PROJECTOR WHIRS
# Here I am
# Here I am. #
MUSIC FADES OUT
A CAPPELLA: # Here I am. #
Well, if I was trying to describe myself to someone that had
never seen me before, I would say, "Calm down."
MUSIC: 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
"Don't be scared, it's just me."
"I know I look totally bizarre and artificial,
"but I'm totally real inside."
SHE YELLS EXCITEDLY
Dolly does have a cartoon image.
I don't know if that's sometimes to her detriment that she depends
on that gag, or she's just getting in there before anyone else does.
MUSIC: Jolene by Dolly Parton
You can't take the Tennessee out of the girl.
Now, that's as far as I'll go with that, though.
CROWD LAUGHS
She gives away very little. There's a mystery about her.
# Your smile is like a breath of spring
# Your voice is soft like summer rain
# And I cannot compete with you, Jolene. #
Sorta like that!
The hot dogs are ready!
I never really tried to hide myself from anybody.
I think that's one of the reasons I'm still around -
people feel like they know me.
# Little sparrow... #
CROWD CHEERS
# Little sparrow. #
Dolly Parton is one of the most phenomenal songwriters, I...
Breasts included!
# And I, I-I will always... #
I actually take my songwriting more serious than anything else I do.
So I would say I am a songwriter first.
# I will always love you. #
It's my way of expressing myself, it's my therapy.
You have to search for a long time, cos I've written a lot of songs,
but, yes, there are pieces of me, of course, in everything I write.
Hey-hey! How's everybody? Hi there!
CROWD CHEERS IN DISTANCE
Hey. We're back!
When I was young, we always used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry,
and everybody would say, "That's where you've got to go if you're
"a country star if you want to try and make it in the business."
So that was always just my aim,
sort of like how Broadway people go to New York.
Well, Nashville was the Grand Ole Opry.
# Velvet cushion seats and soft arm rests... #
It is amazing to me, thinking back on my life as a little girl
when I wanted to be on the Grand Ole Opry so bad.
Now, here I am, 50 years later
and we're celebrating my 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry.
I am so honoured.
# Up on the silver screen I picture me... #
Hi, everybody!
# Living out of my passions, hopes and fantasies. #
Well, it's nearly showtime! It is! Whoo!
And you thought it was easy being in show business.
I got people all over me.
BAND REHEARSES
It's fun having us all back together, ain't it? Yes, it is.
I mean, we've all been at this at least 50 years, right?
Some of you people looking really good for my age!
LAUGHTER
I'm older than America.
SHE CHUCKLES
People just know that I'm going to be there and that I'm going
to have fun with it and I'm going to try to help them have fun.
# Just to watch 'em shatter
# You're just a step on the boss man's ladder
# But you got dreams he'll never take away... #
I've done so many things. I've been around a long time.
I guess it's just kind of, I feel like a family member to most people.
# The tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll you away. #
I just know it!
WHISTLING AND WHOOPING, WHIP CRACKS
Yeah...!
# Well, good mo-o-o-orning, Captain... #
I came here early on the Saturday morning
with my little beat-up suitcase of songs
and my little old guitar and ragged little clothes.
# Good morning to you, sir
# Hey, hey, yeah... # WHISTLING, WHIP CRACKS
I was hungry. Cried myself to sleep every night.
But I did learn early on that you
really had to stand up for yourself -
especially being a girl in business at that time,
and a country girl that did look like a dumb blonde.
# Yodel-a-ee
# Hee-hee... #
Dolly, thanks for coming in. Well, thank you for inviting me.
It's a pleasure to be with you.
Can we start by talking about the biggest thing about you?
Well, now, what would that be?
I think your determination. CHUCKLES: OK.
You scared me for a minute.
You know, well, what would we like to talk about?
I do definitely have a lot of determination, I just wanted
to accomplish everything that I possibly could in my life.
I feel that we are all here for a reason
and I aim to put everything that I can into my life.
# Yee-hee hee-hee-hee hee
# Mule skinner blues. #
My first meeting with Dolly Parton was sometime in the middle of 1964.
A producer from upstairs at Capitol Records brought her down,
and he said, "I want you to meet this girl singer," he says,
"She's got so much talent. I can't get anyone interested in her."
Dolly was just a beautiful little 18-year-old girl who seemed
quite naive and uneducated.
Her language was kind of crude and gutter language, you know,
for guys, and didn't seem to match her.
The first time I saw Dolly, I thought, "This is a teenager."
She was very pleasant,
she was, you know, seemed happy to meet us
and then she started to sing
and it was, "Whoa!"
# You kindle the fire of love inside me... #
She wasn't a bit bashful either when it came to singing...you know.
Because that's a lot of what this business takes -
you have to believe you have something to offer,
and I think she believed it.
# You must know how I feel... #
When I started out, it never crossed my mind I couldn't do it
because I was a woman.
I was just going to do what I did, what I felt I did best,
and I never once thought that that was going to ever,
you know, not work for me.
And I didn't care. I wasn't afraid of anybody.
I mean, what was you going to do to me?
You going to kill me? And if you kill me, what are you going to do?
Eat me? Are you going to cook me and eat me? No.
I mean, it's like I'll either succeed or I will fail.
# Don't try to cry
# Your way out of this
# And don't try to lie
# Or I'll catch you... #
Back in the day when she started out,
it must have been really tough to be a woman in this industry,
but she became a kind of pioneer for feminism.
Dolly was able to deliver a feminist message pretty much in disguise.
# This dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool... #
You underestimate Dolly at your peril,
and Dumb Blonde is a perfect way to launch a career.
She's so smart.
# Somehow I lived through it
# And you know if there's one thing this blonde has learned
# Blondes have more fun... #
Dumb Blonde was my first chart record,
and Curly Putman wrote the song.
He wrote it for me to record,
and that was perfect for me,
because it does say, "Just because I'm blonde,
"don't think I'm dumb, cos this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool."
Everybody thinks I wrote that song, and I would have.
I could have. I should have.
# Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb
# Cos this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool. #
APPLAUSE Thank you very much.
CHURCH BELLS RING
I went to the laundromat.
The first time I'd ever been in a laundromat.
Took my little dirty clothes I'd brought from home,
and it was called the Wishy Washy Washateria.
And so I met my husband that first day, which I've always joked
about that, that it's been wishy-washy ever since!
Dolly was not looking for a husband when she came to Nashville.
She was looking for a career.
It so happened that she met Carl early on
and they did date for a couple of years and then got married.
# How I love to run backward through the meadow... #
Her producers also did not want her to get married,
and she went ahead and did it anyway,
because when Dolly wants to do something, I think she does it.
She kept the marriage a secret for a year,
but I think that was also very clever,
because she demonstrated to her producers that
she could in fact have a marriage and still be successful.
