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The Patty Loveless Interview (Page 1 of 2)
An Interview with Patty Loveless
 Award-winning music star Patty
Loveless is known as one of the world's
greatest country singers. The
Kentucky-born singer grew up in a small
town and climbed her way to the top,
recording numerous hit albums and
singles. She has had more than forty
singles on the Billboard Hot Country
Songs charts, including five Number
Ones.
Patty is also one the celebrities
bringing attention to the challenges of
living with COPD, Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease, that took the life of
her sister at only 48. Editor-in-chief
Gary Barg spoke with Patty about the
challenges of caregiving, COPD and her
focus on early detection and treatment
of the disease.
Gary Barg: I know that you’ve
been personally affected by COPD—your
sister, your dad, your friends.
What message would you want to tell our
readers about COPD awareness?
Patty Loveless: I think more than
anything that I just would like to tell
them that it’s the fourth leading cause
of death in this country right now and
there are possibly 24 million people
walking around with it and they don’t
even know they might have some form of
COPD.
COPD stands for chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease and a lot of people
that I’ve been meeting have been coming
up and talking to me about the symptoms,
like shortness of breath. I’m trying to
encourage them to seek treatment if they
are at risk and I’m really trying to get
them to take the five question screener
and not to be afraid. It’s a
relief when you know what you’ve got to
deal with.
Gary Barg: Well, that’s the most
fascinating part. There are so many
people walking around with it that don’t
even know there’s a name to what they
have and they might be just at the
beginning stages of something they need
to take control of.
Patty Loveless: Right.
Exactly. There are the two forms,
of course. I was saying about my sister,
who had emphysema and chronic
bronchitis. My sister was an
amazing singer and a wonderful dancer.
She won a lot of dance contests; but
when it took over her body, she just
started deteriorating and nobody knew
what it was. Yes, she did smoke,
but the thing of it is, if I had known
then what I know now about COPD, I would
have encouraged her to seek treatment so
that she could have lived longer and be
with us longer. At 48, she was way too
young to be struggling to walk from her
bedroom to her kitchen just to enjoy a
cup of coffee or something. It
hurts to see a family member that you
used to go shopping with, that you used
to dance with, that you used to sing
with – like that; and she was the one
who inspired me to sing. I miss
her. I totally miss her, but I think
that’s the reason I’m here to spread the
word about it. And it’s just very
important. I don’t want to see
other people out there lose their
family.
Gary Barg: Is the goal of Drive
for COPD to try to get people aware
earlier in the process?
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