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Dolly Parton Said 1 Musician Made Her ‘Furious’ With His Comments About Country Music

Emma McKee — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:19:00 +0000

In the late 1970s, Dolly Parton irritated the country establishment in Nashville when she began seeking more mainstream success. Parton aimed for a spot on the pop charts, which some believed meant she was turning her back on true country music. Parton defended her decision, noting that she would always consider herself a country musician. She defended the genre against anyone who spoke ill of it.

Dolly Parton had a major problem with the way another artist talked about country music

When Parton began to seek crossover success, she hired a new management team from Los Angeles. This move, as well as the type of music she began releasing, rubbed some the wrong way. Parton said she would always consider herself a country musician, though.

“I will always be here, and I will always be able to help country music in many, many ways,” Parton said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Well, by becoming as big as I can in the music business and the entertainment field, and then by doing things like I did on the Johnny Carson show, when I know that at times there have been people on there that have really downgraded country music, or people who said they were not country.”

Dolly Parton | 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images

Parton pointed to drummer Buddy Rich as an example of someone who denigrated country music. She said his remarks infuriated her.

“Like Buddy Rich comes on there sometimes, and he says country music is music with no class and all that, which makes me furious!” she said. “You talk about country music in a bad way and that’s like sayin’ my momma is a whore! Them’s just fightin’ words! So I think I’ll help it by sayin’ things like, ‘I love country,’ and that I’m proud to be part of it, and I’m proud of Nashville, and that I think country music is a music with a lot of class.”

Dolly Parton said she would always consider herself a country musician

Parton said that no matter what level of success she reached, she always wanted to be a figure in the world of country music. It was like home to her.

“I want to be able to walk out on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and have people say, ‘Well, you know, I saw her on so-and-so, and boy, she’s still on the Grand Ole Opry.’ Well, I am proud to be on the Grand Ole Opry,” she said. “I love it. I would like to take it with me everywhere I go. And I do. I would never walk out on the Grand Ole Opry or on Nashville. I hope they’ll always let me be a member, because that is something I wanted to do all my life.”

While she didn’t want to put labels on her music, she said that if she had to, she would describe it as country.

“Because I am country, don’tcha see?” she said. “Now, a lot of people would be furious with that. I’d call it country because it’s me. But I really prefer to call it Dolly Parton’s music.”

She understood that changing her sound would bring pushback

Despite Parton’s insistence that she would always be a country artist, she understood any change to her sound might frustrate people. As a result, she began putting out ads to accompany the release of her album New Harvest … First Gathering.

Dolly Parton | Michael Putland/Getty Images

“Any time you make a change, you gotta pay the price,” she wrote in an advertisement. “A lot of country people feel I’m leaving the country, that I’m not proud of Nashville, which is the biggest lie there is. I don’t want to leave the country, but to take the whole country with me wherever I go. There are really no limits now.”

A Photographer Said It Was a ‘Shame’ the Way Dolly Parton Changed With Fame

Emma McKee — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 15:23:00 +0000

In the 1970s, Dolly Parton’s growing career brought her an increased amount of fame. With the help of a new management team, Parton pursued a spot on the pop charts. While many of her peers celebrated her success, other people she knew bristled at her fame. They believed she had changed too much.

A photographer said Dolly Parton changed with fame

As Parton found more mainstream success, she became aware of the fact that people in Nashville were concerned. Though many were excited for her, others believed she was turning her back on country music. She hired a new Los Angeles-based management team and spent increasing amounts of time out of Tennessee.

“People are afraid I don’t know what I am doing. But I do,” Parton said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I think they’re thinking I’m headed toward that land of the lost. When in all truth, I have been found all the time.”

Others were upset that Parton was no longer as accessible as she once was. Nashville residents could once see her at grocery stores and local events. She was easily accessible to anyone looking to contact her. Understandably, this changed as she became more famous.

Dolly Parton | David Redfern/Redferns

“Yeah, it’s a shame the way Dolly’s gotten away,” photographer Michael G. Borum said. “She used to be real accessible, but she’s not any longer. To get to her at all, you have to go through three agents. You just can’t talk to her at all.”

Borum said he used to be able to contact Parton whenever he needed to.

