A Conversation with Global Icon, Dolly Parton

Big dreams and faded genes.

I was wondering how you got to be a fan of mine.

You're so young.

Well, you're just everything.

I ain't everything.

You hear that, I'm sure, all the time.

Well, I hear stuff, but I don't believe any of it.

Someone who has been in this industry for as long as you have, I feel like you've never slowed down.

There's always new dreams.

I always say, I wake up with new dreams every day.

and a lot of my people that work with me they say yeah and your dreams are killing us

because they have to help me carry them out.

I remember once my grandpa said about me wearing my makeup and everything and he said something like well don't you want to go to heaven and I said something like yeah but do I have to look like hell when I get there.

Sometimes I'll ride a line and I'll think yes yes.

Oh, I knew I couldn't think of that on my own.

Had to come from some kind of a spiritual place, right?

I just think yes, thank you.

Yes.

I just want everybody to be able to do the best at what it is they dream of doing.

But in order to make that a reality, you're gonna have to sacrifice, but never sacrifice the things that are the most meaningful to you.

But you gotta work your butt off.

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Well, it is such a privilege and an honor to be here with you, Miss Dolly.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

I'm a fan of yours as well now.

You want a lot of followers and I'm one of them.

Well, thank you.

I'm definitely one of yours, and I've been one of yours for so long.

I mean, your talent and your gifts are obviously undeniable.

But I think something that I gravitate so much to is your heart and your humor.

I'm someone that really relies on humor to get through almost everything in life.

Bad, good, the ugly.

Don't you think that's really like a part of like the, of why people get to be funny?

Because they have to kind of make fun of it.

I know when we were growing up in the mountains as poor people, my daddy's people were so funny.

My mama's people were so funny.

And just the people in the neighborhood.

Because if you don't have a sense of humor, you can't tolerate some of the things you have to do.

So you just kind of make the most of it.

And sometimes that is, you know, a sense of humor can get you through things even good medicine can't.

Amen.

And that's the truth.

A lot of people don't have that bone in them where they're just innately funny.

And you have that.

And I admire that so much.

And I'm really drawn to that.

And I wanted to first lead off with my, as you know, my 40th birthday was almost a year ago.

which is crazy.

And I did Chloe Wood in honor of Dollywood.

I know.

I got all the pictures.

Everybody was showing me what you were doing.

I was so, so honored and so, so flattered and just thought it was just great that you would do that.

Your sisters, your beautiful sisters, your mom, and all those girlfriends.

Were some of those your relatives in those pictures?

No, they were all my sisters.

just family friends.

We have a small little tribe that we sort of do anything and everything with.

Beautiful women, obviously.

Just beautiful.

A bevy of beautiful women.

My sister Kim threw the party and she leaned in and did every little detail.

And I was so proud of her.

And it was my Dollywood dream.

I've never been to Dollywood.

You've got to come.

You're

in Nashville now.

I know.

So it's just, well, actually, it's three hours driving, but just about 30 minutes if you flew up there.

But whether it's this time or not, one of these days I should probably have to be the one to show you around.

Oh, well, that's right.

Maybe you can film something else up there.

I would love to go and do Chloewood.

We'll make it Chloewood for the day.

Chloewood for the day.

I'll take Dollywood, but because I want my 40th, and it's Dollywood's 40th.

Well, it is.

In fact, we just did a big celebration up there, and I came out of the cake when I first opened it 40 years ago.

I came out of the cake in a white dress.

I'm a little older now, so this time I walked out of the cake.

They just, I don't think I need to be climbing up there and then climbing out of a cake and doing all.

But it was fun, and we kind of duplicated the opening for our 40th anniversary.

But yeah, it's grown so much, And I'm just so proud of that.

We really employ a lot of people up there in the whole county.

And at least 40 of them are probably relatives of mine that are working in the park.

A lot of my relatives work there doing the music, but they also do different things.

But it's just a wonderful place for families.

It's like

Disneyland.

There's something for everybody.

Right.

And it's just fun for the kids.

grown-ups alike.

I mean, did you ever think 40 years ago that it would still be here and

getting only bigger and bigger?

Now you have the water park and all of that with it, but what it does for the community and the legacy you're leaving with Dollywood?

Well, you don't really think like that when you, I mean, I certainly had hoped it would be here forever when we started it, but I never dreamed that it was going to go the way that it has.

Of course, you can dream big, and I do.

Everybody knows that I'm a big old dreamer.

They call me the dreamer-in-chief at Dollywood.

Love it.

But, and, of course, we come up with new things every year, but the way that it has grown and we just win all kinds of prizes every year for being the number one this, the number one that, the number one park in the south, the number one, one of the number one parks in the world.

So the fact that that's just in my hometown and that it's something I can be proud of, that my people can be proud of me because I'm very proud of my people and where I came from.

And so it's just a wonderful thing for families to enjoy each other.

It is, and I think everyone is so proud to have that and what you've done for the community out there.

It's a great thing.

Well, they are.

They're my people.

There's a song that's actually, which we'll talk about a little later in my plays, called These Are My Mountains.

You know, These Are My People.

These are my memories.

This is my home.

And that's who they are, even though they're not all related to me, many of them are.

And they all feel like family because it's like a family of friends and just a family, a community like ours.

When you grow up poor, like so many people did in that part of the world, you really have to depend on each other.

And so you really do become like family and a spiritual family as well.

