Dolly Parton: Queen of Everything

Originally aired: 12/9/2024 This week, the one and only Dolly Parton graces Dumb Blonde with her presence, and it's truly a dream come true. The living legend first talks with Bunnie about her humble Appalachian roots, her childhood in the Smoky Mountains, and the profound influence of her close-knit family. She then discusses the pivotal role her Uncle Bill played in nurturing her early musical aspirations and helping her land a breakthrough performance at the iconic Grand Ole Opry. Dolly also opens up about the challenges she faced navigating the Nashville music scene as a young artist, her enduring partnership with husband Carl Dean, and the entrepreneurial empire she's built, including her successful makeup line, Dolly Beauty, Dolly Wines, and her beloved Imagination Library program. Dolly Parton: Website https://dollyparton.com/ | Dolly Beauty https://dollybeauty.com/| Dolly Wines https://dollywines.com/pages/where-to-buy?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiApNW6BhD5ARIsACmEbkVOeqd1XiLB6ht7sPUjMwgULPbD2xlKZIFDiJOCwSgsnjdwZDLgFQcaAsYsEALw_wcB Watch Full Episodes & More: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Dumbblondepod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Bunnie XO?

  You guys are gonna be pleasantly surprised. So with this podcast, you know, Dolly had, she's a workhorse like I am. And before she had done the podcast, she had already done three other things. The podcast was the last of her things of the day. And we got allotted forty-five minutes with her. And her and I just started talking and like she had some of the most incredible answers and like, you know, when Dolly speaks, you don't cut her off. So I didn't get to finish the entire interview. But Dolly had so much fun that they're bringing me back for a part two. It was incredible and I can't, I'm just so grateful and so thankful.

• 1:02Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on? Hello, babies. Welcome back to another episode of Dumb Blonde. Today is so special to me because I started this podcast six years ago. And when I named this podcast, I named it after a specific song. That was tongue in cheek, but also was an oxymoron to my life, but also a woman who I have admired. And literally just patterned my entire life after the iconic, the queen of not just country, but the queen of everything, Ms. Dolly Parton is here today.

• 1:36Speaker 01

  Well, hello. Now, we should put an S on the dumb blonde.

• 1:39Bunnie XO?

  I'm telling you.

• 1:40Speaker 01

  We've got two of us here today.

• 1:41Bunnie XO?

  Will you be my co-host?

• 1:42Speaker 01

  I'll be your co-host.

• 1:43Bunnie XO?

  I would love for you to be my-

• 1:44Speaker 01

  If you'd love that, I would love it.

• 1:46Bunnie XO?

  I would love for you to be my co-host.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  We've got a bunny and a squirrel.

• 1:49Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I love it so much. Both are fast, though. Very slippery suckers, right?

• 1:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, very, very, very.

• 1:57Bunnie XO?

  This has been something that I have pretty much manifested since I started this podcast. Everybody has always asked me, who is your dream guest? And there's two of you. Dolly Parton and Joyce Myers are the two people that I have said that I have wanted since the beginning. And sitting here with you today is such an honor. And I just want to say thank you for making time for me today.

• 2:15Speaker 01

  Well, I'm happy to do it. We love you. You're great on your own. And you're no dumb blonde. I can tell you that.

• 2:21Bunnie XO?

  Thank you. And neither one of us are, though, right? Isn't that just-

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Well, I don't know about me, but I know you're okay.

• 2:26Bunnie XO?

  Well, I mean, the testimony to your life is pretty much shows how brilliant of a woman you are. And I kind of want to dive into that with you, starting with, I want to paint a picture for my viewers at home. For some people who might not even know your backstory, I'd like to start, you know, with your childhood and where you grew up and stuff like that. If you could tell me a little bit about that.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Well, I grew up in the great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, way up in the hills. Actually, I was actually born in a little cabin on the Little Pigeon River. My dad was a sharecropper for a while. And then eventually, we moved over to the little place we call Locust Ridge, where you hear me talk a lot about my Tennessee mountain home. But there's twelve of us in all. Mama had twelve kids and six boys and six girls. We were pretty even. And we were just country people, just trying to scratch a living out of dirt up there in the hills. But I was blessed to have a good mom and dad. And they managed pretty good to work with nothing to try to, you know, to raise a house full of kids. And none of us wound up in jail.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  None of us had to get married. So all in all, I think they did a pretty good job. But we were just, a lot of folks in our area were poor. That's just the way it was in that area. But it's been one of the greatest things, really, that I've carried with me all my memories of my childhood. And it's made me appreciate life and people more than if I had been brought up a different way, I think.

• 3:53Bunnie XO?

  Yes, ma'am. I always feel like harder childhoods make for great adult hoods. It like sets you up for just a lifetime of, you know, knowing that you have to work for what you want and going after your dreams. And I feel like you dream a little bit bigger, too.

• 4:07Speaker 01

  I think you do. I think you also kind of can relate, you know, to things more. And you also, because if you, like us, you stay so close together as a family in order to try to make it. And I think that in itself gives you a strength that you wouldn't have had you not had, you know, to know what it's like to work together.

• 4:29Bunnie XO?

  Yes, ma'am.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  You know, to make things work and to keep a family together.

• 4:32Bunnie XO?

  Yes, ma'am, absolutely. A lot of your songs are deeply personal. And some of them reference your father's tough love. And you've also spoken about your mom's faith, how she was, you know, extremely religious. Do you feel that the tough love approach and her religious views is kind of what made you so independent? Or like, dare I say rebellious?

