’Tis the season to be Dolly!
Country superstar Dolly Parton talks about her long marriage, her festive memories and what she really wants for Christmas…
It’s a spot usually reserved for Mariah Carey but, this year, superstar Dolly Parton is spreading some much-needed cheer, just in time for the holiday season. For the first time in 30 years, the queen of country music has released a festive album in the hope of lifting our spirits. A Holly Dolly Christmas features some timeless Xmas classics, alongside original compositions and duets with stars such as Miley Cyrus, Michael Bublé, Willie Nelson and Dolly’s own brother, Randy Parton. Dolly, 74, has conquered music and movies – but right now she’d be happy to beat lockdown, and mix with her friends and fans again…
Your Christmas album is fabulous – what’s your favourite festive memory?
I have so many wonderful Christmas memories, most with my family back in the Smoky Mountains. We lived in a cabin up in the woods and we didn’t have all of the store-bought stuff that people buy these days. My dad would always take us out in the woods to cut the tree and I just remember us having so much fun, making our own Christmas ornaments. Mama would tell us the story of Christmas while she was cooking. I have so many wonderful memories of that time.
How did chatshow host Jimmy Fallon end up on your new album?
I was on his show a couple of years ago around Christmas, and he asked me to sing All I Want for Christmas. I felt so bad because I didn’t know it, so I went and learned it. Then, when I was just going to put it on my album, I thought it would be fun to ask Jimmy to sing it with me. I love it.
Is there a particular song you turn to in difficult times?
I usually don’t listen to music like that, I try to write it and create things that I think people would like. Not only is it my therapy to be able to write songs, but it’s seeing and hearing what other people are going through and what they feel. I really try to write what I think everybody is going
through right now. I’ve come up with some wonderful things that I really feel people will need to hear.
Is it true that you came up with I Will Always Love You and Jolene in one 24-hour period?
Yeah! We were going through my vaults and my boxes of tapes and we found a cassette and both of those songs were back-toback on there. At the time, you write, and you don’t what’s going to be a hit and what’s not going to be a hit, so I was shocked that both of those songs were written the same day, or it could’ve been the same night. That was a really good night!
Your unique style is almost as iconic as your music. Tell us more…
I won’t wear the kind of hair that they say goes with that dress. Or I won’t wear the kind of shoes that are supposed to go with that dress, because I have to have my hair a certain way. I have to have my make-up a certain way. I have to be comfortable. That’s why I could never be ‘fashionable’.
What are you most proud of in your whole career?
I’m proud of everything I have ever done. If you can dream, you can have it. That’s one of my Dolly-isms, but you can’t just dream it. It ain’t going to happen unless you put legs, wings, feet on it. You have got to make it happen. Dreams can come true and I’m a prime example of that. I’m proud of everything and you can be, too.
What are you looking forward to when we get through this global crisis?
I just want to get out with my friends. I want to go and eat and go down to the seashore. I want to be able to just have fun, be free again and get back to being living people. We will get through it. Everything has to pass. There may be harder days still, but I try to keep the faith, be aware, be smart and stay safe. We all have to hope and pray for the best. Right now, we just have to live our lives the best way we can and know it’s going to be good again – it’s going to be better than it ever was. I know it.