According to Loretta Lynn, country music is dead -- and she's not too pleased about it. The country icon shared her thoughts on the genre's current state on a recent episode of Martina McBride's Vocal Point podcast.

“They’ve already let it [die],” Lynn tells McBride (quote via People). "I think it’s dead.

"I think it’s a shame. I think it’s a shame to let a type of music die. I don’t care what any kind of music it is -- rock, country, whatever. I think it’s a shame to let it die," Lynn adds, "and I’m here to start feeding it."

As far back as the early 2010s, Lynn was speaking out about the blurring of genre lines that's occurred as fans' and artists' musical tastes have expanded. "Some of these new country singers aren't really country ... I think some of them should be singing pop music and leave country alone," she writes in the introduction to her reissued biography, Coal Miner's Daughter.

Clearly, the subject gets Lynn, who is now 87, pretty fired up: When McBride noted during the podcast episode that Lynn seemed "mad," Lynn agreed. "I am," she added. "Because it’s ridiculous.”

“I’m not happy at all," Lynn continues. "I think that they’re completely losing it. And I think that’s a sad situation because we should never let country music die. I think that every type of music should be saved, and country is one of the greatest. It’s been around, as far as I’m concerned, longer than any of it."

As Ken Burns' 2019 docu-series Country Music showed throughout its eight episodes, country music grew out of early hymns and the musical stylings slaves and immigrants were bringing to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Even back then, and in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, its sound and style were being influenced by trends outside of the genre as rock and pop artists became more popular.

Late Thursday (Jan. 30), after Lynn's comments made the rounds online, the singer spoke out on her Facebook page. "Well, it seems I made a big stir with this one! ... Y'all know I say what I think when I think it!" she begins.

"I love country music and I'm so proud of the rich heritage of our kind of music. Real country tells our stories, comes from our hearts, and gets us through life," Lynn continues. "My main point to Martina is that there's such a hard push to crossover and change it up, and do something new that we can lose what country music really is all about. I like it country -- pure, simple, and real!"

Lynn's Facebook comments nod to the artists who are, in her words, "still keeping it country," and implore more acts to do the same.

"When you love something you can't just stand by quietly if you think it's in danger," Lynn concludes. "One thing's for sure, if we keep it country, the fans will keep on listening, I know in my heart that it's what they want!"