Second Helpings - Dolly Parton

This is a BIG one!!! Straight out of Nashville, the one and only Country ICON Dolly Parton joins us on Table Manners. We chatted to Dolly live from Nashville - dressed head to toe in festive gear - back in October 2020, before her beautiful book Storyteller had reached these shores and before we knew she had potentially helped cure covid with her generous donation to help fund a covid vaccine. As well as telling us all about cosying up with Michael Buble on her new christmas record ‘A Holly Dolly Christmas’ she talks to us about her upbringing in the mountains, being one of 12 children, her speciality of Chicken and Dumplings, that Glastonbury show and the very first time she heard Whitney Houston sing her song on the radio. This was a total pleasure and a real pinch yourself moment (hence my over talking). Hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed chatting to everyone's favourite storyteller! Dolly has now announced a brand new Broadway musical based on her life which launches in December. Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/ Follow Table Manners on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  State Fair food is getting smaller and pricier.

• 0:03Speaker 01

  We'll have room for fried cookies.

• 0:05Speaker 00

  Okay, you never overspend on food. What's your deal?

• 0:08Speaker 02

  What's his deal? He went to Metro and got $450 in value on the new Samsung Galaxy A37 5G for free and no activation fees.

• 0:16Speaker 00

  Free phone? Oh, sign me up.

• 0:19Speaker 02

  Get that more for your money feeling, only on Metro by T-Mobile.

• 0:22Speaker 03

  Bring your number and activate $40 period plan. $450 based on device discount waived activation fee. Not available if with Metro or T-Mobile in the past 180 days.

• 0:35Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Second Helpings. This week, we've got the formidable Dolly Parton, which was recorded during lockdown over Zoom. I was actually recording my album. Which one was I recording? I think I was recording the deluxe for What's Your Pleasure? Because we recorded it in 2020 October and it came out in December 2020. She came on to tell us about her Christmas album, Holly Dolly Christmas. And so I always found it quite funny that Dolly was in front of the big Christmas tree when we were chatting to her. And I was at James Ford's studio. And I said, listen, I'm just gonna have to do this podcast because it's with Dolly Parton. And he said, no problem. We had an hour with the Queen.

• 1:18Jessie Ware?

  It's the one and only country icon, Dolly Parton, and she loved it, didn't she?

• 1:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, she was great fun.

• 1:25Jessie Ware?

  I was very nervous. I think we were both nervous. We recorded this in a strange time of endless lockdown.

• 1:31Speaker 05

  And we was on Zoom. It'd be nice to meet her in person, Jess.

• 1:34Jessie Ware?

  And before we knew, she actually had potentially helped cure COVID with her generous donation to help fund a COVID vaccine for Moderna. Dolly Parton coming up on Second Helpings.

• 1:49Jessie Ware?

  Holly, Dolly, can you hear us?

• 1:51Speaker 05

  She's not connected yet.

• 1:52Speaker 06

  Working on it.

• 1:53Jessie Ware?

  I can hear you.

• 1:54Speaker 06

  Can you hear me?

• 1:56Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 1:57Speaker 06

  Well, hi there.

• 1:58Jessie Ware?

  Hi, Dolly. How are you?

• 2:01Speaker 06

  I am good. I understand we're gonna be sitting around the table talking.

• 2:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, talking about food and Christmas.

• 2:07Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 2:08Jessie Ware?

  How are you? You're by a Christmas tree?

• 2:10Speaker 06

  Well, of course I am, because I'm doing a whole lot of promotion for my Christmas album and a whole bunch of other stuff I got going on. But you can't see that, right? You're on a podcast, right? You're just on radio.

• 2:21Jessie Ware?

  But we can paint the picture, Dolly. You know, there's a Christmas tree, there's a wreath. Dolly is in a beautiful red outfit and I feel like it's Christmas Eve and I've got the best present of all.

• 2:32Speaker 06

  Well, thank you. I'm happy sitting here on Christmas Eve by my fireplace with my Christmas tree and my wreath and all that. So I am in the Christmas spirit. How about you?

• 2:42Jessie Ware?

  Well, you know what? For October the 2nd or 3rd, I'm feeling pretty jubilant. I'm well up for it. I'm thankful that you have given Christmas to us so early. Thank you.

