Dolly Parton Transcript

What gave you the inspiration for Dollywood?
I always hoped that if I got to be the star that I dreamed I would be or wanted to be, that I would want to go back home and do something great in my home town, for the people there, and something to leave my name on for my family, something for them to be proud of too. And when I used to always go to Hollywood, I used to look up on the mountain and see the Hollywood sign, and I used to laugh to myself and think that if there was some way to get up there and change that H to a D for a day, it would be Dollywood.

So, when I actually did get the chance to build the park, which I thought would be great for the area, I thought "Hollywood, Dollywood, it would be perfect." So it was something I wanted to do for myself. I knew it would be a big money maker, because the Smoky Mountains are the most visited park in the United States. People don't realize that now they get twelve or thirteen million people coming through there. I automatically thought of the Hollywood hills. I knew it would be a good place for a business, and it's also home so it all made good sense.

Where in Tennessee do you call home?
Well, my home now is in Nashville; I've lived in Nashville for the last 43 years. I met my husband here. He's from Nashville, Carl Dean, not the mayor of Nashville. His name is also Karl Dean but a different one. You spell his with a k, the mayor. Carl's is c-a-r-l. But anyway, I have a home—I bought the old home place back in East Tennessee where we grew up, my memories of my early child hood. So I have that place and Dollywood, so I go up certainly.

I perform at Dollywood at least four times a year 'cause we have all the festivals. I go there for the opening, we have our Kidsfest in the summer, we have our bluegrass festival, and then we have our gospel and Christmas stuff in the fall and in the winter. So I'm there four or five times during the year. Sometimes I drop in when I go back to visit kinfolks unexpectedly, but I don't live up there; I just go visit there now, but my heart is always there.

How much of Dolly is in Dollywood?
We try to have Dollywood have a lot to do with me, 'cause I know they play a lot of the music, and I really get involved in a lot of things we do. I don't like to just put my name on something without being involved, so it's a very personal place. It's something I take great pride in. I get very involved there, and I don't just take the money and run. We put the money back into a lot of different things that we do, like the Imagination Library, our program for education for children. We do a lot of work with the young people there and do a lot of great things. I have a lot of wonderful people there that make me look real good when they do a lot of the work I get credit for.

What inspired the idea for the Imagination Library?
When we started the Imagination Library it was really something I wanted to do. I wanted to get involved with education somehow. I only graduated from high school. I was the first one in our family to do so, although there were twelve of us, twelve kids. But a lot of people in the mountains don't get a chance to get an education 'cause most of them have big families and they have to go work in the field or have to go to work just to help support the family.

My own father didn't get a chance to go to school at all. My daddy couldn't read or write, and he was one of the smartest people I ever knew in spite of that. And I always wondered what my dad could have done if he had had an education. So that was one of the reasons, and a lot of my own relatives that didn't get much of an education. So it was because of that that I wanted to make sure children get an early start loving books and learning how to read.

Before my dad passed away, the Imagination Library really was doing well, and he was so proud of that. He was prouder of that than the fact that I was a star. When the kids called me "the book lady," my dad thought that was the greatest thing. So it has been a wonderful thing. We have wonderful people working at the Imagination Library.

We started in my home county. I wanted to do something great for the people in my hometown, and it's grown now all over Tennessee. The governor has gotten involved, Gov. Bredesen, and now every child in Tennessee gets their free books from the day they are born until kindergarten. And now we're in numerous states and we want to go worldwide with that; so it's something that's gonna grow and we're hopefully gonna have books in the hands of children all over the world one of these days.

In your opinion, what's makes Tennessee so special?
Tennessee is special for lots of reasons. First of all, I know that it's natural for people to think where they're from is the most beautiful place in the world and that their people are the most special, but I think it's true in my case. I think especially the Great Smoky Mountains are the most beautiful mountains in the world. Tennessee is like three states in one: we've got the mountains in east Tennessee and the rolling hills in middle Tennessee here where I live, and west Tennessee is flat, almost like Texas. So it's like three states in one.

But what I love the most is the people. You always hear of southern hospitality and how nice the people are. I think it's really precious how good-hearted the people are. I'm really proud to be from Tennessee. I just love saying it when I travel around, "I'm from the Smoky Mountains!" It's a great place, we've got the best music, we've got the best food, we've got the best people, and we've got the best of everything, I think.

What makes music heritage in Tennessee so special?
Well, Music City, USA, which is Nashville. A lot of people do think of it just about country music. It certainly is the home of country music, because of the Grand Ole Opry and all of the great country artists through the years.

But what people don't realize is that, through the years, Nashville has had—and still do—some of the greatest recording studios in the world and some of the greatest producers. Now people have come from all over the world, literally, to live here. Certainly from other states, from Los Angeles a lot of the big artists have come here, like Barry Gibb and Bon Jovi, a lot of those people no one would even think about recording here. Paul McCartney came here years ago. People have recorded here, they do great records, not just country, but some of the greatest music in the world is recorded here.

