Patty Loveless biography

Synopsis

Early Music Career

Born Patty Lee Ramey on January 4, 1957, in Pikeville, Kentucky, Patty Loveless was the sixth of seven children born to John and Naomie Ramey. The family lived in Elkhorn City, in eastern Kentucky, where John Ramey was a coal miner. Loveless was the youngest daughter and very much her daddy's little girl; she took her early love of country music from her father.

When Loveless was 12, the family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in order for her father to receive treatment for coal miner's lung. Loveless's older siblings Dottie and Roger had formed a singing group called The Swinging Rameys, and when Dottie got married and abandoned the band, Roger pulled in Loveless as a singer. Her first paid singing gig, for which she earned $5, took place at an event called the Lincoln Jamboree. At first Patty's shyness made her terrified of performing, but as soon as she started singing, she discovered she loved it.

In 1971, Loveless and her brother drove to Nashville to meet with the popular country singer Porter Wagoner, and Loveless sang him an original song she'd composed. Wagoner loved it and introduced the 14-year-old to Dolly Parton, who showed Loveless the ropes of the Nashville scene. By 1974, Loveless had begun singing with the Wilburn Brothers. "I was only 15 years old when I was on a show in Louisville, Kentucky with the Wilburn Brothers and other various artists ... I was singing 'Mule Skinner Blues.' Doyle Wilburn dragged Teddy out of their dressing room to watch me perform," Loveless once recalled. "After my performance they were backstage wanting to talk to me. Doyle asked me about myself and I told him I was working some with Porter [Wagoner]. He asked me to come to Nashville and bring some of my stuff with me ... and I did." Loveless's career singing with the Wilburn Brothers paid off both professionally and romantically; she soon fell in love with the group's new drummer, Terry Lovelace, and married him in 1976. The two quit the Wilburns and moved to North Carolina, a move her family and friends condemned.

In North Carolina, the singer started performing under the name Patty Loveless, a variation of her married name. She played in all kinds of nightclubs and bars. "You wouldn't believe the people that would come to this club. They would get off from work, and they wouldn't go home. They'd come to this club and have a few beers, or whatever ... dance or ... whatever the case was. I learned a lot about people and life in those places. I mean, there was all walks of life ... people who had hit the very bottom. And myself, there was times I felt myself becoming one of those people too."