Donahue Interview - Dolly - 1/2

yeah wanna be great have her next-door dia talking to your husband oh sure helping mow the grass borrowing sugar and flour and all that other stuff here's a 20 years married to one man where'd you go wrong dolly Carl Dean and you have some relationship everything I read about just says what a great marriage you have and he's cool and he doesn't worry about you you don't worry about him now he's a real good guy we met 22 years ago and we married two years after we met and it's his first marriage in mind and we just happened to be best friends and we've we've been together long enough to where we become like brother and sister and mother and daughter and sweetheart and companion so it worked out real well I know guys that wouldn't let you out of the house oh he's not possessed if he really likes it when I'm gone cuz he's about as independent as I am and you don't even mind if he goes to lunch with the women now when he has a lot of friends I have a lot of friends too we never have been jealous cuz we kind of grew up together actually and so it's it's not a that kind of a relationship we have a lot of faith in one another and I can say our relationship is hidding solid he helped you and your career in any way uh well he's been supportive he doesn't want to be in show business in fact he really hates it like even on shows like this when I talk about him I was on Rona Barrett the other day and he said what's this a Karl Dean show and he's watching yeah I'm sure he is cuz he watches you often but he's uh he's just always been real supportive but early on in my career when we first married he went with me to one function was I had won an award that year for song of the year that I had written this was back in 66 Joline I know it was a song called put it off until tomorrow it was the country song of that year as a song I had written with an uncle so I had gone to this occasion and he rented a tuxedo and he went with me and all the commotion all the crowds and just the show business bull as he calls it and when we got home he said look I won't you to do great and I wish you all success in the world and I'll be supportive but please don't ask me to go to any more of those things so he never has wanted to participate in that show business end of it you know that's hard to believe that you know he could be so removed from your own professional life and you're not alone that much well we actually spend more time together than you then it's then you'd think in the press because I have we don't have children so he we have a home in Tennessee and I have a little place in California so he comes back and forth and I go home now then cuz I still have business you know home so we spend just enough time together you won't mind if I ask you to just stand up for just one sec what how much did you lose she lost up here too yeah yeah I lost the fair - yeah she has plenty there but she lost up there - yeah we always do cuz that's all just pure fat yeah look you imagine losing weight and looking like that um how'd you do this dolly well I've been working very hard on I turned 40 in January and I was okay to turn 40 I was real happy about that because but I didn't want to turn fat and 40 so I decided when I was 40 I was gonna try to to make some changes cuz I had been real happy with with my life and I'm pretty content with myself and I decided that I'd try to look better after fourth they say life begins at 40 so I thought I'd try to go backwards you know how we dream like that and so I've worked your heart I've tried to watch what I eat pretty much I just eat less I usually eat want to walk too I just eat less of it and try to eat less often and I'm trying to get a little bit of exercise so I've just over here please hold it just a moment you don't have them how do you maintain after all these years being in the showbiz is it the enthusiasm none of bubbliness that you have it's wonderful because it's contagious oh well that's a mighty nice thing to say I just love what I do I think if you're happy with your work I think it shows I enjoy people I'm from a very big family there's 12 of us kids and all my people have large families so I've never met a stranger and everybody I meet reminds me of somebody that I know and love I see some of my mama or a sister or brother and almost everybody so I just have a real good try to keep a good attitude I have a good outlook on life and I've I feel very fortunate that I've got a chance to make a living in the business that I really do love your fans already know that you are the fourth child of 12 children growing up in a holler in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee sleeping with how many bodies in that bed when you're a kid oh sometimes four and five in a bed it depending on where we live but well I think mom told some I'm sorry but you've told some pretty straight away stories about that I mean four or five as many of whom were younger not all of whom had control of that's true I'd say I've always often said we lived an old cold houses it gets pretty cold in the Smoky Mountains in the wintertime but one of the nice parts about sleeping with kids if you're gonna be peed on anyway at least it we had to keep the cover out yeah you do don't want to fan the cover after a thing like that what's the matter good we got questions in the back we do yes how many how many kids do you have she has she has no children have any children I think that's my choice isn't it no actually I can't have children I've had some female problems I've had some surgery when I was out of work for two years just a few years back and I had a lot of female problems but I have so many brothers and sisters and I have five of my younger brothers and sisters that used to live with me for years and now that they've all married off they're having children and now their children call me aunt