• 4:57Speaker 01

  I don't think I'm rebellious as much as I'm just strong. And I get my work ethic from my dad. And I get my spirituality and, you know, just my faith. I mean, my faith, but also just my creativity from my mom's side of the family, because they were all musical. Now dad's people worked hard. And dad was not a tough dad. He was strong, though. He was kind of like that. We knew, we knew we better watch out.

• 5:24Bunnie XO?

  He wasn't one to play with.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  No, he wasn't gonna beat us to death or anything like that. But we weren't afraid of mama. You know, we'd get by with anything with her. But she would, she would say, you know, you couldn't push her over the edge. She'd say, okay, now, that's enough. But my dad, we, but I think that that was a good combination with mom's faith and with dad's strength, that it made us really all pretty well-balanced kids, I think.

• 5:53Bunnie XO?

  I love that. I love that a lot. The respect that you have for your parents still after all these years is admirable also.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I loved my family. I still do. I stay as close as I can to them. Certainly, if I don't see them as often as I'd love to. But they're always in my heart and I always carry home with me wherever I go. And I write so many songs in order, well, it comes natural to me, but I often do it just to keep all that straight and keep that still present. Because it's so easy. And I'm sure you know, living out in this big world, you can just go any way, whether it be right or wrong.

• 6:30Bunnie XO?

  Yes, ma'am.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  You can go left and right and wrong. But it's, it's like, if you keep that thing that you remember as a child, that faith, I keep that very, I'm very, I'm a big person, you know, on faith and keeping that strength. Because that's my creative energy and my, and my spiritual energy is the thing that keeps me motivated, keeps me strong, keeps me from falling through the cracks in this crazy world. Yeah.

• 6:55Bunnie XO?

  I always say that. I'm like, whenever you're on your knees, you're in the best position to pray. It is literally like, that has been the only thing that has gotten me through in any hard times in my life is being able to call on Jesus and be like, all right, big homie, I know we got this. I know you got this for me. Speaking about family and you being so close with your brothers and sisters, everybody knows you as Dolly the Icon. But how did they know you before all of this? Like, if they could describe you, how would they describe the Dolly that they grew up with?

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Well, I was just another one of those little ragged ass kids, you know, up there in the Smokies, you know, in the mountains. But we all, we all loved the music. I took it more serious, I think. Because my Uncle Bill, one of my mom's brothers, he took a great interest in me because he saw me paying more attention to it than maybe some of the others did. Because I was always trying to learn all the chords on a guitar, any kind of an instrument laying around. And so they knew me as somebody that's gonna, you know, offer to do their chores if they'll come help me sing on a song, or if they'll add some background or help me work up a background part that I thought of. I remember once I had, when Pig Latin, when I was in school, somebody came up with Pig Latin.

• 8:12Bunnie XO?

  I never learned how to speak that.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Well, I did. And because I was fascinated with anything different.

• 8:17Bunnie XO?

  Can you tell me a sentence?

• 8:18Speaker 01

  I only learned, I only learned to do, yeah, I'm gonna sing you a song in Pig Latin. But anyway, so I came up with a song called Friendlyst Enemy. And I wanted the backgrounds to be like, she was my best friend to go with that in the background. So it was like, is she, I was way, I may, espe and pray, is she, I was way, I may, espe and pray, ooh. And that meant she was my best friend. But the song was, she's the friendliest enemy I believe ever did see. And she'd better get my baby off her mind. Is she, I was way, I may, espe and pray. So anyway.

• 8:56Bunnie XO?

  That's a hit, Dolly.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  I had to get my sisters, because they had to learn it. You know, they had to learn all that. And I had to offer to do their chores for a week or two, you know, for them to take the time to do it and just make them do it. So, you know, that kind of stuff. So they knew me as somebody that was always singing, always writing, always, you know, fidgety. I couldn't stay still, you know, I was just kind of always full of energy in life. But we all loved each other. We all had our own personalities. We all loved each other for the way we were. And that's how we still are. We all, some of us are a good mix, you know, well, we're all a good mix. But a lot of them are more like mama, mom's people, or some are more like dads. But I was a really good mix between the two, and I love that.

• 9:42Bunnie XO?

  Oh, that is perfect. And I really think you need to release that song in Pig Latin. Start a new trend again. The kids will love it.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  We actually did it up in, as one of the shows in, at Dollywood when I was telling my life story. So we worked it in a couple of years ago at The Dolly Show. And my niece has got such kick having, having to learn to sing it up there on the show. But everybody was singing it because everybody tried to learn that little part.

• 10:08Bunnie XO?

  I love it. I know, I was so jealous of the people who could do Pig Latin, because I just couldn't do it. I just could not catch on to it or how to do it. So I'm just fascinated that you can-

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Well, I was a pig, so I learned Pig Latin.

• 10:18Bunnie XO?

  Stop it right now.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Oh, I was. I was farmer's daughter.

• 10:21Bunnie XO?

  I love that. So you, circling back to your family, you helped raise, being from twelve children, you guys all took turns raising a baby, right, in the family? The oldest ones did? That is what I had read. And you had one, specifically your brother Larry, that you helped raise. Um, can we touch base on that whole situation a little bit?

• 10:48Speaker 01

  Well, I think, let me clear up a little bit.

• 10:50Bunnie XO?

  Okay.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  We all had, I have a sister and two brothers older than me.

• 10:54Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  And there's eight kids younger, but we, uh, mama had so many kids, she, there was only eighteen months, two years difference in our, in all of our ages. Mom and daddy married when mama was fifteen, she got, had her first baby at sixteen. And so, um, so they were just born one right after another. So any older child had to help with whoever was coming along.

• 11:15Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  But the little, uh, the one that was gonna be my baby was little Larry.

