Get back, Loretta? No, step forward

Until Sunday, when she won Grammy Awards for country album and country collaboration at Staples Center, Loretta Lynn’s encounters with the Recording Academy’s top honor had been limited, and mixed.

The country music legend’s only previous win was for her 1971 duet with Conway Twitty on the single “After the Fire Is Gone,” and it was literally a shattering experience.

“We got it in New York, then we flew to L.A.,” Lynn recalled on Saturday. “I dropped mine and broke it in the L.A. airport. And Conway laughed and laughed and laughed, and about 15 minutes later he dropped his and broke it. But they gave us new ones.”

That was the last time Lynn attended the Grammys before Sunday. With five nominations for her 2004 album, “Van Lear Rose,” she couldn’t very well stay away.

The album, which was produced by rock musician Jack White of the White Stripes, was one of the most acclaimed recordings of the year, finishing third in the Village Voice critics’ poll and returning the Coal Miner’s Daughter to the media spotlight.

So last week, she aimed her tour bus toward Los Angeles and hit the road, ending up parked at a hotel across the street from Staples Center.

“I’m wearing my house slippers because this is home,” she said by way of greeting Saturday afternoon, sitting in a banquett behind the driver’s seat.

The spotless, gleaming interior includes a spacious kitchen with a full-size refrigerator, where Lynn can do some of her famous cooking.

“I don’t like flying,” said Lynn, 69. “I get in the bus and watch TV. I watched two shows today -- I watched the Gregory Peck ‘Moby Dick,’ and Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.”

Though Lynn’s profile is suddenly high again, she’s been lying low in L.A. The singer taped an episode of Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show that will air today, but she’s avoided the parties and other Grammy-week activities that kept the city hopping in the days before the awards.

“I’m not much on ... parties and stuff like that. I never have been. I was always bashful, and I just hung back.”

Lynn, wearing jeans and a light green checkered blouse embroidered with two flowers, glanced out the bus window at Staples Center, where crews were preparing the area surrounding the arena for Sunday’s extravaganza.

“I ain’t ready for the red carpet,” she said with a laugh. “That’s embarrassing.”

Maybe, but she still had an elaborate gown hanging at the ready. She might be bashful, but she’s also proud of “Van Lear Rose,” which she financed herself when record labels initially showed little interest in the teaming of a country music matriarch and a Detroit rocker. The Grammys’ country album of the year was also snubbed by the Nashville-based Country Music Assn. in its awards last fall.

The country collaboration award went to Lynn and White for their duet on “Portland Oregon,” a bawdy, honky-tonk exchange between a man and a woman that Lynn wrote while in the Northwestern city.

“I said, ‘Everybody writes something about Texas. I’m tired of hearing about Texas. So I was in Portland, I said, ‘I’m gonna talk about Portland.’ ”

Actually, Lynn and White might not be sporting that award if White hadn’t taken matters into his own hands. The song was originally sung just by Lynn, but she got a surprise when she returned to the studio the next day.

“They were playing it back, and all of a sudden here’s this guy voice comes on,” said Lynn. “I looked over at Jack and said, ‘Who is that?’ He said, ‘That’s me.’ He had rubbed my voice off and put his on.”

The honors for “Van Lear Rose” also hold a little extra meaning for her because it’s the first of her more than 70 albums to consist entirely of Lynn originals.

“I love to write. I’d rather write any time than sing,” she said. “This record is a little different because I have all of me on it. The other records, it’s usually just maybe half of me.”

“It feels great,” Lynn said by phone Sunday after accepting the country album award. It’s headed for a place of honor in her 18,000-square-foot museum in Tennessee, if she doesn’t drop it in the airport.