# For I love every minute that I live in this big world
# And I want to see all there is to see... #
SHE HUMS TUNE
# Yes, I want to see all there is to see. #
She knew very early on in her career that she was going to have to
carve out boundaries before she got eaten alive.
But it's like she foresaw her whole career and said,
"This is what I'm going to do
"to keep my sanity, my privacy and my space."
I've never seen Carl Dean, nor ever met him.
I know he exists, but I don't know anybody that's ever seen Carl Dean.
He didn't go to any shows with her.
I never met the man,
so I don't know anything about him.
Carl Dean?
Yes, I know Carl... Why do I know Carl Dean?
I have met Carl. Carl is very handsome.
I spent the night at their home in Nashville.
And Carl cooked us breakfast.
Very delicious breakfast - the first time I had fried green tomatoes.
And I remember sitting at the breakfast table
and I said, "Describe the first time that you saw Dolly."
"Well," he said, "I was driving my truck
"and I drove past a 7-Eleven...
"..and I saw her. She was drinking an RC Cola." And he said, "And..."
And he was trying to articulate with his hands
and his language what it was, the...the thing.
And he got so worked-up that he fell backwards in his chair.
He fell over backwards!
I know the nature of men. SHE LAUGHS
I grew up in a family of brothers
and uncles and grandpas and men that I love.
I've known more good men than I've known bad.
Of course, I've known plenty, and being a right pretty girl
in the early days, of course I've had my hands full with men.
But I knew always how to handle myself.
# I can see you're disappointed
# By the way you look at me
# And I'm sorry that I'm not the woman
# You thought I'd be... #
Just Because I'm A Woman is a very extraordinary song
for the late '60s.
# Don't feel sorry for yourself... #
What Dolly's saying is that women
should be treated equally in all matters
and particularly when it comes to the sexual double standard,
if it's OK for the men, it's OK for the women.
And I think she's not just talking to her husband
about their personal situation, but she's talking to everyone.
And it sums up a larger idea about women and equality.
# My mistakes, they're no worse than yours
# Just because I'm a woman... #
I have done things in the past that I thought at the time was a mistake.
I have changed my thinking a lot about what I'm supposed to
feel guilty over and what I'm not.
I do the best I can.
# He'll just... #
# While he... #
Dolly writes Just Because I'm A Woman
in the late '60s, at the height of the sexual revolution.
Not surprisingly, in the 1970s, people continually ask Dolly
if she supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
She never gave a straight answer.
You said something quite astonishing about women's liberation,
about burning your bra.
SHE GIGGLES
I said that when women's liberation came out,
that I was the first person to burn my bra
and it took the Fire Department three days to put the fire out.
LAUGHTER
But that's only a silly joke.
# My mistakes are no worse than yours
# Just because I'm a woman. #
Dolly won't do anything that will render uncomfortable
the people who love her,
and it's a very broad swath of people, I think.
Politically, very broad. Socially, economically, very broad.
She is, first and foremost, an entertainer.
She wants people to feel good.
So if she feels that identifying as a feminist will make some of
those people who love her uncomfortable,
she's not going to say that.
But her life is the life of a feminist,
which means a woman who has fought to realise herself,
to actualise her full self.
# Now, I know that I'm no angel
# If that's what you thought you'd found
# I was just the victim of
# A man that let me down... #
She's mastered the design of how to be a woman
and succeed in this business without making a man feel bad.
In fact, without anybody making anybody feel bad.
Dolly, I read once that you didn't in fact consider
yourself as a sex symbol. Were you lying to them?
I'll try very hard to not be a sex symbol.
LAUGHTER
# No, my mistakes are no worse than yours
# Just because I'm a woman. #
APPLAUSE Thank you very much.
Now you look back at it,
and it was kind of one of the first MeToo movement songs.
I don't like that word so much any more, you hear so much of it.
But it is really about women taking responsibility for themselves
and not wanting to be blamed for everything that happens,
or to think that we don't have some power and that we can't stand up
and speak out for ourselves.
PORTER WAGONER: Right now, I want you to meet a little gal
that I know you're going to really learn to love.
Direct from Nashville, Tennessee,
here's The Porter Wagoner Show, starring Porter Wagoner,
Dolly Parton...
I had come to Nashville to be my own artist, to have my own band,
and I'd had a couple of Top Ten records when Porter saw me.
But his show was going to send me on out there to be a big artist.
Porter had a lot of power because of the television show
and because of Dolly as she came on board.
There's no question Dolly Parton
and Porter Wagoner had a great chemistry.
And you can take that anywhere you want to go with it.
# I thought I had seen pretty girls in my time
# That was before I met you
# I never saw one that I wanted for mine
# That's was before I met you. #
Well, Dolly had such a unique voice,
her voice was much in a higher register.
A brilliant songwriter.
That really sold me on Dolly too.
So we just kind of hit it off from that moment on.
# But that was before I met you
# I wanted to ramble and always be free... #
When you start out in the business,
you start out to try to make it yourself.
And then you wind up working with other people,
and if you're smart, like for instance, when I worked with
The Porter Wagoner Show, a show that I was with for many years,
you learn from the best -
all the people around you, learn how they do things.
# I hollered, wake up, Jacob stir up a light
# Did you ever see a man and a polecat fight?
# Turn on the light and let me in
# Wake up, Jacob, let me in. #
I was so country that I understood the country feel.
I think it's the instrumentation,
like, steel guitars and the fiddles and the style of tunes.
Like, back in the old world, over there when things would happen,
they would talk about the girl...
..you know, the boy that killed his girlfriend,
drowned her in the river cos she got pregnant,
or she wouldn't marry him, or whatever,
and then they would take these village to village,
you know, and tell the story.
Now then, it's time to meet the pretty little gal,
and she's got a song that...
You haven't done this before on the show...?
I don't believe I have.
And this is one of the prettiest songs you've written,
and she's going to do it just with her and her little guitar.
It's called The Bridge. Miss Dolly Parton.
Thank you. APPLAUSE
# The bridge, so long
# The bridge, so wide
# Here is where it started
# On the bridge... #
The Bridge is a song that I wrote when I was a teenager,
back home sitting on an old bridge where I wrote songs a lot.
As a little child, my mother used to sing
all those songs that really told about tragedies.
The Bridge just seemed to be like a perfect one to write about
a young girl that, you know, was heartbroken and messed-up,
and of course, I related, being a girl, cos I am a girl.
Have you noticed?
Back when I grew up, we didn't have the movies.
We didn't even have television for many years of my life.
So I used to write songs
so my family could enjoy seeing these little stories.
So every song I write, I run home and I'd sing 'em to the family,
you know, whatever I was doing, so it was kind of entertainment.
It really is like a little movie when I write songs.
