Dolly Parton joins The Kelleigh Bannen Show for an interview in a special episode in celebration of International Women’s Day. Dolly discusses faith, privacy and knowing her worth in the music business. Later in the show, Lauren Alaina, Tiera and Callie Twisselman join in for a fun and heartfelt Q&A with Dolly. Tune in and listen to the interview with Dolly Parton in-full on-demand here.
Dolly Parton on her song “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans”…
Kelleigh: There is a lyric in there that just really had me thinking. It’s in the first verse. “My desire is always greater than my fear.”
Dolly: I said that years ago to somebody that’s asking me about how being from the country, being not knowing what I was doing, how I really made it. I said, “I always think about what I want and how much I want it.” And I know everybody’s afraid. Everybody’s scared, everybody gets nervous, even still, when you do things. But I just said to that person, it was an interviewer, like you, I said, “Well, my desire is always greater than my fear.” And so, when I started writing that song, that line just came back to me, and that’s really how I live.
Dolly Parton on knowing her worth…
I grew up in the church. I’m from a very religious family. I was never that religious, but I’m very spiritual, and I do have great faith. And so I always leaned on that, and I always was very close to my mom and my aunts and my grandmas. And I just felt the strength of women in general. And I just knew that just because I was girl didn’t mean I couldn’t have what I wanted.
And I had also six brothers and my dad and all my uncles and my grandpas who I love dearly. So I always, in one of the lines in one of the songs says, “I think like a man and look like a woman.” And so there’s a lot to that.
Dolly Parton on her femininity, being business savvy and “a very professional Dolly Parton”…
I love to look the way I look, because I already know who I am inside. Nobody’s going to change that. That’s between me and God. And I’m going to keep my anchor. I’m going to keep my core intact. So I can get out there, look any way I want to.
And that’s been disarming at times because I’ll have your money and gone before you know it. That was in the early days, before they thought I didn’t know what I was doing, I did. Or I felt I did. I knew what was right for me. I have this saying that I made up, but it’s true. I can’t tell other people how to be or what to do, but I am a very professional Dolly Parton.
Dolly Parton on maintaining strong boundaries…
I learned early on, and I think my mama told me when I was young, always keep something back for you. You can give what you’ve got to give, but don’t give it all away. Always keep something for you. And so, I’ve kept that thing for me. I know how to be private. I’ve known how to keep my husband private. It’s just natural to me, to protect the things and the people I love, and to protect my own privacy.
Dolly Parton on jealousy between women
I never tried to be like anybody else. I never tried to emulate anybody else. I just wanted to be the best me that I could be. And I knew I was different. And I knew that everything I did was different. It’s the way I sounded was different. The way I thought was different. But of course, I’ve gone through things where I’ve had to deal with some things where there was jealousies or whatever. But I never had a jealousy toward anybody because I just wanted to make and break my own records. I wanted to be the best me that I could be and be better the next time of me, to do a better album, to write a better song and to be… To look better, just to do better.
But there is always that woman, as you well know, can be really vindictive and not have the empathy and the sympathy that we’re talking about. Does happen, does happen. But that’s true with men as well. Jealousy is just a natural feeling that you have. A bad one, it can really cause a lot of problems, but for myself, I try to always get along with everybody. I tried not to get in anybody’s way. I just wanted to do my thing, my way. And that was the only way that I understood.
Dolly Parton giving Lauren Alaina advice on being herself and maintaining boundaries
You be who you are. What you’ve done, what you do, that’s your business. That’s your life, that’s your personality. I always say I’ve done a lot of things maybe I should be sorry for, but anything I ever did seemed to be the right thing to be doing at the time. So I don’t look at my life… People always say, “If you had anything to do over, would you do it?” I said, “No, because I did it then. So I must have thought that was what I needed to do.” So you just be yourself. People are going to love you as you are. Don’t try to hide it.
Dolly Parton giving Tiera advice on the balance of being a business woman and being an artist
That’s a tricky little spot to be in, and we all have to go through it because you can’t be all business minded when you’re an artist, because you’re a writer, you’re a singer, and you don’t know about the business. Those are things you grow into. But I tried my best to compromise as much as I could to make deals, as long as I didn’t compromise my principles and my values.
I just soaked up everything I heard said, I watched everything that was being done. So I would apply that to my next project. And so before you know it, you’ve learned enough to actually then be able to do the business end, and before you know it, it’s a pretty even balance.
Dolly Parton tells Callie Twisselman about wearing her outfits more than once
Dolly: My closet’s big… All kinds of stuff, all kinds of shoes. I’ve never thrown nothing away. And somebody somewhere said that I only wear… Some artists just wear one thing. I wear mine over and over if I like it. And I even change it, if it’s a long gown and I still like the way it looks, I’ll have it cut down short. I’ll wear it that way. And then I’ll have it split up the side. I’ll add a few ruffles or some rick rack on it or something. But no, I think that’s stupid to waste money like that.
Callie: It’s like a wedding gown. Why wear it once?
Dolly: Well, yeah, yeah. You should only wear your wedding gown once.
