On a special episode of We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Glennon, her wife Abby, and sister Amanda sit down with icon Dolly Parton for a heartfelt conversation.
Dolly opened up how it feels to start something new at 77, and how it broke her heart when she had to stand her ground, despite desperately wanting Elvis to record her hit song, and more.
Calling it one of the “hardest business decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Dolly recalled about the time Elvis loved her song “I Will Always Love You” and wanted to record it. While she hadn’t actually met him yet, Dolly shared she was going to get to see him at the recording session, which she at that time excitedly told everyone about.
However before that was even able to happen, Dolly got a phone call from Colonel Tom Parker expressing that Elvis only records songs that they have all or at least half of the publishing rights for. “Well I told him, I’m not going to be able to do that,” Dolly said, knowing the song had already proven itself to be a number one hit, so sadly that was the end of that. “That broke by heart,” Dolly added, “but I felt I had to stand up for my rights, for my creativity, and for the things that I’m hoping to leave for my family when I’m out of here.”
Always having been a trailblazer and go-getter, Dolly taking on and recording an iconic list of Rock songs doesn’t come as too much of a shock, but with her being the iconic Country queen that she is, it also kind of does. According to the icon herself, Dolly’s decision to swerve genres for the latest album, Rockstar, stemmed from a recent honor she felt she hadn’t quite yet earned.
"Well I just loved the idea that I was gonna do a rock album, here I am 77 years old, and I’m gon’ be a rockstar," Dolly said, slightly singing that last part. “I had to call it Rockstar just for fun, and I did it because they put me in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I didn’t feel I’d done enough to earn that particular title. So I thought I gotta have a Rock album to go along to kind of earn my keep so to speak.”
Dolly went on to share how eventually after “doing these great iconic songs,” she thought to herself, “wouldn’t it be cool to get some of these great iconic artists to sing that wrote or sang on these songs originally.”
Parton also weighed in on why she resonates with everyone from teens to 80 year olds after six decades in business, and shared the advice she would give to Glennon and Abby’s daughter, Tish, as she enters the music business. So for all that and more, listen to the entire episode above.
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On We Can Do Hard Things, Glennon Doyle does the only thing they’ve found that has ever made life easier. Drop the fake and talk honestly about the hard. Each week they bring their hard to you and ask you to bring your hard to them, and we will do what we were all meant to do down here: Help each other carry the hard so we can all live a little bit lighter and braver, more free and less alone.