In The Bridge, Dolly creates a strong sense of drama
by giving us a story that focuses just on one person's experience
and only through that one person's eyes.
It's very visceral.
# Bridge, so wide
# The bridge... #
You can feel that kind of rising tension through the music.
# Where once we stood together
# Tonight I stand alone... #
It's the melody, it's the rawness,
it's the, "Is she saying what I think she's saying?"
SONG ENDS ABRUPTLY
The song ends with no harmonic sense of closure,
the last chord doesn't finish anything out.
It just ends abruptly.
I just thought, well, I'll start it with that
and then I'll tell my story, and then I'll end it the same way.
You don't hear the water splash, but you know...you know she went.
That's pretty heavy-duty, that this woman killed herself
and her unborn baby by jumping off a bridge,
and that song itself in 1967, from Dolly Parton,
was a very, very deep song to write.
DOLLY PARTON AND PORTER WAGONER: # Today, tomorrow
# And forever
# That's how long our love will last
# I'll never stop loving you
# No, never. #
I am proud of everything I did for Dolly.
I even kind of gave up on my own career for a while
to devote all of my time for her career.
So that, I think that shows pretty much how much I loved Dolly
and cared for her career.
She was an asset to Porter's TV show and his records,
up until the point that she was getting offers from other producers
and other record companies and stuff to do things,
and make movies and all that,
which Porter didn't have anything to do with.
I think that they reached a point where Dolly was getting
more fan mail than he was.
So I think she outgrew her need for his coaching.
# I do everything for you
# You never help yourself
# And I think I'd die from shock
# If you raised a hand to help... #
He was the boss, but he didn't have all the creativity,
but he had control.
Now then, it's time to meet the pretty little gal...
..beautiful little lady...
..one of the prettiest, singinest songwritingest little blondes
in country music coming up right now.
# Your woman's gettin' tired of being your ole handy man... #
Occasionally we would have a run-in about something,
but I always won because I always would, because I'm the boss.
I'm the one that signs the cheque.
# Your woman's gettin' tired of being your ole handy man. #
Thank you, Dolly. Fine job.
That should tell them like it is there, kiddo.
I started trying to move myself away, started talking to him,
and he wasn't hearing of it.
So we fought a lot because we were very similar,
we were very headstrong.
He knew what he wanted and I knew what I wanted
and we were both going to get it.
Dolly, excuse me just a second.
We need to start just one more
and I will count it this time.
Three, four...
# Well, I remember when I was just little
# Mama used to cook in an old black kettle... #
She had came to the office and sang me
a bunch of the songs that she'd wrote,
and these songs like Daddy's Working Boots,
Mama's Old Black Kettle.
Songs about back home.
And I said, "Dolly, people don't care
"if your mama's got a kettle or a skillet.
"Who the hell cares?" You know?
"You need something that people will listen to and you need to write
"a song about the most identifiable subject on Earth - love."
She said, "OK, smart aleck, I'll just write you a song about love."
She came in two days later and she said,
"I've got this song started."
And she sang me what she had done over that time.
I said, "Now you're talking."
# If I
# Should stay
# I would only be in your way
# So I'll go
# But I know
# I'll think of you each step of the way
# And I-I-I
# Will always love you
# Yes, I will always love you. #
I said, "Dolly, that song will make you more money
"and more fame than all of your other songs put together."
Although Porter says that Dolly wrote I Will Always Love You
as a response to his telling her she needed to write more love songs,
which, in fact, he did do, I think Dolly's version of the events
are more likely to be true,
which is that she was trying to make the break from Porter,
he wouldn't listen, and the only way she could get through to him
was to write a song.
# Bittersweet
# Memories
# That's all I am taking with me... #
I Will Always Love You is that signature song that
when I was leaving The Porter Wagoner Show trying to make sense of
what, you know, that I appreciate you and I wish you well
and I thank you for loving me and all of that, but I've got to go.
# But I, I-I
# Will always love you... #
I've never been the kind of writer
that's always looked for a perfect song.
I write because I have to. I write because I love to.
And because I want to.
There are certain songs, though, that I do write,
I think, "Whoo, now that is good!"
SPEAKS IN RHYTHM TO SONG: And I hope life.
Treats you kind.
I Will Always Love You has the simple melody
and it's easy to sing.
It also fits so many types of things.
Like, people tell me, "We played this at the hospital when my daddy
"was dying, he loved this song."
"They played this at my graduation."
"When my son was going off to college."
# But above all of this
# I wish you love... #
In fact, Elvis' manager wanted to have the publishing on that song
and I wouldn't allow it cos it was my most important copyright.
It broke my heart, cos Elvis didn't get to sing it,
but I had to hold on to it.
Elvis loved the song.
In fact, Priscilla had told me that when she and Elvis were leaving
the courthouse after they divorced,
he was singing it to her walking out.
So she said he did love it.
That was one of the great career decisions Dolly Parton
made in her life, cos Elvis was Elvis, for God's sake,
and she said no,
and that demonstrated her astuteness as a businesswoman.
That was a great chess move.
# And I, I-I
# Will always love you
# Will always
# Love you... #
I thought it was the most unbelievable thing I'd ever heard.
I'd never even believed my little song could be done like that.
People say, "Well, she claims it's her record."
I said, "It is her record."
It's my song, but it's most definitely her record.
It didn't sound like that when I had it.
She made me rich.
# I will always
# L-o-o-ove
# You
# You know I'll always love you. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you. God bless!
BIRDSONG
My folks were just simple, poor mountain people. We lived on a farm.
I'm from a family of 12 children.
And I think being the fourth one down,
I didn't get paid a lot of attention.
I was kind of the kid that needed a lot of attention.
But I had an uncle that played guitar really good
and he saw early on how serious I was about my music.
So he used to take me around.
RADIO PRESENTER: Now, here's
our youngest singing sensation here, little Dolly Parton.
Dolly.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
INDISTINCT RECORDING PLAYS
But it was only when I got on stage the first time
and was singing in front of a crowd, and I was just about 10 then,
and I sang my song and they kept bringing me back,
wanting me to sing it, sing it, sing it.
I remember looking up at my uncle and said,
"I'm going to be a star, ain't I?"
That was the moment that I realised that was
what I was going to do for the rest of my life.
INDISTINCT RECORDING PLAYS
SONG ENDS
RADIO PRESENTER: Little Dolly Parton!
Why does Dolly need that validation?
I think she, just growing up in a huge family, I think
she wanted to stand out and be somebody
and having to grow up poor, she just wanted to be bigger-than-life Dolly.
Dolly told me once...
I had invited her to our son's wedding,
and people wouldn't let her alone -
they wanted her autograph, they were just...
I mean, "Take a picture with me."
And the whole night, she was one after another after another.
And I finally kind of came round,
I said, "Dolly, that's not why we invited you here.
"You know, you don't have to do that."