• 2:53Speaker 06

  We need some Christmas. I wish I'd recorded that in my new album, We Need A Little Christmas. But I didn't, but we certainly do. And I've got it. I started it early on in the summer, so I've been doing Christmas since July.

• 3:06Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow. So you started recording the record in July?

• 3:10Speaker 06

  Yeah, you usually have to start early in order to get things done. And we also decorate. We decorate the studios and everything to where we feel like we're in the Christmas spirit.

• 3:20Jessie Ware?

  So where are you right now, Dolly?

• 3:22Speaker 06

  I am in Nashville. I'm at one of our studios that we do our work in. So we kind of work in a small circle in our own little personal, private areas. And we try to do our social distancing and try to be smart and all that. So I'm sitting here right in the middle of Nashville.

• 3:39Jessie Ware?

  Did you actually get to get cozy with Michael? Or did it have to be kind of socially distanced cozying up with Michael Buble?

• 3:45Speaker 06

  Well, I wanted to cozy up and cuddle.

• 3:48Jessie Ware?

  Don't be all, Dolly.

• 3:48Speaker 06

  I wanted to cuddle down and cozy up with him, but I couldn't very well do that, not this year anyway. So maybe next year I'll get to do a Christmas special of the same album. And then maybe I'll get to cuddle up with him then. But we actually, all the guests that we had on, we kind of had to do it where they were in their studios. And we had, you know, we had to kind of do it with all the, you know, the social distancing and all the stuff that we had to do. But thank God, technology, we've pulled it off.

• 4:17Speaker 05

  Do you like Christmas, Dolly?

• 4:19Speaker 06

  Well, I love Christmas. Don't everybody? I think that's probably my favorite time of the year. I mean, I enjoy all of it. But Christmas is just so much about the, like you're talking about, the trees, the glitter, the glamour, the presents, the streets being all decorated and getting the chance to party and to sing and to eat too much and not feel too bad about it till the first of the year.

• 4:44Jessie Ware?

  So who does the cooking, Dolly, in your house on Christmas?

• 4:48Speaker 06

  Well, everybody. In my house, I like to do a lot of my own cooking. And my sisters and I love to cook the same things that we grew up, you know, serving, you know, at Christmas with Mama's, a lot of Mama's old recipes. But it's, you know, we do the traditional stuff, the turkey and whether it's chicken or turkey and the hams and the steppens and the mashed potatoes and the yams and the pumpkin pies, all the stuff that we eat at Thanksgiving, we eat again at Christmas. So it's kind of like it's a whole continuous thing. But we all love to cook. And my sisters and I make our own special little things. Mine is chicken and dumplings that taste like Mama's. So we try to keep Mama in Christmas all the time.

• 5:33Jessie Ware?

  So was your Mama good cook then?

• 5:35Speaker 06

  Oh, of course. She had to cook for that big house full of young'uns. So Mama, everything Mama cooked, you know, you'd think there wouldn't be a thing to eat in the house. And Mama would just start cooking and before you know it, there was always something that always was always good.

• 5:51Jessie Ware?

  There's a lot of, you've got a lot of brothers and sisters. Was there 12 of you?

• 5:56Speaker 06

  Yeah, there's 12 of us in all. There's six girls and six boys. I have a sister and two brothers older and they're way kids younger. But we had a lot of mouths to feed. My sister and I had to learn to cook early. So we cook a lot like Mama and my aunts and my grandmas. Mama was always having a baby, so when Mama was out with a baby, my sister Willie and I had to do the cooking, you know, in those early days. So we know how to do it.

• 6:20Speaker 05

  You're one of the oldest in the family?

• 6:23Speaker 06

  Yes, I have a sister and two brothers older than me.

• 6:27Speaker 05

  And so you had to take a lot of responsibility for the little ones?

• 6:31Speaker 06

  Well, yeah, that was, that was just the rule of the house. Every time Mama had a baby, we all had to help take care of it. So she had, I think that's why she kept having kids, just so she'd have somebody to babysit.

• 6:44Speaker 06

  But we did it, you know, it was just a natural way of life. We were always excited when we heard Mama was having a new baby, which was all the time. I always make a joke that Mama had one on her, on her hip, or one in her at all times.