You kind of lean on each other spiritually.

And so many of the people in that part of the world are church-going people because you have to rely on God, something bigger than you, to get through.

Like we were talking earlier about just a sense of humor.

Right.

How you have to have that, but you also have to have your faith to get you through.

And I always say, you want to make God laugh, you tell tell him your plans.

So I think God has the biggest sense of humor of them all.

Yeah, I think that has to be true because a lot of people say, you know, sometimes I get...

I get a little out of hand just making jokes, just like I remember once my grandpa said,

you know, about me wearing my makeup and everything.

And he thought that I was going overboard.

And he said something like, well, don't you want to go to heaven?

And I said something like, yeah, but do I have to look like hell to get there?

But my mama was saying, that's sacrilege.

You know, you're going to.

But I thought, Lord knows I'm just kidding him.

Yes.

You know, I think that God has to have a sense of humor.

He wouldn't have created me, I don't think.

I believe so too.

Trust me.

God has the biggest sense of humor.

Yeah, I would think he wants us to laugh.

Even the Bible says that.

If you're a spiritual person, you know, the Bible talks about a merry heart.

A happy heart does good, like medicine.

So I think laughter is one of the most healing things.

And, you know,

a joyful heart, I think, is a wonderful thing to have.

It is.

And I also think laughter is what keeps us young and going.

And for me, it gets me through everything

because we could have the most horrible things happen for some reason in the darkest of times.

I will find it will be a dark joke and probably in an inappropriate time, but it's what gets me through that time.

I know, but sometimes the most inappropriate things are the best things, like you said, for you.

Because if you can laugh at whatever, even if somebody says, oh, like mama you know that's sacrilege it's not i don't think god looks at their body you know the in the in my spiritual world it just talks about it it's just the you know the intent of the heart is what we're judged by our deeds and the intent of our heart so if we're not intending to do something you know to me i'm like you i'm intending to lift the spirits so that's a good intent yes great intentions someone who has been in this industry for as long as you have how do you keep going where you make everything fresh?

Like starting so young in your career, I feel like you've never slowed down.

I feel like you're only having more and more hunger to do either leave a bigger legacy and you do so much for so many other people.

It's not so much about yourself.

Where does that ambition and drive come from?

Well, I always say that I live on spiritual and creative energy.

And I always want to see things happen.

Not only do I want to see them happen, I want to make things happen.

And it's because of my faith that I believe that I can do something.

I believe that I would be sinning if I didn't make the most of everything I feel like God has given me to work with.

And so I wake up every day because every day is a new day.

And every new day brings on new things.

You know, it's like let tomorrow take care of the things of itself.

So tomorrow will take care of the things.

So when I look around every day, I wake up and I think, well, of course I have to carry over the things that we're working on, but there's always new dreams.

I always say, I wake up with new dreams every day.

And a lot of my people that work with me, they say, yeah, and your dreams are killing us

because they have to help me carry them out.

But I just love life.

I love people.

I love my job.

You know, and I just love what I do.

I just love that I can write songs.

I just love that I can sing.

I just love that I can go out on stage and make people happy.

I love that I have have that gift that I feel like is a God-given gift.

There are many people more talented, but I'm going to make the most of what I got.

So I just see a new chance every day.

So I just go for it.

I like to entertain myself too.

I like to be entertained.

So that's everything I start anew is going to be new entertainment for me.

Well, and my mom, my mom is a really hard worker.

And a lot of people ask her, are you going to retire?

And she says, the second I retire is the second I sort of feel like I'm going to die.

Like mentally, the creativity, the constant moving, I really think all of that keeps everyone younger.

I agree because there's an old saying, says,

I would rather wear out than rust out.

Because I think a lot of people, when they do retire, they start to rust.

I mean, I don't even know what that word means.

Right.

I really don't.

I can't even imagine, like, if I said I could say I'm going to retire, but I wouldn't.

Right.

How could I?

Because I would still wake up with the same thoughts.

I might not go do it, but I would want to.

Or I would think, why did I say such a stupid thing?

Now I have to live by that.

I'm always kind of

put off a little bit or I kind of laugh when I hear all these artists, oh, they're on their farewell tour.

Or this is the farewell.

I'm retiring.

So-and-so is retiring.

And they do, in about six years or so, well, they're back on the road.

They won't go back.

I say, why even say it?

Right.

You know, just

say, you know, just say, well, this is going to be one of my last terms.

I'm taking a break for a minute.

Yeah, just say something like that.

But no, I'm like your mom, which, by the way, I admire her very much.

I think she's amazing.

She's raised a beautiful bunch of gals that are so smart.

And she's had a lot of brains to kind of help.

put all the things together that you have.

It's amazing what you all have done.

So I think that there's a lot to be said, though, about just, like I said, wanting to make things happen.

There is.

Is there one of your gifts that you feel more connected to than the other whether it be songwriting, singing, acting, the philanthropy?

It all is important to me.

I think that I get the most, I guess it's because I feel the closest to you know my spiritual self when I write.

I'm a songwriter.

I love feeling like that I can create something.

to leave something in the world today that wasn't there yesterday.

A lot of people can sing and a lot of people can write but everybody don't.

But to me I just think that to be able to write because everything begins with a story or a song.

Every movie you've got to have a great story.

It doesn't matter how great the actress is or the actor.

Doesn't matter how great the director is.

If you don't have a good story you don't have a project.

