Twitty & Lynn to Perform at Annual Loretta Lynn Birthday Bash — the First Since Her Death (Exclusive)
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"I'll do the best I can to bring her spirit there," Loretta Lynn's grandaughter Tayla Lynn tells PEOPLE
Loretta Lynn spent much of her life preparing for her death.
"I watched her talk to Jesus," recalls the late country music icon's granddaughter Tayla Lynn during a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I watched her get ready to meet Him and get to heaven and see my grandfather and her children that have passed. I literally watched her prepare for that in such a spiritual, beautiful way that really…I'm so happy she gets that now."
She pauses for a moment. "It's sad for us here, but that really eases the heartbreak."
Indeed, the hearts of the whole world did break a little last October when Tayla's beloved grandmother Loretta died at the age of 90 at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. And recently, that heartbreak went a little deeper for the Lynn family due to the death of Loretta's longtime friend and assistant Tim Cobb.
"They lived together, shared a home, lived on the bus together," recalls Tayla. "He has dressed her, done her makeup, cooked for her, cleaned for her and she loved him deeply for a long time. He literally died of heartbreak."
And it's this heartbreak that will most certainly follow Tayla come Saturday, April 15, when she steps on stage at the Fifth Annual Loretta Lynn Birthday Bash at Troubadour Nashville. The event will serve as the first since Lynn's death.
Joining Tayla at the event will be her Twitty & Lynn duo partner Tre Twitty, the grandson of Loretta's longtime musical partner Conway Twitty. As a pair, Twitty & Lynn have come to find their own flourishing fan base craving the music that Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty once made together.
"Conway's been gone 30 years," says Tre of his late grandfather, best known for massive hits such as "Hello Darlin'" and "I'd Love to Lay You Down." "[He and Loretta] stopped recording together in 1981. They had plans to come back together again and do another round of Loretta and Conway stuff, but he passed and there was never a chance to have that second act. There are so many people that missed that and so many people that just loved them and are attached to those songs."
And so, when it came time to prep for their headlining performance at the upcoming birthday bash, both Tayla and Tre said they thought about all the fans looking forward to the annual gathering and the music that would come from it.
But Tayla also thought about her grandmother.
"Obviously, I questioned it, whether we should still do this birthday bash since she's not here to celebrate," Tayla tells PEOPLE quietly. "And it only took me a split-second to say yes." She pauses. "I'll do the best I can to bring her spirit there."
It's certainly that spirit that continues to live within Tayla's dear family, who are beginning to envision the future with clearer eyes, especially when it comes to the Lynns' beloved home in Hurricane Mills.
"My cousin Anthony Brutto is the manager of the ranch and some other of my cousins and my brother, we all help out on the ranch," explains Tayla. "My grandfather and my grandmother once said in a documentary that the music is for the fans and the ranch is for the family. So yes, we are at that moment that we are asking ourselves, 'What are we going to do with that legacy that they left us? What are we going to do?'"
One thing they know for sure is that Lynn's legendary museum will be staying open.
"We have an 18,000 square foot museum so the fans can forever come out and see who she was and everything she's done," Tayla says. "What she did for country music and women — and just life."
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