“I used to practically call her — just call her aunt [Colleen Owens] who does her hair and say I needed to see her, and I’d get a reply,” he said. “When she’d be shooting her TV show out at Opryland, RCA would call and say, ‘We want to do some shots of Dolly. You want to come on out?’ That kind of thing is long gone.”

Dolly Parton’s old friends also felt fame had changed her

Some of Parton’s old friends and family members felt similarly. They used to be able to see her after concerts or at local festivals. This became harder after she hired her new management team.

“I’m sure they have to follow their ordinary routine, but on the other hand, no one is going to hurt Dolly around here,” Parton’s former principal said. “I don’t know whether the new management puts more pressure on scheduling and things like that, or whether that’s just their basic setup. And I realize Dolly has to have her rest. But I could tell a lot more of an enclosed setup around Dolly this time. Actually, they just kept her closed in.”

Parton’s friend, Ruth Green, saw it as a problem that Parton’s management was putting distance between her and her family.

“Dolly’s grandfather was in here the other day,” Green said. “He asked how I liked Dolly’s last show, and I said I liked it fine, except I didn’t get a chance to reminisce like we used to. He said he didn’t either, The minute she left the stage, she was gone. They had the bus parked where nobody could get at her. Mrs. Parton said nobody got to see Dolly, not even her.”

She denied that she had changed

Parton found any insinuations that she was purposely distancing herself from family and friends insulting. She had big dreams and was pursuing them regardless of what people said about her.

Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

“I have a song to sing and I have a heart that is full of love and compassion,” she said. “And I have dreams and desires to do things. And I will not sit and grow stale. I will not do it!”

Brenda Lee Said Dolly Parton’s Old Friends Were a ‘Threat’ to Her

Emma McKee — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 19:15:10 +0000

When Dolly Parton’s fame grew in the 1970s, fellow musician Brenda Lee gave insight into the way her life would change. Parton idolized Lee throughout her childhood, and they became friendly as Parton’s career grew more successful. With Parton’s success came complaints from those who knew her about the way fame changed her. Lee shared why Parton might be more distant with her old friends.

Brenda Lee shared the way Dolly Parton’s life changed after fame

When Parton hired a management team from Los Angeles to take control of her career, many people in Nashville were aghast. They felt she was turning her back on country music and the community that uplifted her. Lee, who understood the position Parton was in, offered insight as to why she may be more distant.

“Maybe old friends are a threat to Dolly inasmuch as she’s trying to live a life that’s in accordance with what she’s doing,” Lee said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She’s leading a jet-set life now. Let’s face it. That’s how you live when you’re in those circles. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of great people in that circle. But I think maybe she’s afraid to relate to the sort of semi-stardom and fans that she had before. She doesn’t want to lose what she’s gained. She’s worked hard for it.”

Dolly Parton | Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

Lee said she could completely understand what Parton was going through, but she hoped she wouldn’t change too much.

“There are all different things that go on,” she said. “I know she’s definitely trying to do a lot. And that must take a tremendous amount of time. It’s a hard grind. Especially to stay up in the pop field. But I hope everything good happens for her, because I think she’s a good person. Let’s just hope she keeps her perspective and remembers all those things she’s said — that she’s not ashamed of her heritage, that she’s not ashamed of having been poor. Because the values of the heart and soul should not change.”

People who knew her complained that she was less ‘accessible’

Many of the people who worked with Parton in her early days in Nashville had problems with the way she behaved after fame. She didn’t treat anyone poorly, she just wasn’t as accessible as she had once been.

“I don’t feel like I know Dolly anymore,” a woman who worked with Parton said. “She’s excluded everybody I know in Nashville. Nobody hears from her anymore. You can’t get in touch with her. There definitely has been a change. Whether it’s that she’s busy, or what, I don’t know. But she used to go shopping, and stop and talk with men, women, children — whatever. Now it’s like she’s disappeared from the earth. All this just happened when she went to the West Coast.”

A photographer who frequently worked with Parton agreed.

“Yeah, it’s a shame the way Dolly’s gotten away,” he said. “She used to be real accessible, but she’s not any longer. To get to her at all, you have to go through three agents. You just can’t talk to her at all.”

