Dolly Parton Breaks Down Her Career, from '9 to 5' to 'Hannah Montana' | Vanity Fair

Every day on set I would look at what was going on and I had these acrylic nails and they sounded like a typewriter to me and it was about the secretary, so I looked around, I just like that, you know. In the mornings I get out of bed and stumble to the kitchen and there are different things on set like working nine to five, what a way to make a living. Hi, I'm Dolly Parton and this is my

career

timeline. There's nothing like the first time for something right and of course being a singer and songwriter, having your first album is especially special and I was at Monument Records at the time and Fred Foster, owner of Monument Records and the publishing company that I I wrote, it was also called Combine, well, it took a real personal interest in me, but I remember thinking I was making my first album, this is amazing and it was a really special moment and it was really like when I felt like I was a real professional and that I was really in business and I was going to do well.

There's always a lot of nerves whenever you do something you want to be good at and especially when you're new to it and you're working with people you've never known before, I'm a country girl so I was excited but nervous. I hoped for the best and wanted to sing as well as I could to be the best I could be to perform for the musicians and background singers. I wanted to impress them with my songs because I wrote a lot of songs on the album and I just wanted to try to start being professional and I remember everyone was very supportive, very kind and generous, but that's how it is with country. people in country music, especially one of the songs on the Hello Dolly album or one of the songs I had on Monument Records when I first had my first top 10 record, it was a song called Dumb Blonde and it's called "Just Say because I'm blonde." Don't think I'm dumb because this dumb blonde is nobody and of course I've tried to carry that with me all these years but it was that song that caught the attention of Porter Wagoner who at the time had the number one syndicated country show on the nation and now he had lost singer Norma Jean, who had been a big star on his show for years.

She was getting married and moving back to Oklahoma City, so he was looking for a new singer. He had seen me on local television and there was a lot of talk in town about the new girl in town and that was me at the time and I was very excited to be causing a little ruckus in town and then the doorman called. I bent down to talk to him and I thought it was probably to record some songs I'd been sending to him and Norma Jean, so I went to the doorman's office and I said, oh well, hi, I'm Dolly and he said Yes you are.

I know all about you and I have an opening for a female singer on my show, would you be interested? I said, well, I'll have to think about that. Yes, I will do it anyway. It was that fast, so anyway that's when I became a member of the porter program and it was really that program that really made me happy as far as my

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was concerned, which really started it all for me at the time. great, well, my relationship with porter was up and down. We clashed all the time because we were both very tenacious and very confident people, but when I started Porter's show I told him I would stay for five years because I had never planned on being just a singer on someone else's show.

I wanted to be a singer who was my own person and a star on my own, so we were doing so well together doing duets that I was really a big part of her show and her show really became a lot bigger because of our duets and our collaborating together and the way we work together is kind of like sonny and cher, you know, we were kind of fire and ice, we were kind of going, you know, against each other, but we fought. a lot but there was a lot of love there was a lot of respect I learned a lot about porter and although times were difficult I managed to stay seven years before leaving alone but I wouldn't accept anything for him Sometimes we clashed a lot, we separated on bad terms, but we put all that back together through the years.

Every time you break up, whether it's a friendship, marriage or partnership in business, there are always tender feelings, you know, people get hurt the moment someone has to lose for a while but in the end we all win from my code youth of many colors was a song i wrote while i was with the portal wagner show it's actually at my museum we were on tour and porter was loading up our tour bus and he had stopped at the dry cleaners to pick up his costumes that he had cleaned and There was still a cleaning tag on his suit tag that he had hanging on the wall and the song started to get to me. go to many colors and I started to write it you know on that little piece of paper and that's how I wrote code of many colors but it was just something that I think had been a memory that had always hurt me and I had been keeping that inside and I didn't know it because it was a true story about that little ratty coat and then it just started coming to me at that moment and after I finished it it was a really good, moving song.

Porter liked it. I liked it, we recorded it and people liked it and it has been the little gift that keeps on giving because over the years I had a book about it. It's in the library of the imagination. I made a movie doing a lot of color coding on NBC. I made a Christmas. movie called Christmas of Many Colors, kind of an extension of the code of many colors, so it really has been a special little movie, I mean a little song that has lent itself to movies and other things, but that particular album that I recorded so he included it too. many other stories and songs I had written from home, well, when the Code Mini Colors album was nominated for cma album of the year, it was really a wonderful compliment for me.

