Hello Dolly!

February 11

As spunky as ever, country music star and philanthropist Dolly Parton speaks at the National Press Club about her music career, her Imagination Library, her connection with Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Broadway musical 9 to 5 set to open this spring.

Responding to a question about her favorite artists, Dolly admitted she doesn’t have much time to listen to others’ music because she is so busy. Dolly, the musician, had been busy working on her latest mainstream country album, Backwoods Barbie, released last year. And, her hit movie “9 to 5” has become the inspiration for a Broadway musical set to open this spring. She said the script is witty and holds true to its time period, the 80s, as do the costumes.

Speaking of wardrobe, she joked about getting chided, sometimes even called “trashy,” over the years for her glitzy wardrobe. “It’s a country girl’s idea of glam,” she said, also a line from the title track of that album.

Yet another musical project, Dolly also is set to release an eight-song album, Sha-Kon-O-Hey, Land of Blue Smoke, celebrating the heritage and people of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Dolly has been named spokeswoman for the park as it celebrates its 75^th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, she's donating all proceeds of this album’s sales for the first year to benefit the park.

“The Smokies are a part of my DNA,” Dolly said, having grown up by the foothills of the park. It’s still free, she said, and in this day and age, “free is good, isn’t it?” Great Smoky happens to be the most visited U.S. national park, she boasted, with some 10 million visitors per year. Sha-Kon-O-Hey is also about to become a musical, to be performed at her Dollywood theme park in Nashville beginning this spring.

Dolly, the philanthropist, has also been busy being “The Book Lady,” a title in which she takes great pride. A small project she started in Tennessee, the Imagination Library, which sends one book a month to kids from birth until age 5, has expanded to 1,000 communities in three countries. The program has mailed some 20 million books to date.

Dolly grew up one of 12 children. Her dad could not read or write but had a strong work ethic, and her mom endowed her with creativity. Dolly, the author, has a children’s book coming out in June, titled, I Am a Rainbow.

While Dolly has written thousands of songs throughout her career, she admitted her favorite is one called, “Coat of Many Colors.” The lyrics tell of a raggedy coat her mother had made. Little Dolly would come home upset that kids had made fun of the coat and that she was poor. Her mother then told her the biblical story of Joseph and the colorful coat to give her pride. Dolly said her mother told her they had love; kindness, and understanding, things that money can’t buy. “That song represents family, my own philosophy, and will always be dearest to my heart,” she said. Asked if her songwriting has evolved over the years, she said, “I always write my songs from the same place,” staying true to her roots.

She spoke at length about getting her start on the Porter Wagoner show in the mid-60s. Dolly told him she’d stay for five years or so and then had plans to go off on her own. Although they wound up lifelong friends, Wagoner sued her at the time for leaving the show. She then sat down and wrote, in just a couple hours, a song based on caring deeply for him but having to leave. That song was “I Will Always Love You,” her first hit, and one much later popularized by Whitney Houston. When she sang it to him, he told her she could leave provided he could produce that song.

When asked her most surprising hit, she cited “Here You Come Again,” released in 1977, coming off the heels of her leaving Wagoner’s show. “Everybody said it was a big mistake to leave the show, but then [the song] sold a million copies right away.”

Dolly said she would like to be remembered as someone who did what she wanted to do, followed her dreams, and that she didn’t keep it all for herself. “I’ve enjoyed giving back and I want people to think of me as someone who did care and did try.”

The first book her Imagination Library gives to kids is The Little Engine that Could, a book she fondly remembers for its positive message that if we believe in ourselves, we can accomplish anything. She is living proof of that. She said, “I’m the little engine that did!”