When I interviewed Dolly Parton in 2015, the woman famous for her relentless optimism surprised me by talking candidly about a period when she had struggled with depression.
“I was having some personal problems and beginning to feel a little guilty about my success,” the trailblazing singer-songwriter told me during a conversation at her beloved Dollywood Theme Park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Parton, who died Aug. 25 at age 80, also reflected on the difficult decisions that shaped her career.
I had asked the Country music icon about the period in her life in the 1980’s when she was experiencing personal health and professional challenges after reportedly being diagnosed with endometriosis and undergoing a partial hysterectomy.
“I was having some personal problems and just beginning to kind of feel a little guilty about my success,” she said. “I thought OK – enough is enough. Get off your fat ass and do something about it, ‘cos nobody’s happy all the time. I always make a joke now: people say ‘Oh, you always seem to be so happy all the time,’ I say, ‘No, I’m not happy all the time, that’s Botox!”
Parton knew when to bet on herself
From humble beginnings, Parton became a beloved global icon through sheer hard work and determination.
In my CNBC Meets interview, Parton told me she was laughed at in her high school graduating class when she said she was going to Nashville to become a star.
“That hurt my feelings,” Parton said, adding, “They’re not laughing now.”
From the age of 10, Dolly sang on local television and radio and made her Grand Ole Opry debut at 13.
In 1967, her quest for stardom led her to join country music star Porter Wagoner on his popular weekly television show, which gained her national recognition.
Though hugely successful together, Dolly described her time with Porter as a “love-hate relationship,” and seven years later she knew she had to leave to follow her dream and establish a career of her own. The split from Porter became difficult.
That experience also inspired one of her most successful songs.
“I wrote the song “I Will Always Love You” about that — when I was trying to leave and he was pitching such a fit, and I thought, ‘Well, you know, do what you do best, go write a song,’ ” she told me.
The song became a hit for Dolly, and later a global phenomenon when Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 box-office hit, “The Bodyguard.”
But by then, Dolly had already protected her most important business asset — her publishing rights.
Why Parton refused Elvis Presley
In 1974, Elvis Presley also wanted to record the song. Shortly before the planned session, Parton said Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, said Presley would only proceed if they received half the publishing rights. Dolly refused.
She told me, “I said, ‘Well, I am really sorry to hear that ‘cos I already told everybody Elvis was doing my song,’ but I thought, you know, I can’t do it. And I didn’t. So, I thought. ‘Well, it was just one of those first really hard business decisions I had to make.’ “
Dolly credited her father, a farmer and tradesman, for her strength in business. Something which also helped her stand up to the sexism which she faced in the early days of her success.
“I think there’s always the ‘good ole boy’ syndrome when it’s a girl in business. A lot of people, especially with me, ‘cos I look like trash and I did even then, I just look like I would be easy prey. But I got my business sense from my dad,” she said.
Dolly encountered more challenges years later when she decided to enter the theme park business. She said many of her business advisors, “thought I’d lost my mind.”
She told them, “I know you’re my Hollywood lawyers and accountants and all that, but I think I know a little bit more about me than you do. And so, I went ahead and done it. Got rid of them. And it proved that I was right to go ahead with my plans.”
The gamble that became Dollywood
Dollywood first opened in 1986. Forty years later, the theme park is Tennessee’s most visited ticketed attraction and has an estimated direct annual economic impact of $1.8 billion in the region.
“I was born in a one-room cabin; we didn’t have anything fancy in it except our dreams and our plans and the love of a good mama and a good daddy,” she said.
“I thought if I DO make it, I want to come back home, do something special in this area for the people. We’ve really provided thousands and thousands of jobs through the years and that makes me feel proud and I think Little Dolly would be proud of that — and my Mom and Dad, too.”
American singer and songwriter Dolly Parton poses for a portrait with her guitar at Dollywood circa 1993 in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
Ron Davis | Archive Photos | Getty Images
I was one of those visitors experiencing the magic of the Dolly effect, and just before my interview, I saw thousands of adoring fans waiting to catch a glimpse of her annual parade through Dollywood in an open-top carriage.
The one person who never wanted to be seen with Dolly in public, astonishingly, was her husband of 59 years and childhood sweetheart, Carl Dean.
“He’s kind of a homebody; he didn’t want to go out there doing all that. No, even when he does come out, he’s not going to be seen. As a matter of fact, here at Dollywood, he won’t come here with me, not the times I come. He’ll come up and he’ll come to the park, and most times nobody even knows he’s been here.”
The legacy Parton wanted to leave
Dolly was also a passionate advocate for helping others. Her father inspired her philanthropic initiative, The Imagination Library, which has given free books to millions of children around the world.
Working from an early age, her father never had the chance to go to school and to learn how to read and write.
“He was always so smart, and it always bothered me. It bothered him, but I can’t even begin to imagine, as smart as my Daddy was, what all he could have been if he hadn’t have been crippled with that,” she told me.
The Imagination Library program began in her home county and expanded internationally, sending books to young children and helping families read together. Dolly told me it was “one of the things that I’m proudest of in my whole career.”
I asked Dolly what she would like her legacy to be.
“I want people to remember everything that I’ve done that was of any importance,” she said. “I want them to think that I was a person that really wanted to give… that I was a caring person and that I was someone that wanted to make life a better place for everybody.”