Any of that kind of stuff I don't work with. for awards, but any kind of recognition like that, especially as a songwriter, makes you feel really proud and those were just some of those things at the beginning of my career that I often go back and think about, so I'm here where I am now . back you know it's all those things that made me who I am and this keeps me you know it kind of keeps me where I am keeps me sane it's kind of always connected to my childhood he's about six foot four when I left the show port cars I wanted to be free I wanted to be I wanted to do something that I could do you know as an individual I didn't care if I was a girl or a boy it just happened to be a girl I was a singer a songwriter I was an artist I was a musician and I wanted do something good so there was a company called schopiz so I went to them and asked if they would be interested in doing a show with me and they were and it was called Dolly, it was the first show.

Then I did a variety show. This was the first one where I had a lot of guest artists. The main theme was "Love is like a butterfly." I would get off a swing every day when I did the program or every week and of course eventually I would close it. My signature song was I'll Always Love You, so I met a lot of wonderful artists during that time, that's when I met Kenny Rogers and myself. I had Linda Nimmy Lou on the show I had the fifth dimension I had KC and the band Sunshine We had all these people that were coming to be on the show and everyone was blown away because I had these kind of people and I'm still a little bit Being a Girl country and all that I wasn't really into country music, but I was trying to broaden my horizons trying to be more, you know, to appeal to a broader audience and all that, so it was really a learning experience for me. of hard work every time you do a weekly program like that, you have to work all week to do it, but I met so many people, I learned so many things that I applied to many other projects later because I learned about being a business woman learned to participate in production, he learned how you have to defend yourself and not just yourself, the people around you, so everything is a learning experience and it was a wonderful moment because I was me, he has a .32 pistol in his pocket for fun and he knows he didn't say a word to me about yesterday.

He is very happy that his wife left this morning on a two-month cruise in the South Seas. Yes, lucky, I don't know. She has yet to get back to him, poor thing, nine to five was really a joy for me and it was like something I didn't expect. I had been offered roles in films at different times. I hadn't been interested in making movies because at that time. my my writing career my entertainment was traveling on tour I was doing very well with it and so I didn't want to deviate at that time, but when Jane Fonda came to me and presented this idea to me I thought well, how can I not do this Jane Fonda is a big star I always loved her and I loved her dad Henry and I loved Lily Tomlin She told me that Lily was going to be there and I thought how difficult could this be I thought well if this is a big success.

I can join Lily and Jane and if it's a big flop I'll just blame them because no one thinks of me as a movie star so no one's going to blame me, so I thought, what do I do? lose, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose, but that was one of the best moments of my life, that every day on that set we were on fox at the fox studios in Los Angeles and the weather was beautiful, life was beautiful , I was starting to really blossom as a human being as an artist and all the things that I dreamed of became mine and that I had some control over because part of my deal with Jane was that I would do it, but I said I had to write the theme song and to be able to record it, that was part of my deal every day on set, I just watched what was happening and I have these acrylic nails and they sounded like a typewriter to me and it was the secretary, so I told him to look at my around I just like that, you know, in the mornings I get out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen and different things on set like working nine to five, what a way to make a living and every day I would choose different stories different things that I see women do and I would go back to my hotel room at night and take my guitar and play it and record it, so it was over a period of time that I wrote the theme song just It was kind of a game with all the girls and then when I got ready to shoot it, I brought in all the women, not the men, just all the women, because it was about the women in the workplace and everyone on set, even the girls in the script, whoever they were.

I brought them all into the studio to sing it with me and I played My Nails on a separate track and it says Dale Nails by Dolly which I think is funny so over the years I have to play My Nails but that was a moment cheerful and Dabney Coleman, who played Mr. Hart, was like a real idiot in the movie, but in person he was a great guy and he really helped me a lot to be in the movies because I didn't know where to go. Stand, I didn't know about lights and angles and all that stuff.

She was a little nervous, of course, but she was confident she could do it, so he was good. Jane and Lily were good at helping me. All of that was a really very happy moment and lord, look at the success it has had. I was a curious little boy. He was in trouble because he was very nosy. You know, I wanted to hear everything I wanted. I wanted to do everything. I would be a part of everything I wanted to be big you know when I was little and now that I'm still little I still want to be big I'm a tree I can bend hold on honey it's almost five o'clock you The trip to the Smokies really isn't complete unless you visit Dollywood and share a family gift In 1986, we started Dollywood, but I've been dreaming about it long before, early in my career, I thought about whether I would ever be the star.

I want to be as successful as I want. I want to do something great for my people back home. I want to honor my father and mother as the Bible says. I didn't leave home because I wasn't happy there. I love the Smoky Mountains and I love my family, but I wanted to do more so I thought when I can I would love to come back and I would love to have a theme park, a place where people can go and have fun because I remember it as We Poor Little Ones. kids, you know, even the county

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that maybe we could go to every year, you know, for a while, it was the biggest thing in the world, you know, to me, and they had like Silver Dollar City, which in reality was on the grounds. there and I actually went into business with the Herschen family who had had a business there and when they found out I was thinking about building a park they said: why don't we do all this together?