She said, "Mac, you don't know me better than that?
"All my life, all I've ever wanted was to be a big star,
"and this is just part of the deal."
RECORDING: Hi, this is little Dolly Parton and this is August 1st,
and we are in Bloomington, Illinois, and this is our first show.
SHE GIGGLES
MUSIC: Joshua by Dolly Parton
To me, stardom was more than a place.
It was a feeling, it was a fantasy,
it was a world that lived withinside of my own head
and inside of my own heart.
# Well, a good ways down the railroad track
# There was this little old rundown shack
# And in it lived a man I'd never seen... #
Crossing over to pop was an ultimate goal,
but it also was destiny, it was bound to happen.
Dolly's one of those people that breaks that line.
As hillbilly as she might sound,
people understand that she's bright
and she's beautiful inside and out,
and that just automatically drips off of Dolly.
So she was destined to go to the other side
and there was no way to stop that.
She was a rocket ship taking off fully loaded.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you.
# Jolene, Jolene
# I'm begging of you please don't take my man
# Jolene, Jolene
# Please don't take him just because you can... #
Jolene was probably Dolly's first crossover song
because it had what we called a hook, you know, the...
HE IMITATES HOOK OF "JOLENE"
It's a gut-string guitar, it's a classical guitar.
It's not a steel-string guitar.
That also adds to the way you hear the guitar.
HE PLAYS HOOK TO "JOLENE"
That whole little guitar sound is as clever as the little song itself,
and just singing over and over, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,"
it's like, how hard can that be? Like, "I will always love you!"
It's not like I'm a genius or nothing.
# You could have your choice of men
# But I could never love again
# He's the only one for me, Jolene... #
There's a few things going on.
One, that riff instantly is the hook.
Oh, but wait a minute, there's a whole other hook.
Because right when you hear that riff...
INTRO TO "JOLENE" PLAYS
..you go right into, # Jolene, Jolene... #
It's like the way...the arrangement.
# Jolene, Jolene
# Jolene, Jolene... #
And in that time, you're not used to hearing the chorus
start off the song, and then is that the verse, is there a pre-chorus?
I'm confused, what's going on here?
But it doesn't matter because every single part is hooky.
# Jolene, Jolene... #
And then, forget about all of that - put the story in there.
Jolene - just that name is amazing.
I wrote this song about 20 years ago about this woman
down in Nashville who worked at the bank.
She was trying to take care of my husband while I was out on the road.
Well, that didn't go over too big with me.
I fought that redheaded woman like a wildcat.
She jerked my wig off and almost beat me to death with it.
LAUGHTER
But I kept my husband.
I got that sucker home and I beat the tar out of him.
We got a whole bunch of redheaded women down here.
As a matter of fact, Jolene looked a whole lot like you,
you redheaded hussy.
LAUGHTER
In Jolene, Dolly is singing a song about a cheating man,
but she doesn't address the man at all.
In fact, he seems not to be relevant to the story.
She's really engaging with this other woman.
# Your beauty is beyond compare
# With flaming locks of auburn hair
# With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green... #
It may seem that she doesn't have very much power in that dynamic,
but, in fact, she's the one who speaks all the lines.
# And I cannot compete with you, Jolene... #
Jolene, I can see Jolene walking down the street,
I can see Dolly bristling.
Yeah, it's a real art of storytelling,
how to say a lot and paint the picture in a three-minute
or three-and-a-half-minute song.
# He talks about in his sleep and there's nothing I can do to keep
# From crying when he calls your name, Jolene
# Oh, and I can easily understand
# How you could easily take my man
# But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene
# Jolene, Jolene
# I'm begging of you, please don't take my man. #
# Jolene, Jolene
# Jolene, Jolene... #
Jolene is a song that I think fits a lot of people.
We all are insecure.
# Jolene, Jolene... #
There's always somebody that could take that person from you
and you're vulnerable.
# Please don't take him
# Even though you can! #
It's just about those little songs just stick
and they just came out, and thank God they're still around.
Evening, madam. Your passport, please. Thank you.
Miss Dolly Parton. That's right.
And what is the reason for your visit?
I'm a performer. You're a performer?
I absolutely had a game plan.
I wanted to do everything that a body could do as an entertainer.
I wanted to be worldwide. I wanted to get in movies.
# She has so many faces
# She wears so many names... #
I thought, "Well, if I'm going to be a star, why not be a big star?"
So my plan was to find management,
to get with a label that was really going to really support me
as an individual star, not just part of a group.
She came to me and basically introduced herself to me
somewhere in the mid-'70s.
She just wanted to ask me a few questions about my career,
and how I got started, and this and that.
HE VOCALISES
It was at the time that I had a television show,
and I said, "Here's my advice -
"talk to Sandy Gallin."
And she says, "Well, isn't he...? He's your manager, right?"
And I said, "Yeah."
And she says, "Well, he just... he's like a New York guy, and..."
And I said, "Look, I'm from Lubbock, Texas.
"Look what he did for me."
APPLAUSE
"I'm signed to Columbia Records, I've got my own television show.
"I mean, this is what he can do for you."
# I am a seeker
# And you are a teacher
# You are a reacher, so reach down... #
I knew relatively little except that she was
a great-looking, blonde, busty country artist
who I had booked on the Mac Davis variety show in America.
And we had dinner,
she played me a new album she had just finished recording.
I knew without a question that I was in the presence
of somebody extremely unusual,
unbelievably interesting, magnificently beautiful,
and I couldn't get out of my mind that I thought,
"She is going to be a gigantic, gigantic movie star...
"..television star, media star."
I just thought,
"OK, how do we expose the whole world to this person?"
I thought having a pop hit record would bring her to the attention
of millions of fans that had not known her.
# Here you come again
# Just when I've begun to get myself together
# You waltz right in the door
# Just like you've done before
# And wrap my heart round your little finger... #
I don't ever want to get myself pigeonholed,
where people think I cannot do anything but one thing,
or that they put me in a place where I'm not allowed to.
I won't allow that to happen either,
because I love being able to express myself in any way I feel like.
# And here I go... #
Why would Dolly sing somebody else's song?
Dolly is smart, and Dolly knows... As a songwriter,
she knew a hit song when she heard it.
# And shakin' me up so that all I really know
# Is here you come again... #
She's known so well as a songwriter,
I'm sure that people gave her credit for writing the song,
and probably still do to this day.
# And here I go
# Here you come again... #
I mean, you never know 100%,
but this sounded absolutely on the nose like a hit song.
And she recorded it, and it was a number one record.
# Here you come again. #
APPLAUSE Thank you!
And she became that big star almost overnight.
Carson Show, everybody wanted her.
And she was funny.
I believe it was Carson that asked her
why she bought her family's little cabin up in the Tennessee hills.