granny cuz I'm more like a grandma than an aunt so ain't granny is is my name around home do you think I'm becoming a former was a way to kind of get a separate identity since you had like 12 brothers and sisters I have often thought about that I think we knew that our parents loved us and they didn't have a chance though to really just pick each individual one up and just pet you all day long and she the only time you really got picked up when you're from that meanie in the families when you're sick or when you somebody's gonna bust your rear-end and so I think a lot of that I needed a lot of attention cuz I'm a very sensitive person and very loving and outgoing person I think a music was always a part of her family but I think I did want to be a star cuz I had a lot to give and I needed a lot back so I've enjoyed sharing that relationship with with my fans you appeared on the Grand Ole Opry at the age of 12 yeah and you knocked him out too didn't well I started singing when I was very young I started playing guitar when I was 7 and I started singing already on television in Knoxville Tennessee on a local radio show when I was 10 and my Uncle Bill Owens who used to help me a great deal one of my mother's brothers used to take me back and forth to Nashville I used to have all these songs that I had written and he also was a songwriter we used to write songs together but we used to travel to Nashville which was like 200 250 miles from my home and we'd sleep in the car we clean up in a service station you know you'd wash your hair in the filling station just literally sleep in the car and you just eat you stopped at a market you get blown in bread or whatever you're gonna in Velveeta that's all the things I love and so I started very early and I went to the Grand Ole Opry and also a couple of friends Carl and pearl Butler who were people that used to perform on the local show back home they were at that time having success in Nashville and country music so they they took me over to the Grand Ole Opry and I got to sing and my daddy always loved the Opera he was listening back home all my people on the radio so it was like a big thrill and I bugged him to death to let me sing because I was just a little kid going in and say please let me sing and they so you can't sing on the Grand Ole Opry you gotta be in the Union you got to do this I said what my daddy's listened if I go home and you know and you won't let me on the show I'm gonna be embarrassed and her had no fear so well no I have fear I've never my desire to do it though was always greater than my fear and you knew you could is that I suppose huh well I wanted to do it I was I noticed that when I was young like the lady asked that when I would sing and get up and perform I got a lot of special attention like if people would applauded that would make me happy you know as a little kid so I just had the confidence that I could do it and I wasn't really all that good I think the reason I went over so big on those early shows is because it was this little kid I'm just doing it so I'm curious to know how you you are a scandal-free woman so I can ask you this dolly now just relax for one second just this'll just take a moment some women with your body get real self-conscious about it about you know and it's about upbringing and the boys and high school can be a curse for a woman that it looks like you and it wasn't for you you just sashayed right down that hallway didn't you in high school well yes I did I always enjoyed being a girl you know I've always been proud of that I was female I mean it's a good thing I was born a woman or I'd have been a drag queen healthy you like to flirt you liked you were boy crazy and all that others yeah I was just the tip of a girl I still am like I said I never was embarrassed about my body I was always proud of it you know I always flaunted it I still do it's like it if I was a people say don't you get offended that people make jokes I said no because I brought it on myself cause it's like I've played it all up it's like as they leave Durley when they started the old saying if you got it flaunt it yeah I was flaunting it early yeah but not in a disrespectful way I might add I mean I've just always made the most of because I like being a little bizarre a little more colorful and so I just kind of go are you there I'm glad you waited hi hi um my question is about what you were just talking about um yes so many people make jokes about your breast size and I - been like that for some duration where do you get the sense of humor about it that's what I'm kind of facing here hang on just um yeah what was your okay just briefly what was your feeling in high school when the boys stirred up so all the boys I mean we're go boys like me and they always take a wanted to take me on the back stairway and they're likely because it has such big grass and um and I didn't like it I didn't enjoy it at all and even though when I walk down the street and men say things I still take offense to it I don't have a good sense of humor about it and I like to know where well I just I never thought of it like that I always was as a child we grew up we didn't have fancy clothes back we hardly had anything to wear as far as that goes there were so many of us and I always and I grew up in a very religious family my grandfather's a Church of God preacher and in that church you're not really allowed to wear makeup or tie clothes even to like pull your eyebrows or shave your legs in those early days was like considered a sin but I just kind of I just didn't feel like that I I could live that kind of life and I was a good kid I had a good sense of humor I was not trashy but I was always impressed with what they call the trash in our in our hometown I mean like the women that wore the tight clothes and the makeup I wanted to wear makeup I wanted to look like trash you know I