Same with a song.

All the great singers, some of them write, some of them don't.

But you've got to have a great song.

You've got to start with the creative end of just creating whatever it is you're going to put out there in the world.

So I think that's one of the reasons I love to write because I feel like I'm so connected to God right then.

And I just, sometimes I'll write a line and I'll think, yes, yes, oh, I knew I couldn't think of that on my own.

So I felt like I had to come from some kind of a spiritual place.

Right.

Just think, yes, thank you.

Yes.

Yeah.

And I think that's true about anybody that's very serious about their writing.

So I just love that.

I feel like I'm in my own zone then with God.

I love that.

And is there anything

that you've written that you haven't finished?

That you had a writer's block or that you weren't able to finish?

Well, I don't think I've ever had a writer's block.

There was once when

the closest I've ever come to that was when I was writing some things for the best little whorehouse in Texas.

That story was already written and I was trying to come up with stuff for that.

And they were demanding certain things.

And there was a time element.

That's the first time I'd ever written outside for, you know, I write because I love to write.

I write what comes to me.

And so I was having to write under somebody else's direction trying to come up with what they needed but me trying to come up with how I wanted that to sound.

So when I was doing that, I thought, you know what, this must be what people call writer's block.

Because I thought, well, I'm not going to finish this unless I do it my way.

Then we can tear it apart.

Then I can go back and refix it, restructure it.

But if it doesn't come from me, if it doesn't come from, you know, I can take the idea of what they need, but I still have to make it

my own.

And I have to, you know, to do that.

So that's the closest that I've come.

But there's a few things now.

My husband passed away three months ago.

I know, but when you asked me if there's stuff that I've started and haven't finished, several things I've wanted to start, but I can't do it.

I will later, but I'm just coming up with such wonderful, beautiful, you know, ideas.

Right.

But I think I won't finish it.

I can't do it right now because I've got so many other things and I can't afford the luxury of, you know, of getting that emotional right now.

So there are times like that, things like that, that would, we'll star you a little bit, but I'll write something else though if it if it comes.

So I'm just putting that all on hold, but that's my, that's my special, that to me is like my joy and it happens just to be my job.

Right.

But it is also my, my joy.

So I love it when, when I just get a great idea that just comes and then I think, well, I got to go put this down somewhere.

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One of your most famous or popular writing ideas was I Will Always Love You and Jolene.

And I heard that you wrote both of them on the same night.

Well, that is possible.

Both of those are on the same same album,

which, oddly enough, the album is Jolene, I Will Always Love You, was on that.

And then we, I have it on a cassette, but, you know, there's space.

A lot of times when I would write, but I don't know if it was written the same at the same time, but it was certainly written within, you know, that little time frame of where you're writing.

And I must have been in a really good writing mood though.

Yes.

I would say so.

Yeah, so it's like to have two of your biggest songs to have, you know, been written and to both of them be on the same album because they put Jolene out.

And then I think I Will Always Love You was the second single off of that album as opposed to, I think, the other way around.

That is crazy.

And I also don't know if this is true or not, but my dad, my dad was in the music industry before he passed away, and he

loved all sorts of genres of music.

And he told me that

Elvis Presley wanted to re-record I Will Always Love You, but at the time, and I might be saying this wrong, said to you, well, or maybe his management, said, you know, if Elvis Presley records this, they need like 70% of the royal or all of the writing royalties.

And you said, no.

And it broke my heart.

But here's how that happened.

It wasn't Elvis.

But what a powerful thing.

He loved the song.

Right.

And as a matter of fact, years later, Priscilla, I was working with her on some things, and she had told me that Elvis had sang that to her on the steps of the courthouse when they divorced, when they left the courthouse.

So he was singing to her, I will always love you.

But he loved the song.

He wanted to do it.

It had nothing to do with him.

I never met him.

But I was going to go to the session that day.

I had been invited down.

They were here in Nashville.

And so he was going to be recording it.

But Colonel Tom Parker, the day before, the evening...

or the afternoon before the session, the next day, called and said, well, you know that we don't record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing.

And I said, well, that's my my most important copyright right now, so you can't have it.

And he said, well, then Elvis can't sing it.

And I thought, well, so be it.

And I cried, I cried.

I remember crying so hard because I had told everybody that Elvis was going to sing the song and all that.

But I couldn't give it up because

it was already, like I said, had been a hit with me.

It had been a big hit with me.

And then I just something just said, because I had just started my own publishing company, had just started my own business starting to claim my own things.

Because when you're new in the business, you have to

compromise.

You have to work until you can get to where you can own all your things.

And by the way, since that, what few songs I've had scattered around through the years, I've got them all back, made deals with record labels or with

other publishing companies to do this or that, to do something for them, so I can have all my eggs back in the same basket.

But at that time, that was when I had just started my publishing company, and that was the big one.

And I thought, I can't do it.

And that was heartbreaker.

So that goes to show you, though, when you're in business,

there are some decisions that you have to make that might break your heart.

But look what it did when Whitney recorded it.

Right.

I mean, I made millions of dollars because of that on the publishing.

And you trusted your gut.

I did.

And I was trusted.

And trusted yourself.

But I still

aggrieved over that.

And so I even wrote a song years ago.

It was in my rock album, the Rockstar album I did a couple years ago.

It's called I Dreamed About Elvis.

And I tell this story about having a dream about Elvis, and we talked about that whole thing.