• 11:19Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 11:20Speaker 01

  He didn't live that long, actually. And, uh, you know, he was just, he, he died at birth, but he was, I'd followed mama around when she was pregnant the whole time, she said that was gonna be mine, I'd sing to it and I'd kiss on the belly and, you know, couldn't wait for my baby to come, but he didn't make it and it just crushed me because I, that was when I, you know, I didn't understand about death and

• 11:40Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  you know, all of that. So that was a real hit for me at that age that I had lost my baby. I thought it was some, you know, I had a guilt thing about it somehow that I'd, I'd done something wrong. But, uh, I think any child that goes through a thing like that, but we all grieved over him, not just me, but I more than the others because he was supposed to be mine. I was picturing how I was gonna rock him and how I was gonna sing him my songs and, you know, and all of that.

• 12:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  But, uh, but we loved all the kids and we all helped with all the kids.

• 12:11Bunnie XO?

  Hmm. Um, you've spoken about the influence of your family. So would you say that Larry's spirit and the memory, um, of him has continued to impact you, both personally and professionally? Because after that, um, he passed away when you were nine, correct? And then at, at ten is when you like started performing and kind of like, I don't know, I feel like maybe it was kind of like a push. Uh, was that your way of dealing with the pain?

• 12:38Speaker 01

  No, no, I don't think that had anything to do with it. I was so musically oriented anyway and I had my dreams. It did take me a while, I was so depressed as a little kid over that. Took me a while to kind of overcome that.

• 12:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  Uh, I mean, you know, weeks, you know, months, kind of.

• 12:55Bunnie XO?

  Of course.

• 12:56Speaker 01

  And that's why I really wasn't all that interested in stuff, but I don't think that had anything to do with the rest of my life. It just taught me about grief, you know, how we all have to learn those things at some age. And so that was, you know, that was a real hard hit. But no, that, after I got over the, the grief of that and I moved on, I knew he was in heaven and, you know, we would, if mama could handle it, certainly I could, you know, that kind of thing.

• 13:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 13:22Speaker 01

  But I just was ready to go on and my uncle Bill, you know, was pushing me on and, uh, he saw my desire, my dreams and so we would, he would take me around, you know, to different local things to sing and on the local radio and TV. But all of those things, it helped to make up a human being, all those memories of the bad and the good. You know, I think that just all, you don't even know what, what parts they really play. The little things that happen, it just either, if nothing else, it makes your heart tender or you know how you have, how you have to protect certain things and it teaches you gotta know about those things.

• 14:00Bunnie XO?

  Yes, ma'am, I couldn't agree more. So, you know, at ten years old, you're starting to work with Uncle Bill and you guys are going around, you know, you're performing and stuff like that. At ten years old, a lot of kids are still figuring out who they are. How did you find your confidence to stand out and perform, um, at such a young age like that?

• 14:21Speaker 01

  Well, I was always writing songs. I was always able to rhyme and mama was always fascinated and there was always so much commotion in a house with that many kids.

• 14:32Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I could imagine.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  And none of us really got any real special attention unless we were in trouble or, you know, or something, you were gonna get called out for something. But I learned early on, uh, mama was always fascinated and, and, you know, when I'd sing these songs that I'd written, I'd, I was, I would hear people talk, I'd hear stories. So I was writing songs at eight, seven, eight, nine years old about people getting killed in the war and things that I'd never seen or done, but I was able to, to rhyme and, and write. And mama would, she would always, I, I noticed early on that I'd get more attention because of that. And of course, everybody wants to be paid attention to, everybody wants to be special. So when somebody come to our house, mom would often say, run and get your guitar.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  And, and then she'd say, whoever was there, I want you to hear this thing this little thing wrote, I want you to hear this song this little thing wrote. And so I'd be really just singing my song and I was getting all that extra attention, which is making some of the other kids jealous because they weren't doing, but they didn't work as hard as I did. But learning them chords, I had a little calluses on my little fingers, you know, cut deep, they were hard, they hardened, I had, I had to really learn it till it, you know, hardens those calluses for you to play. So I took the time to do a lot of the things that some of the little, younger ones weren't willing to do.

• 15:52Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  So I just saw that that was, and I got the confidence from, uh, mama bragging on me and, and I, I knew that I could do something that some of them couldn't, you know, playing the guitar and all that. But I just, and then my uncle Bill, he took great pride in me and anytime somebody would tell me, oh, you're gonna be good, you're this, I just kind of took that. And my personality was very, um, you know, susceptible to that kind of stuff.

• 16:21Bunnie XO?

  Do you feel like you're an old soul because you were able to relate to those songs of like people losing people in the war and stuff like that? Like to be ten years old and writing songs like that, like you, you would have to resonate with them in some way.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  Well, I'm just very perceptive and I had the gift of rhyme, as I mentioned, and I had the gift of song. And so I would just hear things and, and you can always, you know, I was, uh, I could kind of take a story from one other thing and I could change a few things around. So I, I didn't feel like I was necessarily an old soul or that I had lived before or anything. I mean, I might have, I hope I did, I hope I might live again.

• 17:01Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you will.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  Yeah. But, um, I just think I was just able to do that because I had a, I was very perceptive and receptive and I, I just had a, a very creative mind. You know, I, I, I had a great imagination. So it wasn't hard for me to make up a bunch of junk.

• 17:20Bunnie XO?

  Well, being around twelve kids, I'm sure to even just get any sort of piece, you had to have a great imagination.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'd sneak off because there was a lot of kids going on. I'd sneak out behind the woodshed or around the outhouse, sit back there, do whatever, you know, write my songs, find a shady spot or a warm spot. But yeah, I was always into that guitar and always writing my songs.

• 17:41Bunnie XO?

