Loretta Lynn, who died Tuesday (Oct. 4) at age 90, struck up a friendship with Garth Brooks that lasted more than two decades. He helped induct the legend when she received her Kennedy Center Honor in 2003 and he was her date when she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Salute to Country Music in 2010. Here, Brooks talks to Billboard about what she meant to him both personally and professionally.

She was the first female [artist] for me. I know her contemporaries and I know there were women that came before Loretta, but Loretta was the first Reba. She was the first Dolly. She was the first of the female stalwarts that you built a foundation on and she never gave that throne up. For me, Loretta Lynn’s name is as powerful today as it ever was. 

The truth is what we believe it to be, but Loretta’s conviction in what she believed the truth to be was in her songs. The crazy thing was Loretta also had a wonderful feel for a melody and a groove.  It wasn’t only the lyrics.

What separates the fantastic artists from the 99% of the rest of us is their truths are the exact same truth as their listeners’. How Loretta Lynn thought with “The Pill” and songs like “Fist City” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” those were universal thoughts. Everyone was thinking them at the time, they just needed somebody to have the balls to say it. And that somebody was Loretta Lynn. 

She never quit being her. We were at a state dinner at the White House.  She was getting a Kennedy Center Honor and her daughters couldn’t keep her shoes on her. Me and Miss Yearwood were there to honor her so we’re all at the dinner table together with Colin Powell.

Now this is a true story. You cannot make this sh– up. This young man is bringing around dinner and she uses his tie like a doorbell. She just reaches up gently, grabs his tie, pulls him down, and she goes, “Son, what is that?” And it was a scone. It was a flat biscuit. She brings this kid right down to her face level and goes, “You tell them people in the kitchen if they put some self-rising flour in that thing, it’ll pop right up.” She was fantastic! Never, ever did she ever come off as uneducated. She always came off as sincere. 

One of the greatest awards you can ever get in this business is being part of giving an award to another artist. She asked me to be her date [in 2010 for the Grammy Salute to Country Music to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award]. She actually asked Trisha if it was OK.

I said, “OK, if we’re going to be a date, let’s do it right. Limo or truck?” She said truck. I [go] to pick her up and when she comes out, she’s glitter from head to toe in this big ballgown. She looks gorgeous. She looks like she’s 20. She’s so happy.

She walks straight up to the driver’s side and just waits. I’m going, “Holy cow, Loretta Lynn is going to let me open the door to the driver’s side and she is going to ride right in the middle of the bench seat.”

I crawled in next to her. We pulled into the Ryman sitting side by side in a pickup truck. It’s like dreams are made of this stuff. When I went to step out, I offer my hand to her and she pulls it and she slides across that [seat] like she had done it 1,000 times. And she began to be the queen of queens with everybody. I’ve got a front-row seat to this.

We performed [classic Lynn/Conway Twitty duet] “After the Fire Is Gone.” I just remember being scared to death. It’s the first time I ever played the Ryman, and so the first time we ever played the Ryman and you’re playing with Loretta Lynn — that’s crazy. But what I loved about that whole evening was I watched her drive her ship. Even when they surprised her, she could turn the surprise around where she was in control of the moment. 

As an artist, you’re going, “This is magic, what I’m watching right here.” I think there are some people that are born to be that person and I think she was, but I think what made Loretta Lynn special was she never ever made you not believe she was that little girl from the holler, because I think she always was. But I think God just touches some people in certain areas and she was meant to do this without ever becoming the big glossy celebrity and leaving what she knew. She never left what she knew.

When the night was over, I put her in the truck. She handled [the evening] with all the grace, style and elegance, while pretty much carrying me because she knew so much more about being spectacular than I will ever know. It was quite possibly one of the most fun nights of my life. 

[Over the years,] we’d send each other gifts. When she went into the Kennedy Center Honors, I sent her a necklace that I just thought was her. [One day,] I get this unbelievable package in the mail. They’re her cowboy boots with a little note on it. They’re beautiful. If I was to show you all the cool things I’ve ever got, that would be the first thing I would show you. 

I don’t know what it is. I can just tell you that there was a bond with that woman that I’m sure everyone that ever met her felt, that she made you feel like you were so special. I just loved her. And she had me convinced that she loved me right back. 

–As told to Melinda Newman

BMI honored Ed Sheeran and Johnny McDaid with the European song of the year award for their global hit “Bad Habits” at the 2022 BMI London Awards. The private event was held at London’s Savoy Hotel on Monday (Oct. 3).

The award is given to BMI’s most performed song of the previous year by U.K. or European writers. The single spent 11 consecutive weeks at the top of the Official U.K. Singles Chart.

Accepting the award via video message, Sheeran said, “We had so much fun making the song and it has been so much fun playing the song out on the road and seeing the reactions of people all around Europe and I can’t wait to go out and do some more.”

Accepting alongside Sheeran, McDaid said, “Ed, I’m so grateful, man, for the fact that you still trust me to make music with you after over a decade of us writing songs together and I hope we have many more to come.”

Sheeran previously won the award in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The 2018 award was for “Shape of You,” which he also co-wrote with McDaid.