And of course, down in Memphis we've got all the blues; we've got all the great Appalachian music up in the mountains. We've got the bluegrass music that not only is from Kentucky, but a lot of that originated and started in the east Tennessee mountains, and the gospel music. So we really have some of every kind of music and the great recording studios, great producers to see to it that it gets done properly.

What type of music influenced your style?
My first music, my first love, was the old mountain songs brought over from Ireland, England, Scotland. That's my people, and those old songs carried that old, sad, deep feeling that those people brought, longing for the old country when they came here. That's embedded in my soul. I always say I write the best and sing that the best; it's embedded in my Smoky Mountain DNA.

But I grew up singing gospel music as well, myself, because my granddaddy was a preacher. And of course, I really think that gospel- and mountain-flavored music is my best music. Of course, over the years, I have recorded everything. I've been all over the world now, I've been downtown, uptown, backwoods Barbie, which is the name of an album and a song I wrote, by the way. It fits me well, but it's one of those things that I was influenced by—the Carter Family and the Grand Ole Opry that we heard—but it's just something that I love and it's the mountain stuff.

Does being such a popular celebrity limit you from going out in public?
Well, I really am one of those kinds of stars that I do exactly what I want to do. If I want to go out, I go out. I don't think I have to disguise myself. I'm gonna go out with my makeup on—I'm gonna look like Dolly, 'cause I don't wanna try to dress down and somebody see me like, "Oh God, did you see Dolly Parton? She looked like holy hell!" I'd rather them see me looking like I'm expected to look. So if I wanna go somewhere, to a fine dinner, I go; if I wanna go to some dinky Mexican restaurant, I go.

I assume I'm gonna see people, but I'm not afraid of people. I just say hi. They don't run after me, I don't run from them. Usually, it's a friendly thing, and they come up to the table, and when I'm ready to eat I say, "Ok, y'all are gonna have to run. I gotta eat!" And they know we've talked. I would do that just like with family.

I treat everybody like they're somebody I know, 'cause I see my family in everybody I meet. So I go anywhere I want to go. There are some sacrifices you would have to make, you know. What would you expect? But I don't miss out on anything. And if I don't get to go out and do something I think, "well, that's a small price to pay; I'll just have them bring it in." That's the luxury of it, too.

Where do you like to listen to live music in Tennessee?
I don't usually go out, but if there's someone special, like down at the Station Inn, you know? I'll go down sometimes if, say Allison Krauss is gonna be there or Chris Thile are doing special sets. You know, someone says, "You wanna run down there?" I'll go down there. And I'll go and I'll get up on stage sometimes with them. And there are just a few places where you can go but I would really rather invite those people to my house or go over to the studio or sit around their house and pick and sing.

You don't always have to be in public, some of the best music in the world is when a bunch of friends get together and make music, that's how I met Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstatd and Ricky Skaggs and Rodney Crowell, because years and years ago back in the ‘70s Linda and Emmy Lou were fans of mine and they were hot in their field and they loved my music and I didn't know them. But they found out I would be in Los Angeles and they sent somebody over to see if I wanted to come over to Emmy Lou's house to pick and sing, and I didn't know them personally but I knew who they were and I felt honored, like, "What do they want me for?" And I go over there and it turned out they were big fans of mine and they started calling out these songs I had written back years ago, and they knew them. And Emmy Lou started playing the guitar and Ricky would join in, and it was like man amazing. So we used to do that all the time and every time I went to LA we would get together and sing like that. So that's kind of how you get together and kind of make some of the best music, and that's how the Trio album with Linda and Emmy Lou came about, just sitting around thinking one day we need to record this. And we did.

What are some of your favorite places to eat?
There are so many great places that I go, and I know where I can go, and I usually go to places where I went when I first came to Nashville. There's one place I always go here in town, Couser's restaurant. It was owned by two brothers when I came to Nashville, and this place had the best country food in the world. They still have it; they've moved over on Nolensville road. If you want good country food, it's just like your mama if she was a good cook would fix it. I still go there, I still send over there to get their cornbread and muffins. They've got the best cornbread, it beats anybody else's.

And there are little places like the Loveless hotel. Every now and then, I take some friends and walk over there. I go to Hurricane Bill's, Loretta's place, and her dude ranch restaurant. So yeah, there are a few great places I can still go, and I know when to go when I can actually sit down and eat. Everywhere you go in this town you can find great food.

How would you describe Tennessee to other people?
Well, Tennessee— there are so many great places in Tennessee to go. Of course my favorite is up in Gatlinburg, Dollywood, the Smokies, Jonesboro, Rugby, the little English town, and Lawrenceburg, where all the Amish people are. I go up there all the time and buy butter and their products.

Then, Memphis, I love to go to. I mean what could be better than Memphis and Nashville? And Chattanooga— what's more beautiful than Rock City and Ruby Falls? Haven't we all done that? There's nothing in this world you can't find in Tennessee. And the greatest campgrounds in the world. And just everywhere you turn down a country road in Tennessee, there's something beautiful.