And I said, well, it is my dream.

Maybe we could sing it now.

So then I wrote the song and I had an Elvis sound-alike guy sing with me on it, sing and I will always love you.

And it is so cool.

So when you go home, look up I Dreamed About Elvis from the Rockstar album.

That That is genius.

And I just think it says so much about you and

even if you know it or not, your business sense and how you've learned to trust yourself.

I think being women in general, it's a little tougher, especially around so many men that can be so intimidating.

But especially then and in the music world, it's very intimidating for a woman.

Well, it was

at that time, but I've never been intimidated by men.

I love men.

I have six brothers, my dad and my uncle.

Those are very close to him.

My grandpa.

So I never met a man I didn't like.

Some of them like him more than others.

I'm like Will Rogers.

But I kind of, you know, I understand that.

And usually it's like anybody else, it's like a bully that you can get away with what you let them get away with.

So to me, I always felt like when I walked in at a record label or whatever, I just say, I think I can make us both a lot of money.

What do you think?

Right.

To me, I never was willing to sacrifice my integrity and my principles and values because I figured I had enough talent that sooner or later something would happen.

It's so important for people to know that it's okay to stand your ground and trust your gut and something that you've worked so hard for.

It was yours.

How do you feel about how cool that Beyonce covered Jolene on Cowboy Carter, but then she sort of flipped the messaging of Jolene a little bit.

Well, she did.

In fact, I heard she was doing Jolene.

I was so excited.

And then when I heard it, I thought, what?

You know, it's like, because it was completely different.

But, see, that's the difference.

I don't know that it's the difference in the times as much as it's the difference in

the person.

Mine was like,

was a true story.

I mean, like it was an emotional time, just like I will always love you.

You came from my heart.

And it's kind of, you know, even though I...

you know, played it up more, but being vulnerable because there's always a Jolene out there.

There's always somebody prettier than you.

There's always somebody that might be better than you about this and that.

So, but to me, it was about just being vulnerable.

It's like somebody can, you know, if you take them, but you don't know how much I love him.

Right.

And so, with her, she flipped it around thinking, you think you can take my man?

Yeah.

But she's that cool.

You know, she's that cool.

But I loved it because, as a songwriter, you love to hear how other people interpret your songs.

And the fact that she did it, I knew it was going to make a lot of money.

Yeah.

Do you have any unusual writing rituals that people would be curious about?

Well, I do different things.

The thing I love the most, to be able to do,

being a spiritual person and a creative person, I bought the old Tennessee Mountain home, our old home place, years and years ago.

So the thing I love most is to be able to try to set aside some time to go back up to the old Tennessee Mountain home with the purpose of writing songs and getting closer to, you know, to God as I perceive him.

And to be able to like fast a few days and then once you get over the headaches and you know get where you can get to where you can think clear.

Is it just a water fast?

Well for a day or two, two days, three days and then a juice fast and then to try to you know to clean your body out too, just detox your body.

It's been a long time since I've been able to do that.

But that's what I used to love to do.

Go up and stay you know for several days to get closer to God and to see what comes.

That is a ritual.

But for the most part, I can write anywhere.

I've always got a notepad and a handbag close by in my purse, whatever, because something's going to come.

Right.

I bet.

Yeah.

I love how much you speak about faith and I love that you're allowing me to talk to you about faith because I have such a strong faith.

I'm Christian and I believe in God.

And I know that you said that you found God in your music and there was a very transformative moment at church where

you experience the way that he shaped and how you approach life.

What was that experience?

Well, that is also in my musical

how I did that.

But my grandpa was a preacher, and we were Pentecostal.

That's that hell for brimstone.

And Lord, if you don't go get saved tonight, you might go out unprepared and the truck might hit you and you're dreamed forever.

So I was so scared every time they had an altar call, I'd go up.

I must have got saved 15 times, but never did.

Right.

You know, in the church.

Right.

Baptized.

But, you know, to me, I just wanted to be better safe than sorry, kind of thing.

But I didn't feel it.

I didn't feel like it was fear.

And I think scared religion is no religion.

And, you know, it's like I'm not religious as much as I'm just bonded to that thing that is God that is so much part of me.

There was an old abandoned church house down below us where it had been a church years ago.

It had still had an old abandoned piano and had broken down and where where this where people go to drink have sex right stuff written on the walls but still had Bible verses and everything but I would go to that old church and I felt the presence I felt the presence there and so it was in that old abandoned church that I just praying to God the way that I was just saying well just show me you know help me save me you know because I want to be ready right so it was then that I just had this peace fall over me and I just felt like that I had for the first first time in my life, had truly found God.

And I felt like that I just had a knowing of what my life was supposed to be.

And I thought it was like, it was just a feeling that said, you go and don't you stop till I say stop.

So I never have.

So that was kind of how that happened.

It had to happen without fear and without...

influence and without anything else.

So a lot of people are just too smart to believe in God.

You know what I mean?

Well, you have to believe in something bigger than you.

Yes.

And whether you call it science, whether you call it nature, whether you call it this or that, it doesn't matter.

You know, there's a force there.

There's an energy.

There's greatness.

And those of us that, you know, do believe like we do, however you find him, just do.

I agree with you.

You have to have a higher power because that's your moral compass.

And if not, who are you afraid of?

Even if I knew there was no God, I'd choose to believe it because I want to believe there's something out there.

And I I do believe it.