  I love everything that you do is productive. I want my daughter to watch this, our daughter to watch this because she's sixteen right now and she's still trying to find her place in this world. And I think it's awesome that, you know, you were so productive at such a young age. Can we talk about Uncle Bill?

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 17:57Bunnie XO?

  Because Uncle Bill really believed in you and he took you to all these shows and then he landed you in the, uh, Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour and you became a regular on that show. Can you take me on that journey?

• 18:11Speaker 01

  Well, Knoxville was about thirty miles from where we actually lived. And I had an aunt that lived in Knoxville, that was where the, the show was from. And so, uh, I would, in the summer, after I got to where I actually got the job, when I got old enough to, to be allowed to stay away from home, but God, I was so homesick. She, uh, she worked at a, at a, one of those, uh, store, department stores and my uncle was a carpenter. So I was there in that, in that house a lot and I would go up to the top of the hill from where they lived and I'd catch a bus down to the radio station, take my little guitar and, and I, I would go to

• 18:54Speaker 01

  walk across the Viadoc, I guess is what they call it, like this big bridge, have my little guitar and then I would, I would go do the Cas Walker Show, uh, play my little guitar, do my songs. And Bill wasn't always with me then.

• 19:06Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Bill was doing a lot of other things, but when I was working on the

• 19:10Bunnie XO?

  Bill was living a full life.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  Walker Show, yeah, well, he was doing, he did some other things, but I could go there. And then the, the guys that, the Brewster Brothers especially, that worked with the Cas Walker Show, they'd back me up and, you know, work with me, playing the songs or singing some with me. And then sometimes I'd wait, while I was waiting for the bus, I'd just open, I'd just get my guitar out to, to be singing and some people would walk by and they'd think that I was standing on the corner and they'd drop money in my guitar case, which I loved because then I'd go home and buy those little Jiffy Burgers up at the top of the hill, uh, from where my aunt lived, they were like little crystal white castle things. Oh, that was the greatest thing if I made enough, somebody threw enough money in.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  And then I got on to that to where I just kind of, kind of play it.

• 19:57Bunnie XO?

  Just pretend.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  And I even wrote a song with my brother Floyd called Nichols and Dimes. And it was about that, that time when I was walking across. But working with the Cas Walker Show was amazing. Bill had taken me there. Um, early on, before I got the job, he's the one that got me, as you, as you mentioned, got me on the Caswalk Show and he'd take me to the, to the fair, the county fair where I could, you know, join in contests and different things like that. And then eventually, he would take me back and forth to Nashville.

• 20:28Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. And so he just had, he saw that I was so serious about it and he saw that I had potential and I just, and Bill was a great guitar player. Bill wrote great songs. We wrote great songs together. In fact, in nineteen and, I guess it was sixty-seven, we won the Song of the Year, BMI Song of the Year and put it off until tomorrow. Uh, Bill Phillips on Deca Records, he was a pretty big artist at the time. And so I got to, when I had, we had sent the demo to him from when we'd just written it, then they wanted me to sing on the demo. So that was kinda like my first kinda break of being heard, like on the, on the real radio. Uh, everybody was, DJs were calling, who's the girl singing with the, Bill Phillips on the Bill Phillips song?

• 21:13Bunnie XO?

  Oh.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  So anyway, that was kind of a moment, too.

• 21:16Bunnie XO?

  That's awesome that Uncle Bill's been so pivotal in your career.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:21Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing. At ten years old, being on the Caswalkers Show, who were some of your musical influences? Was there anybody that you wanted to be like, or did you have an idea of like, hey, I'm gonna pave my own way?

• 21:31Speaker 01

  Well, all of my people were very musical. And so I think some of my greatest influences were within my own family. My, I had an aunt, Dorothy Jo, one of my mom's sisters. Well, she played the banjo, she played the guitar and she wrote great songs. And she was an evangelist. She also was a Pentecostal preacher.

• 21:51Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 21:52Speaker 01

  Yeah. And I used to, oh, I was just totally influenced, you know, by her. But as far as some of the others, there were the kitty, you know, there was Kitty Wales on the Grand Ole Opry and Roy Acuff and, and there was the, some, early on, after I got to out, to where we really had, had a little bit more exposure to, to big radio and all. There was a woman named Rose Maddox. She was, it was the Maddox Brothers and Rose. She worked with her brothers and that was the first time I'd ever seen, uh, people dress in the rhinestones. They wore kinda western, kinda like the, how the Grand Ole Opry does, but they were the first ones I'd ever seen do that.

• 22:31Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  And, uh, so, and they also put a show together, a little, they did a little bits, a little comedy and little things and I thought that was amazing. So you, you find that now that I'm older, I look back and I, I find that I have just picked up bits and pieces from so many people through the years and I've learned so much that I didn't realize, I'm like a sponge.

• 22:53Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 22:54Speaker 01

  You know, I just, without even knowing that I'm doing it.

• 22:57Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  And then later on, I'll do something and I'll think, oh, that reminds me so much of when I saw so-and-so or, or, you know, you just learn, you just learn through watching.

• 23:07Bunnie XO?

  Well, I always say we're like a masterpiece of all the art we pick up from each person. You know, it's just like little, little gems of their souls that we take with us and that, you know, we look back on and we're like, okay, this influenced this and this influenced that. So I love that you always give credit where credit's due, because I'm the same way. Like if I see, if, if anybody asks me, what's your look? I'm like, Dolly. I'm Dolly all day long, you know?

• 23:28Speaker 01

  Oh, well, I wish I looked like you.

• 23:29Bunnie XO?

  Oh, stop it.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  You didn't need me for that.

• 23:31Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you, listen, we could trade outfits right now and I'd be happy. I love this outfit right here.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, uh, we love God, I guess.

• 23:38Bunnie XO?