• 6:58Speaker 05

  On or in her?

• 7:00Speaker 06

  Yeah. So, but we loved them all and that Mama and Daddy loved us all. So that was just the way it is. Just horny hillbillies up there in the mountains.

• 7:09Speaker 05

  At Christmas, will you all get together with your family? Is that how you normally spend Christmas?

• 7:15Speaker 06

  Well, we try to get as many of us together as we can at Christmas. A lot of my family still live in East Tennessee, and that's 200 miles east of Nashville. So it's a four, five hour drive up there. But the ones that live in Nashville, we try to get together as much as we can. And then sometime between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, we make our trips back and forth to see the ones in East Tennessee. And the ones from East Tennessee that want to get out and drive, well, they usually come down, you know, to my house or whatever. So we just kind of do it, you know, different ways now. And we just love to have Christmas. We just get together as much as we can, as many of us as we can.

• 7:59Speaker 06

  And but through the course of the holidays, we try to connect with everybody.

• 8:05Jessie Ware?

  And Dolly, am I right in thinking that your brother is on this Holly Dolly Christmas album, doing a duet with you?

• 8:12Speaker 06

  Yeah, talking about all those kids and us growing up in the mountains. We used to always want one of those walking, talking dolls that we used to see in the catalogs that used to come to our house, the wish book, Daddy called it. We were just wishing for it. We weren't going to get it. But anyway, we used to see these walking, talking dolls that you put water into a bottle and it would pee and it would have real tears and all of that. And then sometimes they'd walk and talk. And so we never could have that at that time. And some of our cousins living in the city, they did. So my brother Randy was born around Christmas. So Mama said, come over here, you gotta see your own walking, talking doll. He really pees, real pee and cries real tears and all that.

• 8:57Speaker 06

  So he was our Christmas baby. So I wrote a song in this album called You Are My Christmas. And I wrote it for my brother Randy. So he's singing with me on it and his daughter, my niece Heidi, singing that third part harmony. And so it's real, real special, you know, to me, that particular song with them.

• 9:16Jessie Ware?

  Oh, that's so lovely. Dolly, I'm a singer. When I'm not talking to you on Zoom and doing a podcast, I'm actually a singer. And so I love to know how you tour and whether you have anything particular on your rider that I should be putting on my rider? Because mine is very boring.

• 9:32Speaker 06

  Well, actually, I love to travel. I really kind of miss touring during this time because we all kind of took off. But I spend a lot of time on my bus and I take a lot of the things I like with me, the things I like to eat. But in the dressing room, I usually just, they usually just put fruits and crackers and cheeses and like water. I don't drink the sparkling water. If I'm singing, I like the flat water. And I have tea and we have coffees and, you know, I like potato chips. So I always ask for those kind of junky things mostly. But when we do tour, we have a caterer that usually prepares a dinner for us after our rehearsal. So anyway, we have everything we need and what we don't get there, I have on my bus.

• 10:17Jessie Ware?

  I wanted to know, because I watched the documentary on Netflix and I saw that you did, you did fifty, it was your 50th anniversary at the Grand Old Opry, at which I, you know, I've heard about, I haven't ever been to, but this is a huge, huge deal in country music and you were doing, and I wanted to know whether there was a particular, like, culinary celebration after that gig when you did it. Was there somewhere that you'd go? And is there anywhere that you recommend in Nashville that you're like, you can get the best? I know that you like pork, you love a pork chop, is it?

• 10:48Speaker 06

  I do. Well, I like, pork is my favorite meat, of course. One of the places we go all the time, and they're one that I'm giving them an advertisement, it's called Arnold's, and they make the best stuff. So we love their food and they do the best food of anything. And of course, everybody loves Cracker Barrel, you know, everybody goes to that, they have country food, but they're just always, you can always find good food in Tennessee for good barbecue and for all meat and threes. And so I still cook a lot of that kind of stuff myself. So, but at least I know where to go. So if you come to Nashville, you won't have any trouble finding a good place to eat.

• 11:24Jessie Ware?