It doesn't matter.

I genuinely believe as well.

Oh, I definitely believe it.

And people say, well, you shouldn't talk about that.

I say, well, yes, I should.

I'm not telling you what to do.

Right.

I'm just telling you what makes me work, what I believe.

And if God can shine through me, and I ask him to all the time.

If somebody can see something in me that might lead them to...

whatever's working for me might work for them.

It doesn't matter.

I just hope that, you know, that I can do some good in the world.

Well, you do so much good in the world and you bring so much joy to so many people around you.

But when you are having that tough day, do you rely on faith?

Do you rely on prayer?

Is it your writing?

I rely on all that.

You know, I'm very close to

my sisters, my family.

You know, I've always leaned on that.

And you certainly, you know, no matter what's going on, no matter how bad it is or how bad you've screwed up or no matter what, they all love you anyhow.

I have that.

I've always had a best friend.

She's not well now.

She's out of commission now and has been for a while, but there was always that to go to.

I wrote a song called Jesus is the only friend I need.

I don't have to have all that.

I can actually just go to that place that gives me that, I think, a higher wisdom and a higher peace and a, you know, an inner peace.

So I don't have to go outside it.

Right.

But there are a few people that I can go to if need to be.

So I just do it all kinds of ways like that to write or whatever.

The beauty of, at least for me, having so many siblings is, and especially when you're as close as you are, I am with mine.

This world, especially when you're in front of the spotlight a lot, can sometimes get overwhelming.

But also, I never want to believe any hype about me or anything.

I'm like, I'm just a person.

I never want to be someone that thinks I'm better than anyone else.

And when you have siblings that are so close to you, I don't think you'll ever get to that place because your sisters will always bring you back down, but in the best way possible.

Is that something that rings true for you?

Yeah, I think so.

But I think just the way that I grew up and the way that I do believe in God, I don't believe in idol worship.

In fact, being in

show business and when people kind of, you know, it's like those of us that people literally, you know, the way they follow you and the girls, you know, and the way they follow me, it's like I've asked God every day, do not let me fall under that.

Let me, if somebody, if they see something good in me, let me find my way to give that back.

So I think you have to be very careful, but I swear one of the reasons I stay very humble and ask God to keep me humble and to keep my, you know, well, I could say my feet on a solid ground, but with these heels.

But I'm still grounded.

Even with these high heels, I'm still grounded in my faith and in my belief.

But yeah, it's you have to.

You need to stand for something good.

If you're lucky enough to get in a place of, in a position where people, where you touch people, you reach people,

you need to do that in the right way.

Right.

I agree.

So much so.

You've said before that your faith has carried you through hard times.

Do you have a go-to prayer?

Are you conversational with God?

Well, I talk to God like he is.

In fact, sometimes instead of saying, you know, Father in heaven, I say, hey, Dad.

So I talk about everything.

I talk out loud.

If somebody was to see me when I'm by myself, you know, if I get excited about something, I'll shout.

I think, Lord, somebody saw me.

They think I was totally insane.

I don't know.

I'm the same, though.

I don't come to God just with my problems.

I thank Him for everything.

I'm always so grateful.

You've always walked this incredible line.

You're so deeply spiritual, but you're also so grounded and obviously wickedly funny and larger than life.

How has your faith shaped your relationship with fame?

And do you think that relationship has what kept you so grounded in the spotlight?

It has.

And I think,

you know, to me, I think you're going to reach more people.

Somebody like us that are in a place of power.

I think there's a lot of people out there that don't know what to think, don't know what to believe.

They want to believe in something, but they don't.

Just, you know, whether they believe in God or not.

if they believe in something you're doing and if you say something, you know, that'll give them that hope that there is something more.

So I really

I just think we are all, we just have to walk that, you know, that fine line to kind of try to keep it within ourselves, but to be able to project that, you know, to people, there's something going on, so I want to know more about that.

So I don't think it's wrong.

Although I look like a Jezebel, you know, I want to feel like that more people would be drawn to that

than if I came out, you know, like the Pentecostal women I grew up with, you know, with, I always make a joke about you can tell a Pentecostal woman because they got those big lung bangs and their hair and their, you know, their

Sasquatch, hairy legs.

And, you know, it's like, because in some, but I really think that you can reach more people if you're

maybe on the edge, so to speak.

Right.

I mean, if you look one way, but you're another.

Right.

I mean, because it's like, it's okay to, but if what you're saying, it goes back to what I was saying, it's the, it's your deeds and the intent

and the content of your heart, which is like the intent.

But if your intentions are good and you want to do great and you're working toward that,

then I think that sometimes people are going to pay more attention to somebody that looks like us.

Speaking about, you know, the way that we look and represent ourselves, do you think the way that you've looked, or whether it be the rhinestones or the makeup or the chest or the hair or whatever, was that always something intentional intentional from you?

Well, you know what?

My look

came from

a country girl's idea of glam.

We didn't have anything.

And I wasn't a natural beauty like some of you girls are.

This isn't natural either.

Well, you know, it's like I wasn't, and I wanted to be pretty more than anything.

You know, and I wrote a song called Backwards Barbie.

I just wanted to be pretty.

I got my look actually from the Fredericks of Hollywood catalog that one of my aunts had and had to keep under the mattress like you'd keep a Playboy magazine, you know, because you weren't allowed to.

But when I was little, I was, I thought that's the most beautiful thing.

