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"When I went to Nashville in '81 to make Almost Blue — where we did other people's songs — the first song we cut was Loretta's 'Honky Tonk Girl'.
It's a weird song for me to record, because I didn't even reverse the gender. The best thing I cut was a song I learned from her record, I Remember Patsy — 'He's Got You'. Loretta was our guiding light. While I was in Nashville, this girl came by our hotel and she turned out to be the president of Loretta's fan club, and we all joined. I didn't actually meet Loretta until maybe 2007. I knew John Carter since he was a lad, because I knew his parents. My friend — and producer of my first five albums — married into the family so we got the benefit of Nick [Lowe]'s son-in-law status. We were treated very kindly by the Cash-Carter clan. I'd been back in touch with John Carter, and I went to see him when I was in Nashville on a day off when I was on tour with Bob Dylan. "I was there on my own and suddenly Loretta arrives. She was like a ball of fire. She's got this box file, with 'SONGS' written on it. She tips it out and every kind of piece of paper tumbles out. Telephone note pads. Fancy stationery. Hotel stationery. Bits of old receipts. Bits of cardboard boxes. All with lyrics written on them. Some of them are quite famous, and I even said, 'Why isn't this in the Country Music Hall of Fame?' Some of the songs were half a verse and some of them were just titles, like 'Thank God For Jesus'. There was one that said, 'Pardon Me, Madam, My Name is Eve'. I said, 'I know what that is.' Loretta said, 'Well, what is it? "It's Eve's song to Adam's second wife: She laughed at that. I told her, 'I can write that if you'll let me.' So I did, and that went on my album Momofuku. Then we got to work on this one title that she had, 'I Felt The Chill Before The Winter Came'. I could hear it in my head the minute she showed it to me. I just started playing and we were easily completing the couplets. Any time I went off the rails into anything more baroque, musically or lyrically, she'd rein me back in to keep it plain. I think she allowed me the line 'a linger of perfume'. She liked that one, but that was about as fancy as it got. Whenever I attempted anything more, she'd question it. That was good, because it meant that it was in her voice."
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