don't mean that bad I mean I just like that look it looked like movie stars or something to me and I wanted I wanted more I wanted pretty nails and all that yes dolly Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline have had big movies made about them any plans in your future well I am writing a book now it's kind of a positive thinking self-help book but it has a lot of my life in it and a lot of the attitude things in the book are based on real things that I have been through myself and that will depend on how well that book turns out of whether or not it can be a movie but I don't I don't want to I can't really write my life story yet because I ain't lived it yet um I'd like to know if you've had any formal music training how did you get to well all my people are very musical especially my mom's people but they were just singers mostly used to sing in church they all write songs and it was just always family recreation to sit around on the front porch and sang her church or in the wintertime sit around the heater when there's nothing else to do but I've never had a music lesson in my life and I can't read a note of music although I make my own melodies and make my own songs I put them down on cassette and then I have them I send them to somebody that can actually write out the notes and then somebody else has to play it back and sing it back in order for me to know if the notes are actually right cuz I just do it from memory and from band uh a lot of your hits were recorded by somebody else who recorded jolene first well I recorded jolene first is a song I wrote several years ago but Olivia newton-john had a record out on that and and well what did Emmylou Harris write sing that you wrote Emmylou had a number-one country song that I wrote called to Daddy several years ago and Merle Haggard had a number one song on a song I wrote called a Kentucky gambler yeah and I've been real fortunate I've had a lot of people records you still do the bus still travel the bus I enjoyed the bus I don't get to travel as much in the bus as I used to because I don't travel that much on the road I don't do as many concerts as I used to because I had a few problems with my boys some years back and I was just overdoing it abusing my boy so I had to kind of cut back on concerts so now shows we do or in larger cities usually and it makes more sense to fly but I'd much prefer the bus than to fly I like the convenience of flying but it scares me I don't like it are you there I'm glad you waited hi yeah please call yourself Carolina I'm a black woman and I'm interested in becoming a country-western star but it seems that the field is closed the black entertainers Valley's advice would you give to a black woman interested in becoming a country-western trainer I personally think that the market now is open to that because we had one of the biggest country artists of all time was Charlie is Charlie pride who was the first black man that really did really good and he became like one of the biggest superstars he crossed over into pop music as well as country so I know that the audience is there for you but that's it that's an isolated example dollar and we're not blaming you for this the point is the business does not appear to be that receiving of ethnicity at all well it's harder I think in country music because you're also you have to remember that that's also based in the south there's still a lot of prejudice in the south you know where the blacks are concerned but not nearly so much as there used to be but my suggestion and my advice to you would be if you believe in it that much it's the same as like me as a young girl leaving the Smoky Mountains trying to get into country music I just went ahead and done it I've had to fight my way through as you do it with everything that you do but I think it's worth your trying I think you should continue to try man and good luck to you yes dolly coming from a large family as you said you have uh are there any brothers and sisters that want to follow in the steps that you have outlined I'm glad you asked that I have several brothers and sisters that are in the business now like Phil mentioned there's eight children younger than me and although we all sing about five of them are really taking it serious my sister Stella who is next to me in line she's about three years younger than me but she has had a lot of success in country music and my sister Rachel who is the baby of our family she was on the television series nine to five that they put on the air and it didn't it didn't work then but now they put it back on the air in syndication that'll be out this year they're starting the whole show over again she also sings and she's acting and my brother Randy has had several records out my sister Frieda who's a lot of them are working up in the theme park up in East Tennessee which we'll talk about yeah we better mention that how'd you like they got a name on an entertainment park I'll tell you this you work for a living don't you well yeah I do work for a living I'm very excited by the way about this particular Park for those of you that are not familiar there's a park that we've started up in East Tennessee called Dollywood and I got the name cuz I just thought that was cute but I had the idea for the theme park several years ago cuz my people I'm very proud of that part of the country is the Smoky Mountain National Park which a lot of people don't realize is the most visited national park in the United States and like nine or ten million people every summer or every year come through there so we've started an amusement park and it's got rides restaurants and and if the park is open it actually opens this May on May 3rd and it does from May through October so anybody that's planning a summer vacation the Smokies are beautiful there's lots of other things to do there but if you're in that area come