Sheeran was also awarded several other BMI London Awards this year, honoring 4 million performances of “I Don’t Care” and 5 million performances of “Perfect.” He was also honored in the pop songs category with “Afterglow,” co-written with David Hodges, and “Shivers,” co-written with McDaid and Kal Lavelle.

BMI honored Ellie Goulding with the BMI President’s Award. Global breakout star Tems received the BMI Impact Award. Both awards were previously announced.

Goulding was presented with the honor by BMI president & CEO Mike O’Neill. “I’ve never won anything like this before and it means so much to me,” she said. “I moved out of my home when I was 16 and I kind of started then. And I felt I had so much to lose making a living out of something that everyone told me was definitely impossible. … In the U.K. particularly, and as a woman, it’s sort of ingrained into you that ambition is a bad thing and it’s not very cool, but it shouldn’t be. Ambition is an essential ingredient for what we all do, and along with the talent and a bit of luck, for anyone who hopes of a long-lasting career, in a really tough industry actually, it’s essential, so to anyone who’s on their way there, please don’t listen to those people who have anything to say about you wanting bigger and better because you deserve it. … In a world now that needs urgent action, in a country that demands empathy, may music play its part in empowering others to begin.”

Goulding performed her singles “Woman” and “New Heights,” from her 2020 album Brightest Blue, accompanied by a pianist and backing vocalists.  

Upon being presented with the BMI Impact Award, Tems said simply, “I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for this award… I’ve come a long way and I’m so grateful.”

Among the multiple Million-Air awards presented throughout the evening were Tom Barnes and Sam Roman for 4 million performances of “Someone You Loved” performed by Lewis Capaldi; and Sam Smith and Normani for “Dancing With a Stranger.” With 6 million performances, Stig Anderson, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus were honored for “Dancing Queen” as performed by ABBA. Elton John was honored with three BMI London Awards, honoring 7 million performances of “Rocket Man,” 6 million performances of “Tiny Dancer” and in the pop songs category with “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” co-written with Andrew Meecham and Dean Meredith.

The event was hosted by O’Neill and Shirin Foroutan, BMI’s vice president, creative, Europe.

Alongside the BMI President’s Award, BMI Impact Award, Million-Air Awards and European Song of the Year, awards for pop, dance, film, television and cable and streaming were also presented throughout the ceremony.  A complete list of 2022 winners will soon be available here.

Britney Spears is loving Justin Bieber‘s discography! The pop princess took to Instagram on Monday (Oct. 3) to share a video of herself dancing to the 28-year-old crooner’s Don Toliver collaboration, “Honest,” as well as Rihanna‘s “Love on the Brain.”

“TB to Maui – 2 weeks ago times flies [winking emojis] !!!” she captioned the self-recorded clip. “Different edit of me with Justin Bieber song … ‘Honest’ !!! Not sure what the animation is for [surprised emojis] … either way the song is hot … and different edit of SOS … me doing my thang !!!”

After seemingly checking out a few comments that pointed out her spin-heavy choreography, Spears poked fun at the trolls by sharing the Oxford dictionary definition of “spinner.” “Yes!!! That’s me [pointing emojis] The Spinner !!!” she captioned the follow-up post.

This isn’t the first time Spears has shown her love for Bieber. While vacationing in Hawaii recently, the “Piece of Me” singer soundtracked a number of her scenic, happy Instagram posts with various JB tracks, including “Holy” with Chance the Rapper and “Attention” with Omah Lay. She also shared another dancing clip while in Maui spinning around to her own song “Get Naked” before diving into some more “Honest” choreography.

Last month, Spears gushed over Maui — which she has visited a number of times — in a since-deleted Instagram post. The “Me Against the Music” singer wrote that the Hawaiian island “never gets old,” adding, “I find my inner goddess!!! I sweat, cry, run, swim, and play!!!! Mother Nature speaks to me in a different way !!! I feel like I’m guided to where my heart flies!!! Life can be so crazy!!! So in times like this I reel it in to find my grounds and pray !!! Sitting still and listening to my voice within!!! I meditate everyday and try to understand the meaning of self love.”

A home where entertainers Mark and Donnie Wahlberg’s family once lived was damaged by fire Sunday (Oct. 2) in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, the fire department said.

The blaze began in a nearby home at around 10 a.m., but spread to another three buildings because of strong winds, Fire Commissioner Paul Burke said. Two firefighters suffered injuries and one resident was taken to the hospital. There was no immediate word on the cause of the fire.

One of the homes involved was 25 Peverell Street, where the Wahlberg family used to live. Mark Wahlberg visited the home during the production of his Netflix movie Wonderland in 2018 and 2019. In one video posted on social media, the actor stands shirtless in front of the house, describing it as “where it all started.”

The homes affected by Sunday’s fire were a type of classic Boston architecture called a triple decker, a three-family home that’s common in the city.

“It was a total of four three-deckers that were on fire, mostly in the rear of the buildings on the porches,” the fire commissioner told WCVB-TV. “It’s a very tight street.”

Boston Fire Department spokesperson Brian Alkins said 15 people were displaced by the fire. He estimated damage to the buildings at $2 million.