Dolly Parton was a longtime fan of Brenda Lee

Lee was able to comment on the changes in Parton’s life because she knew the singer well. Parton had grown up idolizing Lee, and they eventually met.

“It turned out that Brenda’s husband and mine went to Central High School together and were friends,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly Parton, Songteller. “And that gave us something to talk about. In my early days in Nashville, we visited together as couples — Ronnie Shacklett and Carl Dean, the high-school buddies, and Brenda and me. We’d go to each other’s houses to eat or play cards or do whatever.”

She said that she formed a strong, loving relationship with Lee.

“Brenda and I have always loved each other,” she wrote. “We both love music, and we are both very short. We’d joke about that. I’d say, ‘Hell, anybody is bigger than me.’ But she’d say, ‘No, you are taller than me.’ So I’d say, ‘Well then, you’re the only person I know who I’m bigger than.’ So we’ve always had that ‘little’ kidding thing going on.”

People Told Dolly Parton She Was ‘Crazy’ for Trying to Cover 2 Classic Songs

Emma McKee — Sun, 30 Jun 2024 13:28:00 +0000

In 1977, Dolly Parton released a new album that featured two songs she did not write. Parton has always prided herself on her abilities as a writer, but she felt both songs, which she had loved as a teenager, were good additions to the album. Here’s how people reacted when she told them she would be covering these songs.

Dolly Parton covered 2 of her favorite songs on the album ‘New Harvest … First Gathering’

In 1977, Parton released the album New Harvest … First Gathering. Though it was not her first solo album, it was the first album she’d ever self-produced and she hoped it would bring her crossover success. She had long been a success in Nashville, but she wanted broader recognition.

Parton wrote eight of the album’s ten songs, but she included two covers that listeners would likely recognize. These were The Temptations’ “My Girl” and Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.” Both were among Parton’s favorite songs while she was growing up and she had long wanted to cover them. She finally had a chance to because she produced her own album. Still, people believed the covers were a mistake.

“Everyone thought I was crazy when I said I wanted to record them,” Parton told Alanna Nash in the book Dolly.

The covers did bring her a bit of criticism. Some critics thought Parton sounded too country for the songs. Others believed that including non-country music on her album was a betrayal of Nashville.

People felt Dolly Parton was moving away from country music when she covered these songs

Parton’s ambition for mainstream success rankled some of her peers in Nashville. Parton said she knew that trying to score a spot on the pop charts would bring some criticism.

“Any time you make a change, you gotta pay the price,” she wrote in an advertisement for the album. “A lot of country people feel I’m leaving the country, that I’m not proud of Nashville, which is the biggest lie there is. I don’t want to leave the country, but to take the whole country with me wherever I go. There are really no limits now.”

Still, many of her peers defended Parton’s artistic decisions on New Harvest … First Gathering.

She said the album meant a great deal to her

Though it rubbed some people the wrong way, Parton said New Harvest … First Gathering would always be an important album to her. The ability to cover songs she had always loved without pushback was a major part of this. She finally felt as though she was in charge of her career.

“Even if it doesn’t sell a nickel’s worth, it will always be my special album, because it was the first time in my whole life I got to do something totally on my own,” she said, adding, “This is by far the best thing I’ve ever done. It was the first chance I had to have total musical freedom and self-expression — the first time I’ve ever produced anything. I got all my ideas down and also had some great ideas from the creative people in my group, like Gregg. But it’s the first thing I’ve done of this nature, and it’s not the only kind of thing I’m ever gonna be doin’.”

She said she hoped to continue to grow and push boundaries on albums to come.

Dolly Parton Shared Why Her Tour With Willie Nelson Was a Struggle

Emma McKee — Sat, 29 Jun 2024 17:16:17 +0000

In the 1970s, Dolly Parton joined Willie Nelson on tour. She was working on her solo career and trying to lean to perform with a new band. Parton appealed to a broad audience at the time, but Nelson’s fans were not always among them. She struggled for the crowd’s attention and later admitted that she wasn’t sure why she had been on the tour.

Dolly Parton had a difficult time on tour with Willie Nelson

As she profiled Parton, writer Alanna Nash attended one of her shows in Waco, Texas. She was touring the state with Nelson.

