Emmy Russell on Growing Up with Loretta Lynn As Her Grandmother

Musician and American Idol contestant Emmy Russell has shared what it was like growing up with her grandmother, country music legend Loretta Lynn.

Growing up can be and often is challenging. Like everyone else, children want to fit in and be accepted. Essentially, they are all looking for someone or a group of friends to hang out with on the playground at recess. Who doesn’t want a group of trusted individuals in their corner?

Sadly, people sometimes project their thoughts, feelings, and opinions onto you instead of accepting you for who you are. You are that, and so, therefore, you must be this. Emmy Russell knows this all too well, growing up with country music legend Loretta Lynn as her grandmother.

However, in a clip posted on YouTube, Emmy opened up and shared some heartfelt memories about Loretta and talked about what life was like with her “Meemaw.”

Given who her grandmother was, it's no surprise that Emmy has grown up around music and the entertainment industry. In the short clip, Emmy says that she actually grew up on the road, going on tour with her mother and grandmother. Emmy mentions that she even started singing at just two years old.

Emmy adds that her grandmother gave her 100 percent access to anything in her closet.

“You know Meemaw, she doesn’t care,” Emmy said. “Like, ‘Oh, honey, go ahead, you can wear that any time.’ But everyone else was, like, ‘Don’t touch that! That’s like, prize winner!’ And I’m like, ‘That’s just a dress.’”

At the end of the day, Emmy, as much as she is trying to escape the expectations others put on her and forge her own musical identity, will always be her grandmother’s granddaughter. Her birthdate, she reveals, is a big reminder of that fact. She was born on her grandmother and grandfather’s anniversary.

“God was kind of like, ‘I’m going to send her on the day that they got married just to show her that they’re alike,’” she said.