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Country Music
In the flesh, she's quite a sight: There's the hair, way past big, and the eye-popping hourglass figure. But those curves are delicate, too, making her seem almost fragile. And when you take in the rest of Dolly Parton -- the quick wit, the playful giggle, the creamy skin that belies her 60 years -- you know you're in the presence of a 40-carat original.This jewel box of a star grew up dirt poor in a one-room cabin she shared with her sprawling family in the hills of east Tennessee. She was one of the first of her clan to get a high school education, but long before she collected her diploma, she knew that her voice, a sweetly trilling soprano, would be her ticket out of poverty and into something better. She just wasn't sure how much better.
Now she's got more titles than the Queen of England: singer, songwriter, guitar player, actress, author and philanthropist. As of next year, you can add Broadway composer. Don't forget businesswoman: She has her own production company, and some 2.3 million people visit her Dollywood theme park each year. While on tour last fall to celebrate the release of her 75th album, a collection of covers from the '60s and '70s called Those Were the Days, Parton sat down with Reader's Digest. Flashing two-inch pink nails and her trademark twinkly smile, she talked about trash (her look), trailers (the RVs and buses she's so fond of) and her true love, husband Carl Dean, with whom she'll soon celebrate 40 years of marriage.
RD: You were one of 12 children. Wow!
Parton: Yes. But that's not uncommon in the mountains. My dad's from a family of 14 or 15, Momma from a family of 10. Most people had big families. They had no birth control, plus they needed the help.
RD: Everyone worked?
Parton: Yeah. I'm fourth down -- there's eight children younger. My older sister, Willadeene, and I were kind of like second mommas to the rest of them. We learned to cook and to do all the stuff Momma did. I still cook like an old mountain woman. It's just my husband and me, but I cook in big pots, and put it in the freezer or call the family and neighbors.
RD: Are your siblings close?
Parton: Oh, we fight amongst ourselves, but nothing never fixable. And we'd kill anybody else that said a word about us.
RD: Who are you more like -- your mother or your father?
Parton: I'm like my mother as far as my personality. I got the music from her. But I got my dad's drive and work ethic. And my dad's people are blond and fair. Of course I enhance my hair now, but I was a blond baby and a blue-eyed, fair-skinned kid.
RD: Your father was a tobacco farmer, right?
Parton: That was our money crop, but he also raised what we had to eat. He'd make $2,500 -- if it was a good year, $3,000 -- and that's what we lived on. The rest we raised ourselves. My dad didn't have an education, so he made a living with his back and hands -- most people in the mountains did.
RD: Was there ever a time your family didn't struggle financially?
Parton: Yeah, when I got rich! No, there wasn't a time it wasn't hard, until we all got old enough to where we could start helping.
RD: Did growing up that way teach you certain things?
Parton: I learned the value of a dollar, even to this day. I like to spend, but I never spend that I don't think about it. I just can't imagine going to spend three or four thousand dollars on one piece of clothing. And I like a Cadillac, but just spending all those crazy dollars on crazy things, I just can't do it. I always think of the people I could feed or my nieces or nephews or cousins who could use it. Even when I indulge myself sometimes, I feel guilty.
RD: Your mother's father was a preacher. You've said you consider yourself spiritual, but not necessarily religious.
Parton: I grew up in a Pentecostal church. You were free to shout and sing loud, play instruments, and I love all that. Now I just believe in God. I trust God, and I trust myself because of God, because I pray all the time about making the right decisions. But I'm not a fanatic in any way.
RD: I've read that when you're writing songs, you often go away, isolate yourself, and fast.
Parton: Yeah, that's a form of discipline that is a flashback to my family religion. I have an aunt who was a preacher, and she fasted for days before she'd start a big revival. Or if we were praying for someone who was sick, we'd fast sometimes two or three days. Now I do it as a cleansing thing -- getting closer to God so I can communicate more.
RD: Does it work?
Parton: Oh, it makes you miserable. But I've had some major moments with God and with my writing when I get to that place where the headaches leave and my body is cleansed. You think so clear.
RD: When was the first time you picked up a guitar?
Parton: I started writing serious songs when I was about seven, but I was fiddling with it before that. We all used to get together -- everybody would play something. I remember my grandma sitting around playing the dulcimer and the Autoharp, the harmonica, the Jew's harp. My mother was a great singer and played the guitar.
RD: At what point did you know that your life was going to be music?
Parton: I graduated [high school] on a Friday night, left for Nashville on a Saturday morning, and never looked back. I hoped that I'd make enough money to be a star, but I would have still spent my life singing. I'd have probably been a beautician musician -- sung in a bar at night and done hair in the day.
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