  God, I love that place. It's so brilliant. I watched a chef's table on this very famous chef called Shaun, I can't remember his surname, but he has this very famous restaurant called Husk, where he's kind of brought southern food back and he's really celebrating the foraging, kind of real authentic southern cuisine and kind of, it looks fantastic. And I, I wanted to know whether you, did you used to forage in the mountains? Like, would you go and pick in the mountains and go and find things to eat in the mountains?

• 11:52Speaker 06

  Well, when you grew up in the mountains like we did, we lived on a farm, so we grew, you know, a lot of our own vegetables and we raised our own, you know, our own pigs and we, you know, we did all that in those days. So mama just knew how to put anything together. But we also did a lot of wild foods, like rabbit hunting and squirrels and all the things. A lot of people, ooh, you eat squirrel, you eat rabbit, some of the best eating in the world if you know how to fix it. And when you live in the mountains, you learn to eat and fix everything that's edible. And even the greens, you know, that grow in the fields, you know, the wild stuff that's, that makes it really tasty things, like

• 12:32Speaker 06

  whether it's like watercress or whether it's something we call polk salad. It's like the polk bush, P O L K, I guess we call it polk, polk salad. But anyway, it's the wild green that grows. So there's a lot of wonderful things that you, you know, can cook from, from the mountains and that grow, you know, that run wild in the woods and, and the stuff you grow domestic, you know, on your farm, around your barn, in your, in your barnyard.

• 12:58Jessie Ware?

  I wanted to know, I'm watching that documentary and Jane Fonda talking about how you all got to know each other on Nine to Five, when you were kind of, you were making this film together. And you'd do these sleepovers, she said. And you'd do these sleepovers and you'd talk and you'd get to know each other. And I wanted to know, what were you ordering on room service? I need to know these things.

• 13:19Speaker 06

  Well, I would imagine whatever was good. I guess we, we ordered a lot of, I guess, hub sandwiches and soups, that sort of thing. But if you, you know, I stayed at a really nice hotel there, the Bellage Hotel, when I was staying, living there. And they had the best things on the menu, whether it be like, like I love liver and onions, that seems to be a delicacy too, in the city. And so we would, I would order that kind of stuff. Anything that I could order that was close to country. They had also like great steaks and, and great fish. And Jane, you know, she used to eat a little better than I did because she was working out at the time. So I'm sure she and Lily were eating bitter

• 14:00Speaker 06

  and more like baked fish and baked chicken. I was getting chicken with gravy or whatever I could get that, you know, had some, something on it that was a little more tasty to me. But anyhow, we would just order whatever we felt like if we were, when we were chatting talk. And pizza is always great, you know, to order.

• 14:19Jessie Ware?

  Always.

• 14:20Speaker 06

  You could probably order that, that in.

• 14:21Jessie Ware?

  I can't believe that you eat junk food. You're wearing leather trousers.

• 14:25Speaker 06

  Well, I'm glad, I wouldn't be sitting like this if I was on camera.

• 14:29Jessie Ware?

  Oh, no, but they're gorgeous. I'm so jealous.

• 14:33Speaker 06

  Oh, well, thank you. I really have to watch what I eat because my, I have that country girl's appetite. I can't eat everything I'd like to all the time, nor in the, in the amount that I'd like to. I had to learn pretty early on, I had to pull back from some of that. But that doesn't mean that I don't still like that and that I don't still eat it. I do try to, to eat as much good food as I can. And then when I have a big project coming up, I just have to go on a diet because I love carbs. And then I have to go on a low carb diet to kind of get where I'm, where I need to go. Because I have a tendency to gain weight and I'm a very small person, you know.

• 15:10Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I wondered how small you are. How, how tall?

• 15:13Speaker 06

  I'm only five one, without my shoes.

• 15:16Jessie Ware?

  Five one, you're little.

• 15:17Speaker 06

  And my hair, but I'm six seven with all that. But anyhow, I just kind of have to watch it to not let it get too out of hand. Because I've been fat and I've been skinny and I may be that again. So I just have to keep an eye on it because I do love to eat. I love to cook. I love restaurants. Everything about food I love. And don't we all love our kitchen?

• 15:41Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 15:42Speaker 06

  Like you, don't we just live in it?

• 15:44Jessie Ware?