And she said, "Well, every now and then,
"a girl just wants to go pee off the porch."
And that's her.
Well, we've arrived. Oh! Looks like a dormitory.
Well, it kind of does.
Actually, I have three closets in this room, but this one
is the most special because this one holds all of my stage clothes.
And all of these clothes are hand washable,
I just put them in the sink in a motel room, I just rinse them out,
they're wrinkle-free, I don't have to iron them.
OK, now this is my couch.
Also, this is my bed.
Then up here in these cabinets are my wigs.
So here's another Dolly, and another one, and another one.
You don't have to look like this.
You're very beautiful, you don't have to wear the blonde wigs,
you don't have to wear the extreme clothes, right?
No, it's certainly a choice.
I don't like to be like everybody else.
I've often made the statement that
I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable,
that's the easiest thing in the world to do.
So I just decided that I would do something that would at least
get the attention.
Once they got past the shock of the ridiculous way I looked and
all that, then they would see there was parts of me to be appreciated.
Show business is a moneymaking joke,
and I've just always liked telling jokes, you know.
But do you ever feel that YOU'RE a joke, that people make fun of you?
Oh, I KNOW they make fun of me.
But actually, all these years, people have thought the joke
was on me, but it's actually been on the public.
I know exactly what I'm doing, and I can change it at any time.
# A pair of false eyelashes and a tube of cheap lipstick... #
She's an entity that exists, she has kept it alive for how many decades?
So I think it's partly her now.
I mean, if it wasn't her before, which I think it partly was,
I think it's certainly instilled itself in her,
so much that she is who she is, even though she isn't.
I was very unusual at a very early age.
There was this woman in our hometown,
and she was called the town tramp.
I don't know what you call a loose woman,
the ones that throw it around a bit, as they say.
That's all, boys. MEN SIGH
And as a little child, I used to, when we ever did get to go to town,
I would see this woman walking up and down the street.
She had a short skirt, she had beautiful skin,
and I remember saying, "Oh, she's so pretty."
Mom would say, "Oh, she's just trash."
And so I thought in my mind,
"That's what I want to be when I grow up, trash."
I used to think that being self-conscious was pejorative,
but Dolly is a good example of someone who is
very conscious of self, and has created a mythic,
iconic character that's partly...
Well, that I think that's entirely real, but...
..enhanced.
How does Dolly have such a small waist?
It just puzzles me.
I mean, her waist is profoundly small.
All right, Barbie mode.
# I'm just a backwards Barbie, too much make-up, too much hair... #
That's her brand.
That's her thing.
And she's never walked away from it because I feel, if Dolly were
to look at Dolly, and Dolly, that the Dolly that is the singer,
that everybody knows, Dolly owes, you know, and gives credit
and respects and honours, so it's like, "Well, I'm not going to
"get rid of you now, you've done so well for me."
You know, "And you and I have been a great team."
It's like, I almost think there's two people there.
APPLAUSE
There's a lady over here that looks sort of like I used to.
I guess it's a lady!
LAUGHTER
Uh-oh! It's a lady.
I would like to know who you got to cut your hair.
Who I got to cut it? Yes.
Well, I just bought it this length. Oh, I see!
Well, hello out there, London!
Is everybody feeling good tonight?
I want to say a great big hello to the most exciting
and beautiful city in the world,
and the sweetest people I've ever known.
I know everybody must be ready for me to start sooner or later, right?
So everybody clap your hands along with me.
How about you folks? Are we ready?
Then I guess I'm the only one that's dragging my feet.
Playing with Dolly was just such an intense musical experience.
We were all so much in love with the songs and music that
you would almost forget her whole larger-than-life persona.
She was really good at reading the audience and knowing how to pace.
I'd like to have a bit from all sorts of people,
but definitely something from Dolly, which is the communication
with the audience, the love for her audience,
and the love the audience has for her, obviously.
But just to be really spirited and dedicated, and just be who you are.
# You got me on fire. #
Whoo! Well, I knew you was going to be fun to party with.
I know a fun crowd when I see one.
Thank you, you done good.
I've learned a lot from a lot of people.
Just being a sponge.
Ain't it amazing what some people will do for attention?
How to kind of pace yourself, how to put your jokes in
with your dialogue, your timing, your dynamics.
And this woman with the purple and green hair went like this.
And I thought, "Well, I don't think my fans back home,
"and I don't think my fans here in London,
"would want that to happen to me."
So I went like that back. Is that OK?
Dolly could do stand-up, I'm sure.
I don't take no punk off nobody.
I was the original punk rocker.
I don't care if I've heard the joke 20 times,
I will still laugh because Dolly's delivering it.
By the time the show's over, I'm just getting started,
and it takes me sometimes three or four hours to come down
from just being overexcited.
And so sometimes, I write my best songs after a performance,
because of the audience and their reaction.
I suppose the last two years, we've worked 200 days on the road,
which is a lot more than we should work.
But I can write pretty good on the road,
because when we travel from city to city, there's not that much to do.
Hello?
Tell 'em I'm not here. Tell 'em I'm not here!
She isn't here right now.
Dolly's writing all the time. I'll call her on the phone,
and she'll say, "Hey, I'm writing."
So I just say, "All right, I'll call you back."
You know what I mean? I don't want to stifle her creativity.
I've seen her when someone needs something written quickly,
Dolly will go to the bathroom, get a Sharpie,
write it on a piece of toilet paper, and write a song on there,
and come out, and it's ready.
She's that quick.
That creative.
And it's good!
I want to do a song for you now that's kind of a special song to me.
A lot of folks that follow my career know that I write a lot of
sad songs, and this one is absolutely pitiful.
LAUGHTER
It's true.
It's a story about a little girl and a puppy dog.
# Late one cold and stormy night, I heard a dog a-barkin'
# Then I thought I heard somebody at my door a-knockin'
# I wondered who would be outside in such an awful storm
# Then I saw a little girl with a puppy in her arms
# Before I could say a word, she said, "My name is Sandy
# "And this here is my puppy dog, and his name is little Andy"
# Standing in the bitter cold in just a ragged dress
# Then I asked her to come in, and this is what she said
# Ain't ya got no gingerbread?
# Ain't ya got no candy?
# Ain't ya got an extra bed for me and little Andy? #
A sad song like Me and Little Andy doesn't fit with the persona
of the Dolly that I know.
But that song in itself is like a little three-minute short story.
# I wonder if you'd let us stay with you... #
I don't ever remember not doing that song in the show.
I think that was always one that we did.
You know, part of that make 'em laugh, make 'em cry,
scare the hell out of 'em, and go home.
Dolly's feel for music is...
She's like a savant.
She has it all here in her head, and she just kind of...
I say it, and it's kind of creepy, she just kind of spits out songs.
She's so versatile, she can deliver all these different styles.