I thought that's how I am.

And then I tell the story about the town tramp that I grew up with in our hometown.

She was just beautiful to me.

And everybody says, oh, she ain't nothing but trash.

And my joke about, well, that's what I'm going to grow up to be.

Well, I don't think I'm trash, but I like the fact that I can, you know, be over-exaggerated, have long nails, but it came from a sincere place.

And I feel better.

My personality can shine through if I feel like I look good.

Look good for me, how I feel.

That's why I believe everybody should dress

according to how they feel that fits their personality.

You've said before it takes a lot of money to look this cheap.

And that's a truth, ain't it?

It really is.

Yes.

No, I do.

It is.

And it's a clever line, but also it's an example of how you use your humor.

Because I also think that how people sort of come at you with the positioning, it's not to compliment.

It's sort of to tear you down.

And you come back with such wit and humor.

And you do it in such a way that I think.

disarms the other people that are trying to say these things about you and there's nothing they can do.

It'll be like, yeah, you're right about that.

But do you think that you use that humor as more of a shield or as that sword to be like, you're trying to come at me, but I'm just going to come right back at you.

Some of them both, right.

Some of both, yeah.

Because I'm going to always, you know, I always know people.

I just have, I love people and I just have the gift of discernment too.

I just can perceive what's going on.

in people's mind toward me or whatever's going on.

So rather than just be ugly about it,

and I'd rather get the jump on it because it's going to hurt my feelings if they say it first.

Right.

And I'm clever enough to, you know, to turn it around.

So I guess there's some of both.

That's a double-edged double-edged sword right there.

But it's a powerful one.

And you hold the power with it.

I'm the same way.

I love to beat people to the punch.

You're not going to get me first.

How do you practice self-love or self-compassion when you're offstage?

Oh, I just, I like myself better than anybody.

You know?

I'd rather be with me than anybody because I'm comfortable with me.

I'm comfortable with who I am and with my connection with God.

I just feel like I wouldn't have to have anything else as long as I have that good, safe relationship, you know.

And so if I don't like myself, I don't think anybody else would like me either.

I mean,

I don't dwell on a thing like that or a question you expect to get.

But I enjoy my own company.

Yeah.

You know, I'm not one of those people that has to have somebody around me all the time.

In fact, I don't like it.

I mean, I have to be out in the public and I belong to the public, but I am such a private person.

And my husband was as well.

And that was the thing with us.

You know, we were so good for each other because he's a total loner

but we could just be in the house all day and say two or three words didn't matter or we could talk all afternoon and lay in bed talk at night you know in the dark you know but

I think you have to be comfortable with yourself.

I think you need to make friends.

with yourself.

You need to be your own best friend.

You do.

And you need to like yourself better than anybody.

I just mean if you can't be all that for you, what can you be for them?

Right.

I've been single for like three and a half years, but not dating nobody.

I have two young kids and I

was so used to being from a relationship and then, you know, getting distracted by another guy when I broke up with somebody else.

And I've been so intentional about now I have children.

It's different dating with children, but also I want to be alone with myself and really like myself.

The easiest thing to do is get a new man.

That doesn't fulfill me and I don't get to know me.

But now I love being alone and love being by myself.

I'm so full and happy.

So now I have to figure out how to incorporate a man when I'm ready.

But I agree with that so much.

And I genuinely like the person I am.

And I see so many other people in my life.

They can't sit still with themselves.

No, they don't like themselves and that's why they have to be surrounded with other people or they try to be other people.

They don't even know who they are.

If you don't know, there's a dolly saying, you know, the dolly quotes say, that says, find out who you are and do it on purpose.

Yes.

You know, you have to have purpose in your life.

You have to, and do it with purpose and do it on purpose.

You know, you need to find out who you are because so many people, they just, well, they can do it for a moment.

But it's not going to last long because they think, I got to get out of here.

Right.

Because they don't even like who they are.

They don't even know who they are.

They don't.

You're never going to really find out if you don't spend personal time with yourself and with how you

get that connection to that higher wisdom.

Right.

Do you think one of the reasons why you had such a long marriage is because it was so private?

Certainly had a big, had a lot to do with it.

Right.

We were different people.

He was not involved in the music business at all.

He loved music.

But he was a loner, like I had said before.

He did not want a bunch of people around him, except me.

Of course, he had friends, but he was also the same way.

He'd rather be at the barn, be on the farm all day.

And if he was going to go, you know, sell a loader or buy a loader or have somebody come work on one of his trucks or tractors, you know, he'd have to let people in, but he'd just as soon be there.

But I really think that there's just certain personalities that are great for each other.

And we were together 61 years.

We were just so different,

but we were so similar.

Like

we were perfect like as far as the temperature in the house right you know it's like we didn't fight over that because we both were comfortable at the same thing so we just so many things we were compatible about and we just got along great and i don't know if any of you follow the signs but he you know when in the zodiac signs on capricorn he was cancer and that's supposed to be compatible yes yeah i do like the signs yeah i do he was a homebody so maybe i have to look for a capricorn because i'm a cancer.

I've never dated a Capricorn.

Well, they're all goats.

They're goats.

They're mountain goats.

That's what I thought.

I have to look for that.

And, you know, and I think today with social media, everyone has such a need to put everything

out there.

And definitely the older I get and the more failed relationships I get.

My best friend just asked me, do you think your next relationship, you would have it be so public?