“You’ll be able to tell who they’ve come to see as soon as they walk through the door,” reporter Steve Ray told Nash, per her book Dolly. “If the guys have long hair and wear dungarees and flannel shirts — that progressive country look — then they’ve come to see Willie. If they’re rednecks with flattops who bring women who wear short skirts or tight pants, then they’ve come to see Dolly.”

Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton | CBS via Getty Images

Parton took the stage before Nelson and quickly discovered that most of the crowd was there to see him. As she sang, people talked over her and shouted his name.

“It’s beginning to show in her speaking voice now and in her eyes when she turns around and gives the band direction,” Nash wrote. “A combination of anger and fear. The crowd is far from hers. In some ways, it’s ‘Where’s Norma Jean?’”

It didn’t help that there were major issues with the sound system. Still, Parton was diplomatic about the experience.

“I don’t really know how the tour came about,” Parton later said, adding, “I just know that I thought it would be a good idea to do some things with some people like that, ’cause I have quite a following in what they call: ‘underground,’ and I especially like Willie. I found it to be an experience. Now, Willie’s people treated me great. We had some problems with a few things — not with each other — but, like the night you were in Waco we had some sound problems and all that. And the crowd was different. Different for me even than they were for Willie, but they accepted us both very well.”

Dolly Parton’s band agreed it had been a mistake to pair her with Willie Nelson on tour

When reflecting on Parton’s tour with Nelson, her backup singer Mary Field admitted it hadn’t been her favorite experience. Guitarist Don Roth agreed. He said it had been “dumb” to pair her with Nelson, and that Parton’s label didn’t take the tour very seriously.

“It got better because we started demanding sound crew,” he said. “The sound got to where it was mediocre — all the way up to mediocre. But that first night, it was absurd. But the rest of the tour went about the same, as far as the crowd. We did only twenty or thirty minutes in front of Willie. We took our money and ran. I don’t know why we were there. Oh, yes I do. RCA wanted a throwaway tour for Dolly to polish up the new band. They didn’t know the new band was all professionals and didn’t need polishing. RCA thought, ‘Give ’em a chance to get out and work with a big sound system’ that we’d never had.”

She considers the other musician a good friend

While the tour may not have been a great experience for Parton, it didn’t affect her relationship with Nelson. They had known each other since they were working as songwriters in the 1960s.

Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson | Katherine Bomboy/NBC via Getty Images

“Willie and I came to town about the same time,” Parton said, per CMT. “Back in 1964, ’65, ’66, we both were writing for Combine Music … And we used to hang out a lot together, different people. Even Kristofferson back in those days! We all knew each other, and we used to sit around and write different songs.”

Parton and Nelson have collaborated over the years and continue to have a good relationship.

How Dolly Parton Inspired Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Please Please Please’

Matthew Trzcinski — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 01:27:11 +0000

Sometimes musical inspiration comes from the unlikeliest places. For example, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” is a glorious nugget of modern pop but it was inspired by Dolly Parton and a 1970s movie star. Carpenter dismissed the idea that she worked with the wrong producer for the track.

Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Please Please Please’ was inspired by 2 country stars from the 1970s

Carpenter’s upcoming album Short n’ Sweet was produced by Jack Antonoff, one of the most important producers of the current century. He got his start in the successful indie rock band Fun. Since then, he’s worked on critically acclaimed albums by Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Lana Del Rey.

In a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, Antonoff compared “Please Please Please” to the music of two successful singers who peaked during the 1970s and 1980s. “There’s like an Olivia Newton [John] feeling, there’s a Dolly feeling, there’s an incredibly super modern pop feeling,” Antonoff said. “The little vocal runs she does are so bizarre and unique — they’re doing this really odd, classic, almost yodel-y country thing. She’s becoming one of the biggest young pop stars, and that song is such a statement of — expressing yourself, not just lyrically, but sonically.”

It probably seems odd for Antonoff to compare Newton-John, who is primarily remembered today for the pop/rock musical Grease and the dance-pop hit “Physical,” to Parton. However, Newton-John had more successes than Grease and “Physical.” During the 1970s, she straddled the lines between pop and country. She might not have had the indelible impact on country music that Parton had, but her country songs connected with a lot of people during one of the genre’s defining decades.