She wanders into everybody's lane, and somehow pulls it off.
# She was just a little girl, not more than six or seven
# And that night as they slept, the angels took them both to heaven
# God knew little Andy would be lonesome with her gone
# Now Sandy and her puppy dog won't ever be alone
# Ain't you got no gingerbread?
# Ain't you got no candy?
# Ain't you got an extra bed for me and little Andy? #
Thank you. APPLAUSE
I think Dolly likes to move on.
She only likes to chew her tobacco once.
I just wanted to bring her to the whole world,
and I thought she was a natural actress.
She was a little apprehensive about it.
I hadn't wanted to do any movies until a right thing come along,
because I'm not an actress,
I've never taken an acting lesson in my life.
I knew it'd have to be something that was pretty much close to me,
to my personality.
But Jane Fonda came up with this idea to do 9 To 5,
about women in the workplace.
Why Dolly Parton? What gave you that idea?
She's not done a movie in her life, huh?
No, no, but I've been a fan of her music, and even more particularly,
of her as a songwriter.
It was "Pow!" It was a visceral sense that Dolly Parton
had to be a secretary in 9 To 5.
I was driving home from having just seen Lily Tomlin for the first time
in her one-woman show called Appearing Nitely,
and I was totally smitten by Lily, and I said to myself,
"I don't want to be in a movie," which I was producing,
"about secretaries unless Lily Tomlin is in it, too."
Driving home, turn on the radio, Two Doors Down is playing.
And I suddenly get an image of Dolly Parton sitting at a typewriter.
And I thought, "That would be something,
"to have Dolly Parton in her first movie playing a secretary in a movie
"that, among many other things,
"is going to touch upon sexual harassment.
"She's perfect."
And here's to the beginning.
When Jane came to me with it, I said,
"Well, this is a good opportunity, but I'll only do it
"if I can write the theme song."
So they said, "OK," I said, "OK."
I thought, "Well, I will do it, because Jane Fonda is a huge star,"
and Lily Tomlin was, and I always thought, "If it's a big hit,
"then I'll get the glory of it, like them, with Lily and Jane,
"and if it's a flop, I can blame it on them."
Well, welcome to the front lines.
9 To 5 was about working women in the workforce,
and their relationships to the boss,
and however the corporate culture imposes itself on them.
Hi, Violet, how's everything going?
She plays an abundantly sexy secretary to the boss, who is an
object of harassment on a daily basis, and she's really a nice,
innocent southern girl who sings a song and plays the guitar
and has a husband.
And she just is shocked and amazed that the boss is hitting on her
all the time.
Mr Hart, I've told you before, I'm a married woman.
And I'm a married man. That's what makes it so perfect.
Oh, Mr Hart...
And of course, all the other girls in the office,
they don't like her because they think she's a floozy.
So you've been telling everybody I'm sleeping with you, huh?
Well, that explains it, that's why these people treat me like
some dime store floozy. No, no... They think I'm screwing the boss.
That's not it at all...
And you just love it, don't you?
It gives you some sort of cheap thrill,
like knocking over pencils...
Let's not get excited...
Get your scummy hands off of me.
Well, it was kind of modelled on her personality.
Dolly grew up poor in the sense of material advantages,
so she knows what it feels like to be put upon, to be challenged,
and I'm sure she's been sexually harassed in her life.
Look, I've got a gun out there in my purse, and up to now,
I've been forgiving and forgetting because of the way I was brought up,
but I'll tell you one thing.
If you ever say another word about me or make another
indecent proposal, I'm going to get that gun of mine,
and I'm going to change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot.
It was fun, it was such a joy to make, but I wasn't intimidated
by them, because I have all these sisters, too,
I have all these sisters and aunts.
I love women, I know the nature of women,
so it was just like having two new girlfriends.
We just liked each other, and we had an automatic camaraderie.
I think we each fancied we were lighting up the room.
I used to say,
"Each one of us thought we were the one in the middle."
Jane was so political, so active, I was a lesbian,
and so Dolly naturally thought she was in the middle.
You cannot finish a day with Dolly without laughing so hard
that you have to cross your legs.
LAUGHTER
When we were starting 9 To 5, we were trying to get really chummy,
and we went to the Beverly Hills hotel,
and we had two or three pyjama parties.
But Dolly, I don't remember Dolly ever really confiding anything
to us. She just... sets a boundary for herself.
I've never seen Dolly without a wig.
To this day, I've never seen Dolly without her hair.
You know, during the entire time that I was with her,
when she came out of her bedroom, she was done, it was all made,
you know... I never saw her without her regalia.
She's an utter professional.
I was very impressed.
When I said I wanted to write the theme song, I'd read the script,
but I wanted to get a feel for what was going on on the set.
They just do a few lines a day sometimes, and I'm just such an
antsy little person, I'm just like a wiggle worm, I can't be still.
So here I am in my trailer, waiting for lights to be set up,
and I thought, "What am I going to do?
"I guess I'll write songs."
So I would just walk around on the set, you know,
I wear acrylic nails... NAILS CLACK RHYTHMICALLY
and I thought I would play the nails,
and I'd come up with little things and I would see on set, like...
# I tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen
# Pour myself a cup... #
And I thought, "Wow, that sounds like a typewriter."
One memorable moment that Lily and I talk about from time to time
was the morning that Dolly came to work and motioned us over,
just outside the set, she said, "I've just written the song."
And she used her long nails as a washboard,
and she sang 9 To 5.
And Lily and I looked at each other, and we had goose bumps.
Jane Fonda and I were just flabbergasted.
We thought it was so great.
I said to Jane, "This will make the movie a hit if nothing else."
# Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen
# Pour myself a cup of ambition
# And yawnin', stretchin', try to come to life
# Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin'
# Out on the streets, the traffic starts jumpin'
# And folks like me on the job from 9 to 5... #
And we knew, this is not just a movie song, this is an anthem.
# Workin' 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin'
# Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'... #
Jane said, "Oh, we love it, you've got to finish it,"
so I kind of spread it out on purpose so it would be kind of like
one of our little fun things, our little hobby.
"What did you write tonight?"
And I had 100 verses on that I didn't use, just because
I was writing about everything, even comedy, stuff I knew wasn't
going to be used, just real things that happened.
When I had to narrow it down to do it as a record, I brought
all the women on the show to come in and sing background on it.
And I played nails.
And on the record, it says nails by me.
# They let you dream Just to watch 'em shatter
# You're just a step on the boss man's ladder
# But you got dreams he'll never take away... #
A song like 9 To 5, everyone could relate to.
And from a woman's standpoint, a lot of those lyrics are so...
Like, they're kind of hitting on some hot buttons
that we're still talking about today. Yeah.
# Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin'... #
Any song that has the word livin' in it, L-I-V-I-N with an apostrophe,
is a country song.