  Ah, absolutely, yes. So circling back, let's talk about the Grand Ole Opry, because you made your first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry when you were thirteen years old. How was that for you, walking out on that stage at thirteen, being introduced by Johnny Cash?

• 23:55Speaker 01

  It was scary.

• 23:56Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I can imagine.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember my heart was beating like a drum, but, uh, I always said, my, my desire to do a thing is, has always been greater than my fear of it.

• 24:05Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  So I just tried to hold on to, to that. I thought, well, I can't, I can't turn around in the middle of the stage and run back. I thought, I gotta finish it.

• 24:14Bunnie XO?

  It's kinda how I felt today.

• 24:16Speaker 01

  No matter what.

• 24:17Bunnie XO?

  I was so scared.

• 24:18Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 24:19Bunnie XO?

  In a good way, though. I feel like if you're not, if you're not scared of what, of what you're doing, you're not growing.

• 24:24Speaker 01

  Well, I agree with that. But anyway, that was scary.

• 24:27Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  That was big. That was, you know, working with, just being around all those big artists, but I was also in awe of it.

• 24:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 01

  And I, like I said, of course, I mean, I was this country kid.

• 24:36Bunnie XO?

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  You know, you're always nervous when you, first time you ever eat in a restaurant around people you're not used to, knowing how to do that, what spoons and forks and, even to this day, I still don't know exactly.

• 24:48Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, same.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  When I go to these big fine meals and all that, but I figure, well, I wouldn't be here if I wasn't a star, so to hell with them. I'm gonna eat what I eat and do what I have to.

• 24:58Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  But I still would like to know those things, but I just never learned it. And now I don't care, you know, that I, you know, sometimes you think, ooh.

• 25:06Bunnie XO?

  Gets to a point where you've earned not being able to care.

• 25:07Speaker 01

  You just kinda watch other people. That's how you, how you learn. It's like, I'll watch them and when they pick that up, I'll pick that up and I'll do this and I'll do that.

• 25:15Bunnie XO?

  I could never, I could not point out a solid fork to you if somebody paid me. I don't know how to do that either.

• 25:20Speaker 01

  Well, that's what I'm saying. I just kinda watch, if it's a big ol', big thing, like if I'm invited to eat with the royal family or something, you think, I'm very uncomfortable.

• 25:31Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  But, so I mean, I better watch so I don't make a fool of myself.

• 25:34Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  Or them.

• 25:36Bunnie XO?

  So circling back to the Opry, um, Johnny Cash introduced you and he's known for his powerful presence and mentorship. What do you remember about your interaction with him that night? And did he say anything to you that stuck with you throughout your career?

• 25:51Speaker 01

  He said hello. That stuck with me because at that time, I thought, see, I had seen Johnny Cash, uh, at another time when we were sitting in the audience and I had the biggest crush on him.

• 26:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh, my goodness, yeah.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Cause he had so much magnetism and I was young, you know, I was just beginning to feel those hormones and look at, you know, to where you feel those things. I never felt.

• 26:13Bunnie XO?

  Very masculine energy.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  Well, he did, you know, he had all that, you know, movement and all. I found out later it's cause he was coming off drugs.

• 26:20Bunnie XO?

  Oh, no.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  He had, he was just had twitches of what I thought was magnetism.

• 26:24Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  But there was some truth in that. I think, you know, the way he was kinda moving.

• 26:31Bunnie XO?

  He was a Pisces, right?

• 26:32Speaker 01

  Yeah. But I loved him and I, and as for years and years, I told him he was my first crush and he was.

• 26:38Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 26:39Speaker 01

  And then, uh, so, uh, in my, um, Broadway musical, The Life Story, I, I covered that about Johnny touching me on the shoulder.

• 26:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 26:48Speaker 01

  It's like, I mean, it made, just changed my life.

• 26:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 26:51Speaker 01

  You know, because I wanted, I thought I was grown then, you know, cause I felt all those feelings. But he was, uh, he was a real nice guy and, uh, very quiet, but I became best friends with, uh, June and Johnny after. So as the years went by, you know, we, we would visit and we liked each other a lot.

• 27:09Bunnie XO?

  She is a good woman. I really, I really admire her.

• 27:11Speaker 01

  She was a loud mouth like me.

• 27:13Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  So we got along just fine. And Johnny, I remember when somebody said something about, Johnny, don't you get tired of hearing June talk all the time? And he said, no, I do some of my best thinking when June's talking. So I think, that's kinda like my husband. But I think, I think he does some of his best thinking when I'm talking.

• 27:33Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I think that's how all husbands are. They just tune us out, you know, they're just so used to us.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  I'm sure they do.

• 27:38Bunnie XO?

  Um, when you performed that night, did you already have a sense of like the legacy that you wanted to build in country music? Or did that experience at the Opry shift your perspective on what was possible for you as an artist? Because.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  Well, at that time, I was just so nervous and, and I reflected on that years later, as I still do.

• 27:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  But at that time, it was just a big deal, you know, to be there on, at the Grand Ole Opry with all those big name artists. And, uh, so I, I think that I, I was just, it was just kinda addling at that time. I was just kinda addled about the whole thing. But I knew that that was, you know, just like when I got my encore on the Caswalkers Show, the first time I was on there, and I thought, oh, boy, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a star. And now I, years later, I realized they weren't applauding so much because I was good. It was just cause I was little.

• 28:32Bunnie XO?

  Stop it.

• 28:33Speaker 01

  You know, no, it wasn't, cause I wasn't, you know, you have to develop and grow. But you know how everybody wants to be good to a kid?

• 28:40Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 28:41Speaker 01

  And the fact that I was out there doing it, I think they, uh, you know, that people were just extra nice and I think a whole lot of that might've been so with the Opry. It was just kinda cute when you see a young.