Sabrina Carpenter is working with 1 f the most controversial producers ever

Working with Antonoff is a great idea on a commercial level. Nobody knows how to get an album to run up the charts quite like Antonoff. However, a lot of people feel like his style is limp and stale. His critics have accused him of removing everything that was interesting about Swift, Lorde, and Del Rey so that they could follow his playbook.

Carpenter is not sympathetic to this viewpoint. “F*** them all,” the “Espresso” singer said. “I think he’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. When he’s in a room, he’s able to literally touch every instrument in the room and make it sound magical. He also works very fast, which I really appreciate because I work very fast.”

In addition, Carpenter explained her goals for Short n’ Sweet. “I hope they find whatever they need to guide them through their life through my mistakes, because I think the more open I am with my experiences, the more that other people are like, ‘Oh, maybe that’s OK that that happened to me. It’s not the end of the world,'” he added.

‘Please Please Please’ is close to the top

“Please Please Please” is one of the summer songs. It is currently No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is good enough and memorable enough to reach the top of the chart, but we will have to see.

“Please Please Please” took some inspiration from Parton and Carpenter might be on her way to becoming an icon like the “I Will Always Love You” singer.

Dolly Parton Said She Needed to Be in a ‘Mood’ to Write

Emma McKee — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 17:11:02 +0000

Dolly Parton sets aside time to write every single day, but she said she doesn’t have a particularly disciplined songwriting practice. Some artists set aside the same few hours every day to work, but Parton said she doesn’t like this much structure. Instead, she waits for certain moods to hit her before she can put a song to paper.

Dolly Parton said she had to be in a certain type of mood in order to write

Parton takes greater pride in her work as a writer than a singer. It leaves her feeling more fulfilled as well, as she is able to pour her emotions into written words. Because the songwriting process is so emotional for her, she said needs to be in certain types of moods to write.

“I’m not a disciplined writer at all. I’m strictly an impulsive writer, and I write from inspiration,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I get my ideas from everybody. When I feel this need to write, it comes out of my heart and soul. Because I get moods, great moods, weird moods. You know, really inspired moods, and I just get real involved in what I’m doin’ and I can’t stop.”

Dolly Parton | Tabatha Fireman/Redferns via Getty Images

She said that when the urge to write grabs her, she struggles to stop for anything.

“I’ve stayed up as long as three days before — well, at least two days, and into the third day before I could really make my mind stop enough to rest.”

Dolly Parton doesn’t notice anything around her when she sits down to write

Those who have watched Parton write say that she pays attention to little else when she begins to work on a song. She centers all her focus on her creative inspiration.

“Her writing is automatic,” a member of her band said. “I mean, she’ll sit down with the guitar and the licks just come and the words fly right out of her mouth. I’m not kiddin’ you. She just sits down and writes them. There’s no tellin’ how many she’ll write once she starts — ten or twenty, maybe. And when she gets in that writing mood, forget about talkin’ to her, because she’s mesmerized. You ask her a question and she don’t know what you’re sayin’, she’s so into her writing.”

Parton’s friend said that she was once in the room with Parton while she wrote, and the musician hardly seemed to notice she was there.

She said she wrote 20 songs in her most prolific writing session

In her most inspired state, Parton sat down and wrote 20 songs, a fact she says some find difficult to believe. Even more impressive, she recorded most of them.

“Out of those twenty songs I wrote, fifteen of ’em have been recorded. Because when I get on a real wild streak, look out!” she said. “Now it depends on the nature of the song. Up-tempo is easier for me to write, with simple words. But anyway, twenty is the most I’ve ever written in a setting.”

She said that the songs “Take Me Back” and “You Are” were among the results of this writing session.

Dolly Parton Said Porter Wagoner Broke Her Heart With the Interviews He Gave About Her

Emma McKee — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 17:47:00 +0000

After Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner went their separate ways, he turned to the media to complain about her. Wagoner hadn’t wanted Parton to leave his show, but he maintained a working relationship with her as her producer. When she told him she wanted to go in a different direction with her music, he was furious. Parton said that seeing the things Wagoner was saying about her broke her heart.

Porter Wagoner spoke poorly about Dolly Parton in the press

As Parton worked to bring herself more mainstream success, she shook up many parts of her music career. She had been working with Wagoner as her producer, but she decided to produce her own records. He took this as a major betrayal.