It's popular.
It's popular. So she made country music, she gave it a wider audience,
you know, made it even more popular.
# You would think that I would deserve a fair promotion... #
9 To 5 was very successful.
I think it was the second highest grossing film of the year,
which was remarkable for a woman-led film.
Being in 9 To 5 just showed Dolly's versatility.
She was a big musical star, and now a movie audience
with a huge hit, as 9 To 5 was, just makes her better.
A queen, an empress.
# Workin' 9 to 5. #
APPLAUSE Thank you!
Dolly can do anything.
Dolly's crossed over into pop, she became an actress when
she had no idea what it even meant, learnt everybody's lines for
the entire movie 9 To 5, apparently.
I think Dolly is a chameleon.
She will always remain, you know, the backbone will always be Dolly.
# Islands in the stream
# That is what we are
# No-one in between
# How can we be wrong?
# Sail away with me
# To another world
# And we rely on each other, a-ha
# From one lover to another, a-ha... #
I have a lot of gay fans, and a lot of gay friends.
I have a lot of drag queen fans, too.
They don't come to see me be me, they come to see me be them,
so I'm busy trying to enjoy my own self
but trying to give them what they need as well.
# Islands in the stream
# That is what we are
# No-one in between... #
It's like through her song, she opens her arms wide,
and embraces such a broad swath of people that don't always feel seen.
And it's why people love her.
And it's why, you know, when we've been in public with her,
her fans will drive for hours to be where she is.
I've been with a lot of big movie stars.
I've never seen the devotion that her fans have for her
in anyone else. It's quite extraordinary.
# Two doors down
# They're laughin' and drinkin' and havin' a party
# And two doors down they're not aware that I'm around
# Here I am No longer cryin' an' feelin' sorry
# We're havin' a party... #
# Hey, maybe I'll dye my hair
# Maybe I'll move somewhere... #
With all the glamour and all the other businesses and
all the stuff I do, you'd be shocked to know how little I still am.
How small, and how vulnerable, and how country,
and how I'm still that little girl.
# Maybe I'll gain some weight
# Maybe I'll clear my junk
# Maybe I'll just get drunk on apple wine... #
When we think about Dolly, and I talk about the light
emanating from her and all of that, there's got to be the other side.
The light doesn't happen without the dark,
so that's got to be there somewhere.
How much of it she would like to reveal
or needs to reveal, I don't know.
You can't live as much as I've lived and be willing to give
and express yourself as much as I do to the public.
You can't even give yourself away that much without really
suffering a great deal of sorrow.
She's very vulnerable.
I think she's vulnerable to the fame.
If I've seen anything that wears her down, it's that,
it's the constant having to be Dolly.
Around this time,
RCA dropped Dolly's contract, and that was a real blow.
She had been with them for decades, and yet she wasn't selling any more.
I guess the music business, the public,
had become oversaturated with Dolly Parton.
She was everywhere for a while.
You know, a lot of times when you get burned out, you quit,
but I think in her case, she reset and kind of got back to her roots.
# Little sparrow
# Precious, fragile little thing... #
I still felt like I had as much passion about it as I ever did.
And if I ever was any good, that I was as good as I ever was,
so I thought, you know, "I can't give up on this."
So we decided that we were going to do some more traditional things,
and I was just going to kind of manage myself.
I said, "I'm going to do my music if I have to pay for it
"and sell it out of the trunk of my car."
I was sitting with Dave Buckingham, my friend and my producer,
he had produced several of my records, and he said,
"I read a very interesting thing in the magazine that they asked
"the fans who they would most like to hear do a bluegrass album."
And they said me. And I said, "Really?"
And he said, "Yeah, you were number one on that whole chart,
"that you were the person they'd like..."
I said, "Well, let's do one."
# Leaving you to never mend... #
I think when we first heard that she was going to do a bluegrass record,
that made sense to me, because this was that kind of music,
that's where she came from.
Bluegrass music is the cousin of country music,
because they both started in the same place with the people playing
on the back porches, fiddles and banjos and guitars.
My first awareness of music in general,
my people were very musical.
My mother's people, they all played some sort of musical instrument.
And it was mostly old mountain music, old world stories,
where people carried the messages of the world in song.
All of that stuff that was brought over by our ancestors
was embedded in my soul.
I call it my Smoky Mountain DNA, that is why I think that
style of music is still my favourite, and I think that
I do that better than any other music that I do.
Bluegrass music is about moonshining or being lonesome for home,
you know, missing mother, tragedies.
# Sittin' on the front porch on a summer afternoon
# In a straight-backed chair on two legs leaned against the wall... #
I would say Dolly has always been a bluegrass musician.
# I watch the kids a-playin'
# With June bugs on a string
# And chase the glowin' fireflies
# When evening shadows fall
# In my Tennessee mountain home
# Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh... #
Tennessee Mountain Home is almost the anthem of what I would say
bluegrass music is trying to get out.
It's all about, "I want to go back home," it's at a quick tempo.
The music chugs along with these words floating over the top
of it that are, you know, just tearing your heart out.
# And on a distant hilltop, an eagle spreads its wings
# A songbird on a fence post sings a melody... #
I kind of see Dolly Parton, for as long as I can remember,
singing bluegrass music. That's why it was seemingly effortless
for her to do a couple of bluegrass records.
It's a hummingbird.
APPLAUSE Thank you.
She just unplugged the bass.
I'm going to go over here, and just got to sit at the piano.
I'm not going to play it, I'm just going to sit at it.
As we were going to the studio every day to cut this record,
she would show up early, and she was cooking again.
She would cook, and bring all this food to the studio,
so we didn't have to leave, and we were totally happy,
a whole bunch of country people in there, you know.
I think SHE was happy, I think she was with her flock.
I thought, "Well, what am I going to call my bluegrass album?"
And I wanted it to say bluegrass, but I didn't want it to be hokey,
so I thought, The Grass Is Blue.
I'm going to call it The Grass Is Blue.
And I thought,
"Well, what am I going to say about The Grass Is Blue?
"We all know grass is green," but I thought,
"I'll have to write a sad song about being blue."
So I was in my trailer, in my bus, and I just started writing
this song, and all of a sudden, I thought, "Well, if the grass
"is green, the grass is blue, I will write the opposite.
"I will make everything in the whole song an opposite."
# And the rivers flow backwards and my tears are dry
# Swans hate the water, and eagles can't fly. #
You know, I thought, "This is good," so I just kept on doing that.
And then I came up with real singable bluegrass harmonies
in the choruses, in the rivers, with the melody.
So by the time I got finished with it, I called Steve Buckingham,
I said, "Look, you've got to come over here,
"I think I've got our song. I think I've got our song written."
And he loved it, and so...
It's one of my favourite songs I've ever written.