And I said, no.

I don't find the need for that anymore.

And I want something to be,

you know, just close to my heart.

Yeah, well, that was the, going back to your very first question,

my husband did not want to be out there.

He never did an interview in his life.

In fact, he'd be out more in the yard on the tractor, and the fans would come by to see our house, and they'd say, you know, they'd say different things.

Are you Dolly Parton's husband?

He'd say, do I look like I'd be Dolly Parton's husband?

You know, he'd have on his old straw hat and his coat, you know, his old work clothes and all.

I didn't ever expose him to that.

I tell the story that when I was early on, when I first got here, I won the Song of the Year and I won a BMI award in 1966.

That's the year that we got married.

And he rented a tuxedo, didn't want to do it.

I begged him to go.

And then when we were leaving that, he started taking that off, taking off all the jacket.

And he said, now I want you to do great.

But don't you ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain't going.

And he never did.

And I knew right then that I'm just going to keep him private as best I can, never ask him to do nothing.

And certainly he's not going to volunteer.

Right.

But he was very proud of me.

Of course.

But he was, you know, we got along great because we didn't have nothing to fight over like that.

Right.

Well, that's a beautiful thing and a beautiful lesson for me.

I do want to talk about all of your business ventures that you have and what a smart woman you are.

Obviously, I'm so excited that you were gracious enough to collab with Good American, and you're actually wearing your Jolenes.

I am, top to bottom, top to bottom, rhinestone.

Everybody don't want these, but we have those beautiful jeans.

Yes.

You know, with the, you know, the plain ones, the dark denim and the light denim, and they make your butt look good, don't they?

They do.

It's the stitching on the back.

If you don't have a good butt, you make it look good.

And if you've got a good butt, it's amazing.

No, it's the stitching on the back.

It's perfect.

So you've worn denim since you've been a little kid.

Did you know what you wanted to design?

And just because we're denim junkies, you and I.

Well, we are, but that's a country girl's thing.

And growing up with us, I was like with all the kids, you know, there's 12 of us kids.

And there was an old general store out on the highway where my daddy used to go.

or daddy and mama at the school when the school was going to start and get a pair of denims for each of us.

And that's what we wore at school.

And so that started early.

But then if you get in, you know, as you go on, you're country people.

Right.

And you like to wear your denims.

And then you start wearing prettier denims, well-cut denims.

And then even now I love, I'll just live, you know, in my blue jeans.

I know.

As we all do.

You can put a beautiful blouse or sweater.

So when we started talking about, you know, doing this, it just seemed to make the...

most perfect sense for it to be denim to start with.

Yes.

And everyone loves your t-shirts.

It's just with your butterfly because everyone wants a piece of dolly.

So if they can't get the denim or whatever, the t-shirts are selling like hotcakes.

Yeah, there's all kinds of pieces in that that's doing great.

And I just feel so proud to be in business with you.

Oh, well, I'm so honored.

You got into your music career, but then when did you start thinking that like, okay, this is a real business and I'm going to be this businesswoman and I'm going to take control and have all these different avenues?

Because you have your hand in a lot of different pots.

I do, but they have to come naturally and they do.

But early on, when I first came to Nashville, you have to kind of compromise when you're young and new in the business.

You can't just go in and say, I'm going to publish my own songs.

You wouldn't know how to do it anyhow.

You have to learn those things.

So

everything I did in those early days, I watched everything everybody did, thinking someday I will publish my own songs.

Someday I will do this, do that, have my own record label, whatever.

So I'm like a sponge.

I pick up everything that's going on, whether I'm aware of it or not.

I make myself aware of doing a lot of it, but I just naturally pick up on things.

But that was probably, to answer the question,

was really when I first came to Nashville.

When I first started thinking, when I can, I will.

We're talking about the office thing with my publishing.

When I started, I think I got to start my own publishing company.

Then I felt I had enough wisdom and enough, you know, to kind of paid enough attention to know how to do copyrights and how to do all that.

So I just think it's important if you can, own as much of yourself as you can.

Right.

Well, the Kardashians should know that.

Yeah.

Well, we learned from you a little bit, I would say.

You are, like, the blueprint to it all.

To get back to a little bit more of what the question you really asked, because once you get famous, once you get a name, then you get your brand.

Right.

You know, is what they call it, your brand.

And if you've got a good name, good reputation, a good brand, then other people come to you.

They want you to go into business with them because they know that you're reputable and that you have your following and that you're going to be able to sell to that group of people.

And if you say it's good, they can believe that it's good.

Some of it, I want to do myself.

I've always wanted to do makeup.

I've always wanted to have all those things that we love.

The one thing I have have not done yet is a line of wigs and it's the most obvious thing ever and it's the thing that I thought would be so successful for me, the hair pieces and wigs and bangs.

And never done it.

I've tried so hard so many times and it never comes.

So maybe if I ever do it, it'll either be a big success.

Oh, I think.

But that was before that everybody was doing it.

I thought, I need to have a line of wigs.

You do.

And what's stopping you?

Well, I've tried with all these different people.

We can never really seem to get the right, you know, know, the company or whatever, but I will.

I will.

But that's the one thing that I have not wanted done.

That's so interesting.

And I have wanted to do.

It's one of those things that something's keeping it from happening.

But the way that I believe, I think, well, maybe it's because the bigger one's going to come.

Right.

It'll be

whatever.

Well, God's timing.