“I don’t know why she did it,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And that’s the thing. I can’t understand why a person with any kind of background and any kind of soul would be afraid to tell a person that. Because I feel that’s something I should know, why it happened. And until now, I don’t know. It’s a heavy thing for you to have that much of your life wrapped up in a certain area and spend as much time and as much energy in the production of records, then all of a sudden see it crumble and not know why.”

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

He complained that he had sacrificed his career to work on hers. Wagoner didn’t think Parton gave him enough thanks for his efforts.

“I put a lot of energy into making her records great, and my own records suffered,” he said. “In 1975, I spent 568 hours in RCA studios, and 95 percent of the time was on Dolly’s records or the duets … Believe me, I wish her well [but] if she’s number one for ten years she won’t be happy.”

Dolly Parton said it broke her heart to hear Porter Wagoner talk about her like this

Wagoner railed against Parton in countless interviews, which caused her a tremendous amount of pain.

“It just broke my heart what he said about me, that he didn’t know why I left him, which is not the truth,” she said.

She didn’t believe he accurately portrayed the reason for their split. Parton believed he wanted to paint her as the bad guy in the situation.

“Me and Porter fought all the time. We’ve fought for years,” she said. “I tried to tell him what I was trying to do. I tried to tell him my dreams and plans, but it was too touchy a thing. I had to go because we couldn’t share it together because he wouldn’t accept it. The article made me look like I had done a bad, vicious thing. It was as if he was trying to make me look bad and him good. He’s no better than me. I think we’re pretty equal.”

She said he knew better than to say these things

Parton also bristled at Wagoner’s complaint that helping her ended up hurting his career. He chose to work with her, and she paid him.

“When he said he had worked in the studio for all those hours, it was what he chose to do,” she said. “He got paid as my producer. I’d like to think I was not so bad, the way I sounded, like he had to spend all his life trying to make me sound good enough to sell.”

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner | Ron Davis/Getty Images

While she appreciated the years they worked together, she didn’t think the way he treated her after was fair.

“I appreciate the things he’s done for me. I have my own kind of respect and admiration for him,” she said. “But he knows better than to make it sound like I just left, that he didn’t know why. My dreams were so big that they were turning into nightmares because I didn’t have anyone to help me carry them out.”

Porter Wagoner Said Dolly Parton Acted Like She Didn’t Have ‘Any Kind of Soul’

Emma McKee — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 01:55:00 +0000

After Dolly Parton left The Porter Wagoner Show, Wagoner continued to produce her music. As she grew bigger as an artist, though, Parton realized that she wanted more control over her albums. She informed her longtime collaborator that she wanted to produce her music without him. Wagoner did not take this well. In a number of interviews following their professional split, Wagoner railed against Parton.

Dolly Parton told Porter Wagoner she wanted to produce her own albums

After Parton and Wagoner went their separate ways, he insisted that he didn’t want to seem bitter when he talked about her. Still, while, he claimed he wanted the best for her, he didn’t respect her decision.

“It was the way the move was done, the manner in which it was done that was so wrong,” he said, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Because at each meeting that we would have with RCA, or with the record execs who were talking about directing Dolly’s career more toward the pop market, I never failed to mention at any time that if the production of her records was short in any way, I would be happy to work with or step aside and let anyone else get involved who they thought was better qualified. And even with this happening, the entire move was done behind my back and with her and RCA.”

Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton, and the Wagonmasters | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Wagoner felt Parton owed him a better explanation for why she wanted to move forward without him. He thought that anyone with a soul would want to explain themselves in this type of situation.

“I don’t know why she did it,” he said. “And that’s the thing. I can’t understand why a person with any kind of background and any kind of soul would be afraid to tell a person that. Because I feel that’s something I should know, why it happened. And until now, I don’t know. It’s a heavy thing for you to have that much of your life wrapped up in a certain area and spend as much time and as much energy in the production of records, then all of a sudden see it crumble and not know why.”

Porter Wagoner said his career would have been different if he hadn’t produced for Dolly Parton

Though Wagoner claimed he did not feel bitterly toward Parton, he resented the impact she had on his career. He said he quit touring to work on her albums. If he hadn’t been so involved with her career, he would have stayed on the road.