• 28:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  Person doing something. So, but I did feel, and I, I felt back on it shortly after, thinking, wow, you know, I was on the Grand Ole Opry and they liked me.

• 29:01Bunnie XO?

  They asked you for three encores.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  This is what I, I wanna do.

• 29:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. They asked you for three encores after your first performance there.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I didn't give them to them. No, I'm joking. They asked them. Now, actually, they did applaud and I kept singing the same, you know, last verse a couple of times.

• 29:18Bunnie XO?

  She's like, this is all you get?

• 29:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is all I practiced, yeah.

• 29:22Bunnie XO?

  So soon after that, you ended up moving to Nashville and you graduated from high school, correct? And then you ended up moving to Nashville and you moved to Nashville with, you know, minimal amounts of money. How did you make ends meet in those early days and were there any creative or unexpected ways you found to survive while pursuing your dreams out there?

• 29:42Speaker 01

  Well, I was lucky because there are so many songwriters in Nashville and publishing companies and a lot of the people that write songs are not good singers. So, uh, all the publishing companies, they hire, if there's song, female songs, that you can get a job singing those songs. So I got work, uh, through Tree Publishing Company, uh, Buddy Killen was a dear friend. And so he would get me on, uh, these sessions singing some of the songs that these writers had written, singing the girl songs.

• 30:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  And then I didn't have a car, didn't have a phone, didn't have anything. And so all these musicians, cause I was a right pretty girl at that time, you know, this young girl and, you know, coming.

• 30:28Bunnie XO?

  Still are beautiful.

• 30:29Speaker 01

  And so I had all these musicians that were on the sessions, always willing to drive me home. Always willing to stop shows, buy me a burger.

• 30:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  And some of them thinking they might get more, but, uh, and some of them might have, but that was not because I.

• 30:43Bunnie XO?

  Lucky fellows.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  I know, but I'm serious, it's like, they were always so good to me. Everybody seemed to know that I, my heart was in a good place and that I was just a country girl. I was funny, you know, I was always cracking jokes or, you know, just being, well, like I am now, really.

• 31:01Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  Um, but everybody got a kick out of me, so I was just one of the boys, cause I had six brothers and all my uncles and my grandpa. I was not a bit shy around the men and I knew how to, you know, how to maneuver.

• 31:13Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 31:14Speaker 01

  So, so I made money, uh, and then I also got on a small salary, uh, with Tree, uh, publishing company in those early days. And then later I got with the Combine Music, uh, with Fred Foster of Monument Records. They had a publishing company, so I got, I was lucky that I always got a little bit of a salary as a writer of my own songs in addition to being able to sing some of the demos.

• 31:41Bunnie XO?

  She's like, I figured it out, sister. I did what I had to do.

• 31:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:44Bunnie XO?

  I love that so much.

• 31:46Speaker 01

  But I used to go, uh, in the early, early days, I would walk down to the hotels and I would walk through the hallways and I would, uh, see all the trays out on the, out in front of the doors and any food that, uh, you know, like all those little mustard and ketchup packets and bottles, I'd take those all back and anything that looked like, you know, that was pretty decent to still eat. I would get it, I would just kind of get a call, get a napkin off of the tray and, and put it all in my purse, so.

• 32:18Bunnie XO?

  Just whatever you had to do to survive.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  And there was a, a restaurant, uh, down around, uh, 12th Avenue at that time. And, uh, this was different places I lived, but that right above the hill, it was called Cowser's. It became very famous. It was a meet and three and the two, the Cowser brothers owned it. And I would walk down there and they liked me and so they would give me free food. They would give me a good meal, but I would clean off the tables and I would refill the salt and pepper shakes and I would, uh, you know, do all the things that you, you know, do like that. So I could, I would do that. I didn't get it for money, but I got good food and then they would pack me stuff to take home too.

• 32:57Bunnie XO?

  Oh, that is so sweet. I never knew what a meet and three was until I moved to Nashville and I was like, what is that? And I love them now. I think the concept is so awesome. I think they need them all over, everywhere. Not just in the South, like on the West Coast and everywhere. I think it, they would just be a hit.

• 33:13Speaker 01

  But I guess if somebody out there don't know what a meet and three is.

• 33:16Bunnie XO?

  Yes, yeah, oh, yes.

• 33:17Speaker 01

  Wherever the choice of meat, whether it be meatloaf and it's like three, three vegetables, three side dishes you get.

• 33:23Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 33:24Speaker 01

  But yeah, all of those terms, I never, I remember once my, I was on the road with one of my brothers and, um, we were just, he played the bass in my first, one of my first bands. And, uh, we'd stop to the truck stop and he had, uh, I guess he looked at the menu and it had, had corned beef, corned beef and cabbage. When they brought it and he said, well, where's my corn? Cause he didn't know it was corn, corn, beef fried from corn.

• 33:51Bunnie XO?

  Corned beef, yeah.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was corned beef and cabbage and he said, well, where's my corn? She said, well, did you want corn, sir? He said, well, this is corn.

• 33:59Bunnie XO?

  He took it literal.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, we always, there's jokes about those things with country boys coming to Nashville to tell their, their stories.

• 34:09Bunnie XO?

  So switching gears, um, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about Carl for a second because you, you came to Nashville. Did you think coming to Nashville, you were gonna meet the love of your life?

• 34:21Speaker 01

  No.

• 34:21Bunnie XO?

  As soon as you came here?

• 34:22Speaker 01

  I left two boyfriends back home that had wanted to marry me and I kept saying, no, I'm gonna move to Nashville. You know, when I, you know, I mean, a different, uh, well, I left two boyfriends.