What makes the Smoky Mountains so special?
Well it is beautiful—Tennessee is a beautiful state—and when they named them the Great Smoky Mountains it's because they turn blue. There's like a haze over the mountains in a certain time of day the mountains actually are blue. Sometimes you look at it and it looks weird they're so blue. It's the fog and the mist and the way it all lays there, and the shadows, the way they fall. It's really a beautiful sight to see, certainly in the mornings and late afternoon. And it's my home; it's like loving a child, or your parents. I love the Smoky Mountains, and I've written so many songs about those mountains and Tennessee in general.

When you're touring what do you miss most about Tennessee?
I miss the food, I miss the peace, I miss that thing that's says home. God just seems to live stronger to me in the hills. Maybe that's because it is home, but there is just something sweet and special almost like how John Denver used to write about his home, "Almost Heaven." And it is almost heaven to me in the Smoky Mountains, and I miss it, I long for it, it's just part of my soul.

What's your favorite Tennessee memory?
Well I don't know that I have a favorite Tennessee memory, I have so many: my memories of my family growing up, twelve children, just mountain folks, poor folks, how we used to go to church and used to sing. During election days when everybody used to go down for the big election, we used to sing, my sisters and I, and my uncles and aunts. We all played some sort of musical instrument, so some of my fondest memories are around the church and gatherings where we used to have those pie suppers and just gathered around like the old days. You see it in movies, and people still talk about it. But I'm from that time.

It's so strange, it's like I came from the dark age into this new age. Like I came from no electricity growing up, we had outdoor plumbing, we had a well, and no electricity, and I was actually singing on radio and television before we owned a television or electricity. I bought the first TV we had in our house, from money I made from a local show in Knoxville.

And now I'm on the world wide web! I don't even know how to work a computer. It's so funny. And I'm here in this new day and age but it's like, "Wow! To live in a world like this!" But it's great, and I still stay anchored in who I am and what I am. I have a lot of stuff to put on the web sites now and I know how to feed all that, but it's like a new world to me.

When do you do it all?
I don't require a lot of sleep. I'm like my dad, the older I get, the earlier awake up. I sleep three to five hours; six is a really long night for me. But I wake up about every three hours and I usually get up and start working. I'm up by three in the morning every morning and I'll work solid on whatever, ‘cause the world is at peace then, everybody's energy and the static is gone.

I feel like I have more of a communication with God as I know him, the way that I communicate with my spirit self and how I tag into all that. I think of God like a farmer, he gets up early every morning and throws out all these ideas. And you know, the early bird gets the worm, so I like to get out there and get my ideas before everybody gets up and tramps around and scatters everything. So I get out there and try to get in on it early.

But I love getting up, I love the mornings, I'm a wee hour person. Actually, I'm writing a book called Wee Hour Wisdom, because I have so many things that come to me in the wee hours. But I love my work, and I do take catnaps throughout the day. Like when I'm working on a movie, for my lunch break I'll take a nap for ten minutes then get up and be ready to go back to work; and then the end of the lunch break I'll grab a bite to eat and I'm ready to go.

I do most of my writing in the morning, certainly my best ideas. I love to be able to take some weeks off to go write. I usually go back to my Smoky Mountain home and fast a few days, and get myself a little humble and opened up. But I love the mornings, my mind is clearer and everything is better for me in the morning. Tennessee mornings are especially great.

What songs would you take on a Tennessee road trip?
Oh heavens, if you're thinking about going on the road you have to think about traveling songs, I guess: Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," "Hit the Road Jack," "Night Train to Memphis," "Last Train to Clarksville." I have a couple of my own I'd probably take: "Travelin' Through," Billy Grammer's old song "(Feel Like I) Gotta Travel On," "I've laid around and played around this old town too long, summer's almost gone and winter's coming on." I would do that; I would probably do a couple of my own and write a few new ones about Tennessee if I was traveling.

Do you have a favorite song?
My personal favorite of my own is the "Coat of Many Colors," because it's more than just a song, it's about an attitude, a philosophy, it's about my mom, it's about my growing up days, it's about a little raggedy coat I wore. My mom would always try to tell me the story of Joseph in the Bible to make me proud of it; she knew I'd probably get made fun of for wearing it. But I really felt special because Mama had made it for me. But the kids had laughed at me, and I went home and cried and said, "They didn't think I was special. They said I was poor, and these are just rags." And she would say, "Hey, we are not poor. There's a lot of people in this world worse off than we are. And you don't have to have money to be rich in spirit or in faith or in attitude." So that song is my favorite, but I have another song that love—well I have a lot—but my dad's favorite song and mine is a song called, "If We Never Meet Again This Side of Heaven…I will meet you on that beautiful shore." So the song, "This Side of Heaven," would have to be a favorite, and I did not write that one.

What can people expect to experience in Tennessee?
The stage is set for fun and joy and beauty and anything you want to do in Tennessee! You can find it here: great food, music, scenery, you can find it here. I'm a Tennessee girl—born and raised—and I've been all over the world, and I've seen some beautiful things, and I've met some beautiful people, but I've never met anyone or anything as beautiful as what you will find in Tennessee.