Dolly Parton’s life lessons
She’s had a 65-year career in the spotlight and Dolly Parton proved she’s still got it when she recreated her iconic 1978 Playboy cover for her husband’s birthday last month. The country singer, 75, has earned an astonishing 11 Grammy awards, 50 nominations and 25 No1 songs. As well as her successful career, Dolly has also found happiness in her family life and is still as loved up with husband Carl Thomas Dean as when she married him 55 years ago. Closer takes a look at what lessons the music legend has learned over the years
‘THE SECRET TO A LONG MARRIAGE IS ABSENCE!’
Dolly’s been married to her high school sweetheart, Carl, since 1966 and she has said sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder. She said, “We keep our lives separate and together. We joke about it. When people ask me why it’s lasted this long, I say, ‘Because I stay gone.’ And there’s a lot of truth in that – the fact that we’re not in each other’s faces all the time... We’re really very proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.”
‘A RHINESTONE SHINES AS GOOD AS A DIAMOND’
She’s a fan of surgery, having had a boob job, nose job, chin reconstruction, brow lift and eyelid lift, as well as Botox. But Dolly believes no one should ever be judged on appearances alone, saying,
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap… It is true that I look artificial, but I’m really, totally real. Real as a writer, as a professional, as a human being. A rhinestone shines just as good as a diamond.”
‘IT’S IMPORTANT TO WORK HARD’
Dolly always wanted to be a star and released her first single at just 13 years old. She’s said of her incredible career, “I imagined it, I dreamed it, I worked for it and God was good enough to let me have it.” When asked about what advice she’d give to aspiring singers, she said, “I would say buckle and brace up because you’re going to be working your little country butt off. It’s going to be a journey, but you can enjoy it. I’ve always said that if you want dreams to come true you’ve got to put feet, legs and wings on them.”
‘FEEL YOUR EMOTIONS’
She’s dealt with a lot of struggles in her life. Her brother Larry died when he was just four days old, she contemplated suicide after an affair in the ’80s and in 2017 her beloved niece died of a drug overdose. She said, “I have to not harden my heart, because I want to stay open to feel things. So when I hurt, I hurt all over. And when I cry, I cry real hard. And when I’m m mad, I’m mad all over. I’m just a person; I like to experience whatever the feeling is and whatever I’m going through.”
‘FIND THE SILVER LINING IN EVERYTHING’
Dolly and Carl never had children and Dolly had a partial hysterectomy in 1982 due to severe gynaecological problems. But she’s always loved children and launched her “Dollywood” charity in 1988 to help children acheive educational success. The foundation later created the Imagination Library scheme, which provides children around the world with free books. Dolly – who is singer Miley Cyrus’ godmother – said, “Early on, when my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids. It wasn’t meant to be. I didn’t have children because I believed that God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine, so I could do things like the Library because if I hadn’t had the freedom to work, I wouldn’t have done all the things I’ve done.”
‘SPEND MONEY WISELY’
While she’s made millions in her adult life, Dolly grew up in a household that struggled to make ends meet – but she says that made her sensible with money. She said of her parents, “They were so poor that they paid the doctor who delivered me in cornmeal.” She added, “I really like to earn money but I love to spend it, too. I spend it on things that I feel are needed. I’m not the kind of person that will go out and spend like three or four thousand dollars on a coat or one outfit. I always think of my daddy or my mama when it comes to spending big. I can think, ‘Well, on the cost of this one purse, my daddy could have lived a whole year on that’.
‘BE SURE OF YOURSELF’
Those in the public eye will always encounter haters and trolls, but Dolly says she will only take on criticism if she feels it’s valid. She said, “I am sure of myself as a person. I am sure of my talent. I’m sure of my love for life. I am very content, I like the kind of person that I am. I don’t think I ever did care because I always knew who I was, and God knows who I am. Early on in my career, things that were said and some things that were true, some that were not but I cannot let that stop me, it hurts my feelings, but it doesn’t stop me. I think about what people say, though, in case there is a certain amount of truth in it, and I try to correct that. And if I see that it’s just BS, I just go on to think, ‘Well that’s their problem, not mine.”
‘We’re really very proud of our
marriage’