• 34:34Bunnie XO?

  I love that there was two of them.

• 34:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I, you know, I dated, but not at the same time, but they were like in that.

• 34:40Bunnie XO?

  It's okay if you did.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  They both, well, I know, that's true too.

• 34:44Speaker 01

  But my point is, uh, that I thought, well, the last thing I want is a boyfriend. I gotta, you know, cause I'm leaving two boyfriends here and I kept saying, no, I'm going to Nashville. And so I got here and I thought, well, that's the last thing I'm gonna get caught up with some boy, you know, till I get my feet on the ground, get things going. And the very day I got to Nashville, I met Carl Dean. And 60 years later, I'm still with Carl Dean. But that's the one that took, yeah, we've been together 60 years. We've been married 58, going on, uh.

• 35:19Bunnie XO?

  That's six decades.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, but it took.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Uh, but anyway, he's a good guy and, you know, he's quiet and I'm loud and, uh, we just, we're funny. Oh, he's hilarious. And I think one of the things that's made it last so long through the years is that we love each other. We respect each other, but we have a lot of fun.

• 35:40Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  Anytime things get too, uh, too much tension going on.

• 35:46Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 01

  We, either one of us can like find the, a joke about it.

• 35:50Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, you have to.

• 35:52Speaker 01

  Break the tension and where it's not, we don't let it go, you know, so far. We never fought back and forth. And I'm glad now.

• 35:59Bunnie XO?

  That's amazing.

• 36:00Speaker 01

  That we never did, cause once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I've seen it with so many people. And I thought, I ain't ever starting that. I don't, I can't, I couldn't bear to, you know, think that he'd say something I couldn't take. You know?

• 36:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 36:15Speaker 01

  It would hurt, you know, cause I'm a very sensitive person toward other people and myself, you know? I mean, you don't, you know, you may hurt people's feelings not knowing it, but knowingly you don't do it, yeah.

• 36:26Bunnie XO?

  In a world where love and marriage is often romanticized, what do you think was the most important, but sometimes overlooked aspect of you and Carl's relationship?

• 36:36Speaker 01

  Well, he was the homebody and that worked well for us, you know, cause he was in, uh, well, he was in asphalt paving. But he just, his sign, I don't know if anybody out there that goes by astrology or pay attention to that. Well, he's Cancer and I'm Capricorn and those are compatible signs, yeah. Cause I, uh, the Capricorn is the mountain goat and it's always climbing, wanting to look down on the other side. And the Cancer is more of a homebody and he really was. He never, he loved to go places. If we were gonna drive cross-country or go where, if we had a planned thing. But boy, he can't, he never could wait to get home. He wanted to be around home.

• 37:16Speaker 01

  And I wanted, I'm a gypsy by nature. I just loved going, loved to see what else is out there. But, um, I think that he's just, that's, that's worked well for us. He's not the least, he loves music, but he's not the least bit interested in being in it. And he told me that right up front. I begged him to go with me in 67. We'd got, um, we got married in 66. So, uh, that's when I got, won the first award for the BMI Song of the Year.

• 37:47Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  And I rented him a tux and, you know, begged him to go and he did and, oh, he was so uncomfortable. The whole night, I mean, we, as soon as he, we got, hit the door, he started pulling off stuff and, you know, and he thought, he was just so, he said, look, now I want you to do everything you want to do and I wish you the best, but don't ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things, cause I ain't going. And he never did. So we just kind of have that respect. And I respected that, cause I didn't know he was gonna be that uneasy, but he doesn't even like to go out to, you know, to big dinners or anything like that. So even on anniversaries and stuff like that, we usually stay home and make something special.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Do something special like that, but he does, or go to McDonald's or go somewhere we wanna go that's comfortable. Or to go to, now, we will go to Mexican restaurants, he does. He will go in, sit in a booth and do that. He loves that.

• 38:40Bunnie XO?

  Does Carl love nachos?

• 38:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, he does. He loves Mexican food, period. But we go, um, you know, we'll go sit in a booth, like if it's an anniversary or, or just sometimes on a Saturday, we just go, we know where to go when the, before the crowd comes. He doesn't like big crowds. But anyway, he's just special to me and I just love him like he is.

• 39:02Bunnie XO?

  You light up whenever you talk about him.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  Well.

• 39:04Bunnie XO?

  I love to see that.

• 39:05Speaker 01

  He's good. Everybody loves Carl.

• 39:07Bunnie XO?

  What's something that you would want the world to know about Carl that they don't know?

• 39:11Speaker 01

  He don't want me to tell the world nothing about Carl.

• 39:14Bunnie XO?

  I love that. I love that he's such a private person.

• 39:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, he is. I mean, he can, I can talk what I want to, but he'll say, just leave me out of the whole damn thing. Don't, don't, he would say, don't say nothing I said, but I do all the time, cause he's funny.

• 39:28Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. And, um, I also wanted to tell you, I, I always tell everybody, um, whenever they give me, they're like, oh, you're like a young Dolly. And I'm like, Dolly's birthday is January 17th, mine's January 22nd. So we're on the same cusp and I, that's like always my thing. I'm like, I'm just like Dolly, like I love that. So we have the same cusp that we're on, the 17th through the 22nd. So moving on from sweet Carl, um. Okay, gotcha.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Oh, boy, we could talk forever.

• 39:56Bunnie XO?

  I know. There's so much I wanted to talk to you about. So you and I, um, your signature look, the big hair, the bold makeup and all that stuff. Um, you now have your own makeup line that we have sitting in front of us right now. And can you show me some of your products? Because I am really excited about learning.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  Well, there's a whole bunch of stuff.

• 40:19Bunnie XO?