The Grass Is Blue is a really sophisticated song,
both musically and lyrically.
It's from the perspective of someone who has just been
broken up with, and is devastated and can't see a way forward.
And the only way that she can cope
is to pretend that the opposite of everything is true.
Dolly weaves these together in an amazing way to demonstrate
the effort that it takes to overcome this kind of heartbreak.
The sentiment of The Grass Is Blue is something is definitely wrong.
So when we would play it...
HE PLAYS MELANCHOLY RHYTHM
And minors are always more mysterious.
HE PLAYS "THE GRASS IS BLUE" INTRO
# Rivers flow backwards... #
She started singing,
and all the cold chills would just go up your back.
# Mountains are level... #
And it was just like, "Oh, man, there's my whole life in one sound,
"in a person's voice."
# But I'm perfectly fine now, and I don't miss you... #
What I've always said about Dolly's voice is she uses her voice
as if it's an instrument.
So I'm trying to use my instrument as if it's her voice.
# The rivers flow backwards
# And my tears are dry
# Swans hate the water
# And eagles can't fly
# Oh, but I'm all right now
# Now that I'm over you... #
At the end, I wanted to keep building, because I wanted
those bluegrass harmonies to just keep going.
You know, before it kind of resolved into a sad little place
where the grass was still blue.
# I don't love you
# And the grass is blue. #
But I really think that was very effective in the song,
and I thought that out carefully.
I've never gone where anybody expected me to go,
and I do that often in my songs.
You might think you know me, but I might surprise you.
APPLAUSE
I went to Europe with her in 2002, touring the Bluegrass record
Halos & Horns, and it was a very small affair.
I think she was riding in a camper,
the guys were riding in a Ray Charles bus with seats,
and it was small venues and very under-promoted.
And I don't think she enjoyed that very much.
I think she was like, "Look, I don't need to be doing this."
Dolly, this way, please.
After 1991 to about 2004,
I think she was more considered a heritage artist.
But I thought, "Hey, this woman's a superstar icon.
"We have to market this differently."
She hadn't had a manager for 17 years prior to me,
so she was very reluctant.
She was like, "Who is this young punk trying to tell me what to do?"
You know, that doesn't go over well.
# Blue Smoke climbing up the mountain
# Blue Smoke winding round the bend... #
I knew she needed a guy like that, that could take her on
and spar with her, and do the yin and the yang that she likes.
Dolly was basically like,
"Hey, if you lose me millions of dollars, you're fired.
"Are you sure you want to take this risk?"
And I said, "Absolutely, I want to take this risk.
"I believe in the research, the planning and the strategy
"that I've done, and now I'm going to execute and follow through."
# Blue Smoke climbing up the mountain
# Blue Smoke winding round the bend
# Blue Smoke is the name of the heartbreak train
# That I am ridin' in... #
We put tickets on sale six months in advance.
We sold 14 arenas out in 60 minutes.
I put another seven shows on sale and we sold 21 shows out.
# Oh, clickety, clickety, clickety clack
# Just stay on track and never look back... #
She was massive. I mean, the largest solo tour
that she had ever done in the history of her career.
I think in recent years that she's getting more credibility
from being a songwriter.
The songs that she does have have been some of the biggest...
I Will Always Love You and Jolene and 9 To 5,
they're just staples, you know what I mean?
The audiences range from 3 years old to 70 years old,
and I can tell you that when those songs come on,
there's just nobody that doesn't know it, on a global level.
Whoa-whoa, roll with me now.
CROWD CHANTS: Dolly! Dolly!
I grew up in the country, so this mud ain't nothing new to me.
CHEERING
And it's nothing new to you either, is it?
# Back through the years I go wanderin' once again
# Back to the seasons of my youth
# And I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
# And how my momma put the rags to use
# There were rags of many colours
# Every piece was small
# And I didn't have a coat
# And it was way down in the fall... #
Coat Of Many Colours is my favourite song
because it really covers a lot of ground.
First of all, it's about my mother, who I loved dearly.
It's about confidence, it's about bullying, it's about acceptance.
# So with patches on my britches, holes in both my shoes
# In my coat of many colours I hurried off to school
# Just to find the others laughing and making fun of me
# In my coat of many colours my momma made for me... #
I think about where I am now, compared to where I've been,
where I came from, and how much I have achieved,
and that is my philosophy, that little song.
It's OK to be different, you know,
it's OK to not be like everybody else.
In fact, it's not only OK, it's wonderful that you are who you are.
DOLLY HUMS
This one...
Things are different once you become a star.
But I wanted to be a star, and I don't complain about that now,
because I appreciate the fact that people know me and recognise me.
I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be recognised,
I wanted to be appreciated for what I do.
OK, I'm good to go.
But it's so different now, the business,
than it was when I was a girl here in Nashville.
I'm so happy that I was one of those old-timers that really got to
grow with it and know what it was really about to really
build a career, not necessarily have someone else build one for you
and just hand it to you.
Ladies and gentlemen, celebrating 50 years as a member
of the Grand Ole Opry, please welcome Dolly Parton.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Hey, hey!
How are you?
Whoo!
Hello, everybody.
And you, and you, and all of you.
Hey, up there!
Well, 50 years at the Grand Ole Opry?
Well, this is really a special night for me, and thank you for
standing up for me - or were you just resting your butts?
That woman is not retiring.
There is no reason for her to retire.
She is still writing songs,
she's got over 1,000 songs people haven't heard.
She has Dollywood, you know, she's making movies.
She's not going anywhere any time soon, and when she decides that,
I bet we're never even going to know.
It's like, I bet Dolly's just going to disappear.
I've had a wonderful life, I have so many people to thank,
but none more than you, my fans.
So this is a song I like to end my show with,
and of course, it was written for other reasons,
but it says the perfect thing to you.
# Mm-mm, mm-mm
# If I
# Should stay
# I would only be in your way
# So I'll go
# But I know
# I'll think of you each step of the way
# And I
# Will always
# Love you... #
I think there will always be country music.
I do believe that people will search out those songs,
like the Jolenes, hopefully, or the I Will Always Love Yous,
or the Hank Williams songs, and all those great songs,
because they are the stories that people naturally live.
They are your true feelings, it's about love and heartache
and family and poverty, so I think that there will always be
that simplicity that people need, because the world is so complicated.
I think that country music kind of simplifies simplicity,
and we're going to always need that, the crazier the whole world gets.
# But I
# Will always
# Love you... #
She can see into people.
She's deep.
We're all unique, but she's more unique than anybody else.
# I hope life
# Treats you kind
# And I hope you have all you ever dreamed of
# Oh, I do wish you joy
# And lots of happiness
# But above all this
# I wish you love
# And I
# Will always
# Love you
# I will always
# Love you
# I will always love
# You
# I will always love you. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thank you so, so much.