And so we did it. and it made it so much better for all of us because they knew that business, I didn't. I had that dream, but that's another thing about me. I know what I know and I know what I don't know and what I don't. I know who does it and I'm going to go find them, so you have to find people who know their business and the Hershen family, which was their business, areas of entertainment and amusement, and they just knew that world and therefore, according to my thoughts anddreams were to incorporate that and we have actually done a multi-million dollar business over the years and it is a park that gives back because we have the Dollywood foundation where we have the imagination library where we give books to children from the moment they are reborn until they go to school we just have all kinds of programs for kids high school students we have scholarships we have all kinds of things through that, so we're not just a park that just makes money, money, money, I love that it flows, I love going, You know, coming and going like you, money coming in, money going out, you know, I try to keep an open space. heart, open mind, you know, open eyes and open hands.

I'm really sorry about the kids part. I know Shelby is afraid that Jackson will waste her chance to have children. Still, magnolias. It was a movie that just occurred to me. because i know the director didn't even want me to be in it, but ray stark had wanted to have me in the movie, he's the one who produced it, so i guess he had seen me around and i was making some kind of name for myself and I had been in you know some things before 9-5 and the best little brothel and anyway I thought this was a perfect role for me because if I hadn't made it in the business I would have been a beautician. because I would have had to get discount prices on makeup, hair color, bleach and all that, so I understood because I used to do my mom's hair because I'm very creative too, I'm good with my hands so I do it well. hair, so I felt like truvy, I felt like I fit in perfectly there and I really liked the role that I played and it was a big success.

I loved working with all those women. Someone said: how do you get along with all those women? I said I was just praying that we wouldn't all have PMS at the same time I really wish I had some words of wisdom but I don't so why don't we focus on the joy of the situation that you don't want to see? I would just turn the bus around and go back to Nashville. Well, when Hannah Montana aired and little Miley Cyrus, my little goddaughter was the star. I was so proud of her I thought she was sensational.

I thought. She's a great comedian and what a great actress and of course she's a great singer, but she was so perfect in that place and she told them you know, she said I want my Aunt Dolly to be here, she calls me Aunt Dolly and she said I wanted to be on the show, so they wrote me on the show and we worked very well together and I was there on several occasions and thanks to her I had a whole new following of people who were interested in me. These little kids, you know, were hurt fans and kids, uh, kids who were fans of the whole show and the other little artists on the show, but here I am, you know, Miley's

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y godmother and on the show, and I share all that.

She and I really loved the time we spent with her doing the show, and for me, seeing her be so professional, she didn't know it, but I was looking at her like a proud mom thinking, "Go away, little thing, I'm so proud." ". You and I have always been proud of Molly, she is so talented, you know everyone complains about all the things she goes through and all the things she has done, but you know she is just like me, she is finding her own space, he is finding his own things. and she will always land on her feet.

I don't always have to agree with everything she does, but it's none of my business, that's her life. I'm just her fairy godmother and I love her. You are sprouting like a rose bush afterwards. a month of rain only not as humid and twice as beautiful Mary Did you know that your baby will one day walk on water? I love Christmas, all about it years ago 30 years ago I made a Christmas album but I felt like doing it some updated newer songs and everyone said oh make a new Christmas album so I thought well this is the year perfect to do it because people will pretty much be at home and, you know, they won't go out as much as they naturally would, but I was also at home when we were in lockdown.

I started writing all these new Christmas songs and I was collecting songs that I thought I'd like to do for Christmas, some classic and some new, and I started. get in touch with people I wanted to sing with like jimmy fallon and then I recorded a song called holly jolly christmas which burl lives had a big hit years ago and that's where I got the idea to call the album holly

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christmas and More or less I talk during the instrumental part of the song and say: you know what I thought about the song and why I called it Holly Dolly Christmas, so I did it anyway, I wrote some new songs, I did some classics like I Saw Mommy Kiss Santa, I made a beautiful song that is destined to be a great Christmas classic called Mary, did you know it's a wonderful album?

I'm very, very proud of it, so let's see how it works. Merry christmas. I used to think about it. If I were as successful as I dreamed and hoped to be, I wondered if when I reached the age I'm looking back on now, how I would feel about my career and what people would think of me, so I'm kind. from that place where reflecting is very emotional for me, it moves me, it makes me feel humble knowing that I have been able to see many of my dreams come true.