“I worked the road a little more than a year after that,” he said. “But the schedule was so heavy, in having to put time in on her records and our duet records, that I decided to quit the road. Had I not been producing Dolly Parton’s records and the duet records, I would not have quit the road, ’cause my schedule would have been loose enough that I coulda done the things they wanted to do.”

He felt he had made a big enough sacrifice that she owed him more.

Her friends defended the way she handled the situation

While Wagoner felt like the wronged party in this situation, Parton’s friends defended her actions. People had long believed that he was holding her back and if she wanted to reach the heights she was capable of, she needed to set out alone. Parton’s guitarist, Tom Rutledge, said it had been hard for Parton to leave Wagoner behind. He thought she handled the situation with as much grace as possible.

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton | GAB Archive/Redferns

“She had to go and face Porter and tell him, ‘I don’t want you producing my records anymore. I want to do it myself. I want to totally divide our careers.’ That was hard,” Rutledge said. “Of course, she’d given concessions to him. She’d have given Porter anything if she could have divided it all sooner. She would have given him Owepar and the studio if it would have made things easier.”

Wagoner ended up suing Parton. They settled out of court.

Dolly Parton Made a Vocal Injury Worse Because She Couldn’t Manage to Stop Talking

Emma McKee — Sun, 16 Jun 2024 18:27:00 +0000

Dolly Parton’s bubbly personality has helped win her over to the public, but it once put her career at risk. Parton loves to talk so much that she once continued to speak when she should have been on vocal rest. As a result, she had to take some time away from her music career.

Dolly Parton worsened a vocal injury because she liked to talk so much

In the 1970s, Parton had been putting on concerts night after night. She had to sing loudly to come through on old sound systems and, before long, she could feel the strain on her vocal chords. Her doctor told her to cancel all her performances between late June and October.

“It’s mostly a case of overwork,” her manager Don Warden said, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “It’s nothing serious, but as I understand it, if she continued her schedule like it was planned, it could become serious.”

Dolly Parton | Tom Hill/WireImage

When Parton finally got back on the road, her doctor told her she could sing, but she should avoid speaking. She struggled to follow this directive.

“When she had gone back on the road, she was told, ‘It’s not so bad to sing, but don’t talk,’” agent Dolores Smiley said. “Well, Dolly is a talker. She’ll talk to the wall, you know. She is most friendly and would meet anybody or do anybody’s interview. But instead of doing what they told her, going out and keeping her mouth shut after doing her shows, she did just the opposite, because she didn’t want her public to think she was not what they thought she was. So she really had bad throat problems.”

Dolly Parton disbanded her band following her vocal injury

Eventually, Parton took a second honeymoon with her husband to relax and rest her vocal cords. When she returned to the road, though, she realized she had to make changes. She had been working herself to the point of exhaustion, so she called a meeting with her family band and informed them that she was disbanding them for at least six months. Parton wanted to take the time to improve her health and business affairs.

“We would have preferred to be family, and they were all talented writers and singers, and some desired to have a group on their own, to record on their own, which was makin’ it hard for all of us,” she explained. “It wasn’t fair for me to just keep them tied up in a group when I didn’t have time to do any more than just my work, or to expect somebody to just play for me when they had talent of their own. We certainly parted on good terms. In fact, we just decided that it was best.”

She dealt with health problems during a later tour

Several years later, Parton found herself in a similar position. By the 1980s, she was balancing her film and music careers. The amount of work was beginning to make her sick.

“I’d never really been sick in my life until a couple of years ago, and then I was sick for 18 months to two years,” she told Interview Magazine. “It was brought on by a lot of emotional problems that I was having.”

Dolly Parton | Craig Sjodin/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Her grueling schedule was bad enough, but she had also recently ended an intense emotional relationship with her bandleader, Gregg Perry. His absence from her life devastated her.

“I was going through a period of time that the nerves and the tension and the stress were actually what got me sick,” Parton explained. “So then it was like, which came first, the chicken or the egg? I just kept getting worse and worse and then I started having stomach problems, ulcers and intestinal problems.”

She said the experience and time away from her career taught her that she never wanted to retire.