you know uh what's uh well this it's what it's a mixed message here I mean you have to feel sad about the cause of this we are not traveling to Europe as you may know in the numbers that we once did so what's happening certainly what is beginning to happen is states are now competing for your leisure dollar and there's good old Virginia on television with a 30-second commercial I assume Tennessee's gonna be right in there you're about fifteen how far you you're near Knoxville yeah near Knoxville that's uh well from Knoxville it's about 25-30 miles on up into the Smoky Mountains but Tennessee they're calling this homecoming 86 so this is actually a good year for Tennessee because we already have of course the Grand Ole Opry and Opryland which is a wonderful place to visit and we're far enough apart that we're not really in competition with each other but it's also close enough that if you are in that area at all you can make both places and you know and have a good time I'm glad you waited hi yes has there have been any time when you were deeply hurt by incorrect or inappropriate information the attention of the public fire the media well I don't think there's an artist or an entertainer in the business that hasn't been embarrassed or hurt by bad press I have been luckier than a lot of people I try to spill my guts myself so I try to be honest with people and pretty much say what I you know want to say and have to say because I don't really feel I I need to hide from people but one of the most embarrassing things or painful things that's happened to me in a long time is that there was a lawsuit recently on over a song of mine called 9:00 to 5:00 which was like the biggest song that I've ever written are recorded and oscar-nominated yes it was and I'm so proud of that song and the movie which was the first movie that I did with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and just recently a couple said that I had taken part of the song because they said they sent the song to Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden Jane's husband back five or six years before I even came out to do the 9 to 5 movie and we based the movie on a secretarial pool or something out of Boston it's like there's an organization about working women and it's called 9:00 to 5:00 and I just wrote the song trying to think of ideas but they said they had said a song about working people and had you know the lines got the people working 9:00 to 5:00 and you know in their song and mine was just working 9:00 to 5:00 so I won the lawsuit the jury only was out like 20 minutes and they came back in but it was so embarrassing was so painful you're accused of cheating yes hurt yeah it hurt because so I take such pride in what I do and it's not a song that I could have heard it was not a song that was ever on the radio it's like you can any songwriter can write a song that's familiar to another melody if you you know if you've heard it before but it's because there's always somebody out there that'll always think well maybe I did steal it or whatever so that was very pain but the tabloids have never suggested that you were anything but an honorable woman and oh that's not true they've had me in bed with everybody okay really don't you know about me what does Carl say when he cooks care he don't he goes to the grocery store he sees all this stuff my sizzling romance with Dolly Parton or Dolly Hesburgh baby or or whatever it's like there was one hurts baby there was what's when I was doing the best little whorehouse in Texas with Burt Reynolds there was on the headlines now one of these magazines that says dolly has Burt's baby and so Carl picked it up cuz he thought it was funny and he brought it home he laid it on the table and we had this little Boston Terrier bulldog named Popeye so I had him in my help I was holding the little puppet Carl ran and got the camera he's I'm gonna take a picture it's in this back so he does have a good sense of humor about it but I people have always accused you of that anytime you work with somebody you you're gonna always get accused of that but I do the best I can I'm the angel I don't claim to be golly do you enjoy acting and are you planning any other movies well that's a good I'm glad you asked that question I don't enjoy acting so much because it's very slow I'm such a fast-paced person I've always been used to performing doing one-night stands jumping on the bus going to another town and my life has been pretty fast-paced but when I did nine-to-five I've never even seen a movie made much less being won and it was the most boring thing although I had a great time with Jane and Lilly and I love the people and every day was a fun day as far as like the people I met and just the whole set in general but it's like you wait forever I mean it takes them a half a day to set up lights for one thing in the time you finished few lines they have to reset it this goes on forever but I enjoy the finished product and I've been real proud of the fact that I could work in in the movies and I am doing another movie this summer with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin about three girls in Washington like spies it's written by Colin here Guinness and gonna be directed by him he's the same one that co-wrote nine-to-five and directed that and you the three of you are spies in Washington this is something I'm glad you waited hi I prefer dolly with uh a few more panels own Oh days day with a few more pounds overall just get back in your truck and do your job so does her husband not really he really prefers me smaller this lady has wanted to ask you a question can't wait suspected I'd like to know if you'd ever think of doing a Broadway play with country music well I have often thought about I've talked in the press for a few years about a play that I'm writing called wild flowers and it's kind of a southern