tourin’ we were opened up to secular and met near twice as many people and it was good for us. We were born and raised in an area where there was sacred heart music, where you would read the lyric and then sing the music back. There was gospel but country more than anything else. We weren’t taught to like it—we were born likin’ it.
Many of your songs are sad and almost morbid—was this done to convey a message?
Well, my brother was a drinker and that’s what eventually broke the Louvin brothers up, but as far as the songs, that’s life, whether you live in New York or Louisville. And that was the gospel—if you were a bad girl, they would watch you and step on your toes, and if you were a good girl, they let you go. And there are people out there still like that.
What kind of things are you doing now that you never imagined you’d ever do?
I don’t think that I’m exactly—hmm, what to say here? In my lifetime, things have changed more than any other time in recent human history. I never thought I’d be trying to understand a computer but here I am with a laptop. I have a Myspace profile, I have a cell phone—things at eighty I never thought I’d see but I have them and I understand them, so I’m learning things I never thought I’d be doing. But as far as my person inside, I don’t think I’ve changed that much.
What do you foresee as the future of country music?
I think they’ve gone as far as they can and most likely they will resort back and start over again, and that’s where we come in. And every day I hear of a country station playing old country, and I think it’s a shame that every time there’s a new fad come along, we got to change our name. But it don’t bother me and you can call me anything you want to.
What was it like working with Hank Williams?
I never worked any road days with Hank Williams—my brother and I were on the same record company and I met him there and saw him in Shreveport, Louisiana. Guess you could say he was the only man fired from the Grand Ole Opry for drinking to much.

CHARLIE LOUVIN’S 80TH BIRTHDAY PARTY THURS., OCTOBER 4, AT THE MINT, 6010 PICO BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 7:30 PM / $25 / ALL AGES. WWW.THEMINTLA.COM.