  There's so much stuff.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  I know. We got the lipsticks, you know, we got great lipstick and, and so we've got all the beautiful colors. And we have these wonderful glosses too with all the, the different colors. But I, I've always wanted to have my own line of makeup. And I love lipstick and you do too. And I love gloss and I love the shine and, and I love all the beautiful things. And we don't have the full line that we will eventually have. But we started out with our lipsticks and with our glosses. And so we're going to have a, a line of everything as, as we got our eyeliners in the different colors. And so we've got great stuff. So have you not had a chance to see any of them?

• 40:59Bunnie XO?

  I did. I did get to see it. They wanted me to like, look at these with you.

• 41:03Speaker 01

  I'm afraid I'll walk everything over if I try to get them.

• 41:05Bunnie XO?

  No, you're good. I'll hand you some of these right here. I mean, you, Dolly, your name is on everything. There's nothing that you haven't covered. I just want to tell you, your Dolly Parton brownies though, are, I brag about them on my podcast all the time. I will eat those brownies any time of day. They're so good.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  I hope they, I hope it pops. Our nails are too long.

• 41:24Bunnie XO?

  Sequoia actually showed me how to do this. Yes, there we go.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and don't you love these? The rhinestones?

• 41:30Bunnie XO?

  So beautiful.

• 41:30Speaker 01

  I always make my joke of them. I never leave a rhinestone unturned. And it's got my little name there. But that's the color that would fit you. That's the Jolene red.

• 41:38Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 41:39Speaker 01

  You know, we thought, well, we had to have, have a Jolene color. And then we got our beautiful gold glosses and, you know, all the things that go with them. And we have different colors, you know, of the, of the lipsticks. We have the gold dust in the gloss and a rose petal, which is real, real pink. And so we have all different things that we have for, for that. So anyhow.

• 42:03Bunnie XO?

  So moving on from the lipsticks, because I mean, and we always need a lipstick stained wine glass. You are selling wine now too.

• 42:12Speaker 01

  Lipstick stained wine glass.

• 42:14Bunnie XO?

  We need the lipstick stained wine glass.

• 42:16Speaker 01

  We have our Chardonnay. We have the accolades, uh, wine company and I went in business together. And this is one that's really, really nice. And eventually, you know, we're like with the makeup, we're starting out with certain ones, but then eventually we'll have all the, the things. But right now we, we're, we have our, um, Chardonnay and you can get that in, in easy stores like Kroger's and stores like that.

• 42:40Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  And in the, in the wine and beer stores.

• 42:43Bunnie XO?

  So we were also smelling, uh, Backstage. We were, we opened up your.

• 42:48Speaker 01

  That's the good one. Yeah, that's my, that was my original.

• 42:51Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  And now this is, uh, they're doing this as a, you know, special thing. This one's just a collect, kind of almost like a collector's item and I can't, I can't wait for, for everybody to try this.

• 43:04Bunnie XO?

  This is the one we tried in the dressing room and it smells so good. I love everything that you've done, everything that you've branded your name on. You have cookbooks. I mean, you have children's books. There's so many people that messaged me, um, when they found out on my Patreon that we were going to be doing this, um, podcast together. And they wanted me to thank you for the imagination books that you have.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Oh, the Imagination Library. I'm as proud of that as anything I've ever done. Where we give books to children from the time they're born till they start school.

• 43:31Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  And yeah, we've given over, I think, 250 million books out since we started.

• 43:37Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 43:38Speaker 01

  But that's all good. But I'm very proud of all the things we got in the little Billy the Kid books. It's based on stories that I've, uh, children's songs that I've written. Well, the Christmas one is based on a song I wrote, but the others are, uh, children's things that they need to know about.

• 43:54Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  And I mean, if you've got a good book and you've got makeup and you've got perfume and you've got wine, what else do you need?

• 44:00Bunnie XO?

  I need some of your Jolene's.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  Well, you do. Oh, the Jolene jeans.

• 44:06Bunnie XO?

  They're coming out soon, so I need them.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  They're called Jolene's jeans.

• 44:10Bunnie XO?

  I love it.

• 44:11Speaker 01

  And, uh, you've probably got a pretty butt, so they'll probably look good on you.

• 44:14Bunnie XO?

  Well, I got, I got hips and I got hips. So we need, we need to slap some hips in them.

• 44:18Speaker 01

  I think they'll look good on everybody. I gotta get me some of those too.

• 44:21Bunnie XO?

  I love it so much.

• 44:22Speaker 01

  Jolene, boy, for a hussy that's trying to steal my man, she's gone, she's done pretty good by me, ain't she?

• 44:28Bunnie XO?

  I think Jolene might be your alter ego.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  She might be.

• 44:33Bunnie XO?

  Ms. Dolly, thank you so much for giving me your time. And I appreciate you. And thank you so much for just letting me be in your world for a little bit today.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Well, thank you for being in mine. And we're not dumb blondes, not by a long shot.

• 44:44Bunnie XO?

  No, we are not.

• 44:45Speaker 01

  But anyway, I love the title of your show and you have a huge following. And I was honored that you wanted me to be on the show.

• 44:52Bunnie XO?

  Thank you. I appreciate you so much.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  Now I want to be more like you.

• 44:55Bunnie XO?

  No, you are so sweet. I think, um, I'm just going to continue to just walk in your footsteps and do whatever I can to be more Dolly-like. I always think, what would Dolly do? So.

• 45:05Speaker 01

  My Lord, I'll do anything.

• 45:07Bunnie XO?

  Me too. That's what got me here. So, thank you, Ms. Dolly.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 45:12Bunnie XO?

  Thank you guys for tuning into another episode of Dumb Blonde. I will see you guys next week. Bye.