musical kind of my life in in song but it's different colors of just mountain people and I'd like to do that very much I've been asked to do Broadway but I want to do some other things because it's like I mentioned about the movies it's very hard for me to do a sit-down job so to speak it would be hard for me to work for a solid year at the same theatre and I admire the people that can do it but I'm just not sure that I'm ready to do that at the moment we're in New York City with Dolly Parton and we'll be back in a moment you're heavier than me up there yeah yeah but I'm glad I've lost some weight after specially looking at that but I've been up and down for so many years I mean I'm a haul get heart I mean I love to eat I love to cook and it's like I'm just so glad that I've got some weight on I think you look really great since yes I didn't wait how did you do it well I've been like I said I've been trying to exercise I've been trying to eat less but I don't like the idea of being on a diet that always scared me to death and I never stick with it so I'm just trying to eat anything I want to just eat less of it and when I can I try to eat less often but it's just the amount more than anything I'm curious to know how did you come about getting the rolling 9 to 5 well Jane Fonda was responsible for that she had the idea to do the movie 9:00 to 5:00 about the working women cuz she was very involved in with women and at that time with the women's movement and she wanted to to do that particular kind of movie and she said that she was looking for three very strong personalities that were totally different but that we're compatible and she hadn't really given that much thought to me I guess she had seen me on TV or something but she said then one day she was driving home from the office the production office and she heard a song amount on the radio and I guess there was a little interview or something before and I had said I was talking to the disc jockey or something and she says you almost wrecked the car because she thought oh no this is really far-fetched and she also thought that I would as she put it get the South you know meaning that I could you know with the three characters we should kind of cover the territory and with me being from country music and all that that I would but it worked out real well I'm really glad she had that thought I'm glad you waited hi hi um I just wanted to ask dolly you've made such a remarkable transition between the country music into modern we know you in New York and I wondered whether that was a part of your process or whether that was some managerial brilliance well I have a great manager in Santa gala and I've spent about 10 or 11 years with him but the actual need and not for me to try to go further with my music was an idea of mine and that's how I met my manager and he just happened to see my vision and believe in me as much as I did so we it's worked out real well together but I was in country music will have been all my life just about and I had had been for several years one of the number one country female singers but even with the biggest records that I ever had I was still only selling like was the song Jolin and I will always love you I was only selling like a hundred thousand one hundred twenty thousand records and that's not really a lot and trying to keep a band together and I wasn't making any money and then I thought well this is the music business so why not think business because I really felt like I wanted to spend my life in the business and that I needed to get smart and I also I love the music and I want to be pure and authentic in what I'm doing but I also needed the money so I decided to just you know to try to make more money what are your hobbies and interest well songwriting and writing poems are really like real hobbies although I still make money with was songwriter writing that's still something I love to do in my off time and I love to camp loved fish and that kind of thing just fun huh yeah yeah I know what you're gonna say some good old boy washing his socks off in the screen looking and seeing who's in the next space yeah but I don't look like this when I camp out I was wondering if you still have your coat of many colors or was it passed down to one of your sisters well we have a my mother made oh another little coat that's gonna be in the museum in Pigeon Forge at the music at the Dollywood Museum and it's an exact replica of the little coat but at that time nobody thought about me being a star I didn't think about gonna write a song when I'm older so I was a child when I wrote wrote the song and wore the little ragged coat I'm sure it got wore by whoever was next in line and I'm sure it you know got got wore out completely yeah at least only have the replica now the up I don't know how you get this information but what's hey you have I am told you have real nice hair uh that's true well yeah a lot of people think I don't have any hair at all because I wear the wigs and but the way I like to wear my hair it's just so damaging to tease that I used to wear my own hair for years even before I started wearing the wigs but I wore it like out to here it's all that tease and all that bleaching and all that hairspray just very damaging so I just went to wearing wigs which there's so much handier they're like my little handicaps so to speak it's like I can completely get dressed in like 30 minutes with my makeup and I just put on my hair which was it's worked out well it's been part of my image but my own hair is is about shoulder length and I keep it blonde and it looks good if I fix it you spoke earlier of your husband's reactions to all a Hollywood bull as you put it how is your transfer me

Channel: DevotedToDolly

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Length: 30min 0sec (1800 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 07 2014