Dolly Parton joins Tim McGraw on Beyond the Influence Radio on Apple Music Country. In the interview, Dolly shares how the movie set inspired the songwriting of ‘9 to 5,’ the differences between performing as an artist and as an actor, and how she gained independence in her music career. Tim and Dolly also dive into her earliest musical influences and spiritual relationships. Listen on-demand anytime here.
I had been asked a lot of times to be in the movies and I didn’t think I was quite ready yet. I also thought, well, if the right thing came along, I might be willing to do it because I was still building my music career at the time. Then when Nine to Five came along, had Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. They were both so hot at the time and I thought, “Well, if there’s any time to start, this would be now because if it’s a big hit, then I can share in the glory of it. If it’s a failure, I can blame it all on them and I’ll walk away free.”
But actually I thought it was a good script and I knew that at that time it would be a wonderful thing for women and for the workplace. But my main deal with Jane, I said, “I’ll be happy to be in it providing I get to write the theme song.” My business mind started working also. I thought, “I got to make this worth my while, not just to be in a movie with someone else.” So that was part of my deal that I would write and sing the theme song. So that’s what I did and it turned out to be a wonderful thing. It was my first movie. I’d never even seen a movie made really at that time, but I had good people. Dabney Coleman was great to help me out and Jane was very generous and Lily with where to hit your marks and what to do, what not to do. So it actually turned out to be a very fun and rewarding and successful project.
Dolly Parton on writing the theme song for ‘9 to 5’…
So it did turn out to be pretty good. So that was when I got a taste of it and I thought, “Well, what took me so long?”
Dolly Parton on how she found success in her movie roles…
Dolly Parton on her personal relationship with God…
I had a very strong background with my family. They were very religious though, but I was more independent also because I chose God as my very personal savior. When that saying of like, “Let every man seek out his own salvation.” Salvation means to save whatever’s going to save yourself, whatever it takes to salvage or save what you need to get done. So I never thought of my life in terms of being male or female, I was just a person. I was a person with a gift that God gave me and I felt like He wanted me to do everything I could to make the most of that. So that’s what I did then. That’s how I got where I was at that time, and that’s why I’m still here now because I still work with that in mind.
Dolly Parton reflects on her earliest musical influences…
I grew up in the church. My grandpa was a Pentecostal preacher and he pastored this little church called the House of Prayer. My grandpa was very musical, therefore, all of his kids were very musical. All my mom’s people, all my uncles, aunts, cousins, all the way back on my mom’s side were very musical. Everybody played a musical instrument, sing, and write. So I grew up singing, not just in the church and singing that music, which we loved, but all of that Saturday, Sunday sitting on the porch, people coming around and everybody singing and everybody played something. We were the family that my sisters… I used to sing a lot with the three of my sisters and we would go around to churches to sing. We were the families that they called on to sing at funerals or weddings or at pie suppers.
My family would put together hootenanny bands or whatever. So we were always just singing and out there doing something, but we listened mostly to the Grand Ole Opry. We loved Roy Acuff and Kitty Wells. I’m old like that. So I go back to where all of those older people like that. I was influenced by Rose Maddox and the Maddox Brothers and people you’ve probably heard of, but never… you’re too young to have experienced it, but I was just touched by anything that was good, but country music and mountain music and church music was what I understood. It’s so embedded in me. That’s what I still can sing the best, even if I want to sing other things. Nothing as honest in my heart and my gut is when I start to sing some of those old songs like that. It just resonates. It’s just in my psyche and in my soul.
Everybody can smell like me on the 28th of this month on the Home Shopping Network. Then they can get it after that and from the HSN channel. I hope everybody wants to smell it because it smells heavenly. It’s called Scent from Above and I hope everybody feels blessed when they wear it because I’m really proud of it. I wanted it to smell like me because people follow me around and say, “What are you wearing?” So it’s a combination of things that I’ve put together through the years. So hopefully people are going to enjoy it.