Yeah.

I do want to talk about Imagination Library.

Yes.

It is so beautiful.

Imagination Library has now delivered over 200 million books around the world to children that don't have access to books.

And did you ever in a million years think that Imagination Library would be as big as it is?

No, I did not.

I'm so happy that it is.

Of course.

I'm sure you've heard the story that I started just in my own home county.

I wanted my dad to get involved in it because daddy couldn't read and write.

As a lot of country people in rural areas, you've got to go to work.

You've got to work at the fields fields to feed the rest of the family because most of those people come from very big families.

And so that just always

hindered him.

I mean, he was the smartest person I ever knew, but he was embarrassed by the fact.

So I wanted to start that.

a little program in our home county where we could give books to children from the time they were born until they started school so they could learn to read in those most impressionable years.

Got my dad involved in it and then we were doing really good.

I was just thinking it would just be there, maybe a few counties over.

And then Tennessee, the governor at the time, Governor Phil Bredison,

he got wind of it and he thought this is a really good little program.

So we took it statewide.

Next thing you know we're in Canada.

Next thing you know we're here, we're there.

And now we're in places all over the world and we just, it's just doing great.

Do you ever hear from adults that grew up with Imagination Library and like what that does for them?

Yeah, they love it.

One of the cutest things I love though is when they when they age out

you know when they start school they don't get their books anymore

and they write me.

They want to still get the books.

And so we've always thought, well, what can we do?

So maybe eventually since the program is so good, we've often thought that we might start doing some different things for different age groups.

And then I have met some of the children because this is like almost 30 years old

when we started it.

So So every now and then somebody will come up to me and said, you know what?

I used to be in the Imagination Library and they'll bring their little kids and now their kids are in the program or their grandkids.

It just keeps going on and it makes me feel happy and proud.

I bet.

And

in honor of your father.

I always think of daddy.

Yeah.

You know, anytime like when I, you know, went to, you know, different things, I go to Washington to read, you know, at the Library of Congress, read to the kids.

It's just like daddy, they don't see daddy there.

Right.

But I just, you know, I just kind of

feel him right there.

What do you imagine or wish for in the future, not only for yourself, but for others and like the legacy you're leaving behind?

Well, I just want everybody to find themselves.

I want everybody to be able to

do the best.

at what it is they dream of doing.

And you've got to understand that

if you feel that you've got the talent, whatever it may be, and if you're willing to work for it, you know, I wrote a song called Sacrifice, it's also in my musical, my life story, that tells so much.

It's my journey from my little girl self, my dreams as a child, all the way up to now.

But it's talking about, you know, it's like empty or full, I've carried my pail, but you don't drink the water if you don't dig the well.

You know, it's like little lines like that.

It's like with so many things, you sacrifices, but I was going to to be rich no matter how much it costs.

And I was going to win no matter how much I lost.

And all through the years, I've kept my eye on the prize.

But you ask if it's worth the sacrifice.

And I reckon it is.

But you've got to be willing to know that you're going to have to compromise.

And you're going to have to sacrifice, but never sacrifice the things that are the most meaningful to you.

But you've got to work.

Yes.

Your butt off.

Yes.

I think people always think, oh, if I pray for something or if something is even handed to me on a silver platter, you still have to work.

I don't think people realize that all of this, there is a lot behind it.

They don't know.

That's true.

They get mad at God because they pray and the prayer ain't answered.

Right.

Well, God's willing to help them, that's willing to help themselves.

He'll give you a hand.

Yes.

You know, and they want it all laid out.

But you can't, you know, a dream.

is a dream and you got to work it.

Like I always said, you got to put legs and arms and wings and eyes and ears on that.

And a dream is different than a wish.

I mean wish is like a fantasy thing.

You can make a wish all day and wish on a star and all that.

But in order to make that a reality, you've got to really do all those things where we talk about where you've got to gather all those things to put faith.

That's what faith is.

And what is next for you?

I don't know.

I'll wake up tomorrow and I'll see whatever God has in mind and whatever I feel that I can tackle.

I love that.

And He'll do that.

But yeah, I never know because I got to finish the things I've already got in the works.

But my life is, I always look at my life like it's been like a tree, you know, that had roots, deep roots.

Then it had all the limbs.

Then it had all the, you know, the little leaves that, you know, everything branches out to something else.

And it goes back to where you're talking about your brand or it goes back to your dreams because I know God's going to give me something else.

And I'll try to leave myself wide open.

I try to keep myself very private in

my world

so I can hear what I'm supposed to know.

Yeah.

And that I can act on it.

And then I'll go for it.

And I'll work it to death.

I think that's the beauty of life is sort of the unknown.

It's the scary part, but also the beauty.

You never know.

It's scared me.

It excites me.

Yeah, I love that.

Well, thank you so much for letting me invade your space, come to Tennessee for my first time, and have you on Chloe in Wonderland.

It's on this has been a dream of mine, and I'm just so thankful and grateful.

Well, let me say thank you for doing this, and thank you for being a fan, and thank you for being all that you are to people.

You've made a lot of difference in a lot of people's lives.

So, these kind of things I think help people.

Yes, you know, so they can follow their dreams to see that dreams can come true.

they do come true.

But, like you said, you've got there's a lot more that goes on than just these hats and rhinestones, just this.

We've been working it, ain't we, girl?

Yes, we have.

So, thank you.

Well, thank you.