  But Dolly, you have one of the best quotes about food. I mean, it's like an iconic quote. It was like my, my, my true love's, you say it because you're going to say it better than me.

• 15:54Speaker 06

  I guess, I guess it makes it my, my weaknesses have always been men, sex and food, and not necessarily in that order.

• 16:03Jessie Ware?

  Oh, stop it.

• 16:05Speaker 06

  Something to that, on that order.

• 16:07Jessie Ware?

  You've got one of the longest marriages in history.

• 16:11Speaker 06

  I do. My husband and I have been together for 57 years, been married 54.

• 16:17Jessie Ware?

  Congratulations.

• 16:18Speaker 06

  And I'm sick of him and I'm sure he's sick of me.

• 16:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, no, he's not. Does he come from a big family too?

• 16:26Speaker 06

  No, he has one brother and one sister. So he's had to kind of get used to my big family because I, I've always had my family around me.

• 16:34Jessie Ware?

  The Partons are overwhelming.

• 16:36Speaker 06

  Yeah, he loves them all and they love him. So, but no, he's, he's from a very small family.

• 16:42Jessie Ware?

  And Dolly, what would be, you're about to go, you're about to go to a desert island and your final meal before you're about to go and you're not going to eat this food for a very long time. You've got a starter, a main and a dessert and a drink of choice. What would it be?

• 16:59Speaker 06

  I would probably have a big carb dinner for sure. I'd probably have some of my own chicken and dumplings, which I love. I'd probably have a side order of mashed potatoes, which I love. I'd probably have a big old bowl of coleslaw and a big old piece of either cornbread or a big old biscuit with that. And then for dessert, I would probably have something either like a pumpkin pie or some homemade something. I love, there's a rhubarb pie. Are you familiar with that? And you never can find it anywhere, but mama used to make it. And there's a, there's a pie place here called Marie Callender's that has

• 17:39Speaker 06

  it. And so anyway, if I had my choice and I had to get my hands on a piece of rhubarb or the whole pie before I went to that island, I guess I'd, that's probably what I'd have. We used to grow rhubarb and that's why we always had it. So we don't grow that anymore. We don't use that much of a garden, you know, around anymore. It's just usually like the herbs and tomatoes and cucumbers and, you know, a few little, you know, things, salad garden. But anyhow, I, but I, anything, I would eat pork. You were talking about me eating pork. I love the chicken and dumplings, but I might want a big slab of pork roast too before I headed out for the island.

• 18:17Jessie Ware?

  Red wine. And then what's the drink of choice? I hear you like red wine.

• 18:20Speaker 06

  I don't drink much. I only drink wine if I'm out to dinner. I never drink at home. Even, I don't even drink wine at home, you know, with dinner because I don't usually have guests over. I usually do any drinking I do if I'm going out to some special thing because I'm not much of a drinker. But I do love red wine. If I, if I go out, at my choice between red or white, I choose the red. But I'm, I really would rather have a big old jug of, or a glass of sweet tea. That's a very southern thing. That's not good for you either. But anyway, that's probably what I'd have with that meal before I went to that island.

• 18:57Jessie Ware?

  I have to say, Dolly, I, I watched you at Glastonbury when you performed on the Pyramid Stage and it was the most beautiful concert. I loved it so much. And I think you filled everyone with like joy and, I mean, I feel like everyone was just hugging each other throughout the concert. It was so gorgeous. And I wondered, like, do you have an affinity with the UK? I mean, did you like the food? I don't know, you were talking about gravies and chickens and stuff. So I'm wondering, like, is there anywhere that you'd love to go in London or the UK?

• 19:29Speaker 06

  Oh, I love the UK. And when we did the Glastonbury Show, I was just so, I felt so loved too. I, I felt that from them what I was trying to give out and it worked, didn't it? So it was really a, a special show. I was kind of nervous about doing the show. I was kind of apprehensive because I didn't know, I knew it was a festival that was very famous and I knew everybody loved to party and like to drink, smoke their weed and whatever. And so I thought, well, they're not, they're not going to, you know, pay attention because my stuff is so many stories. And I thought, I didn't know if I would fit in that. And then when I went out there and I did, it was just, made me feel so happy and good. And so I gave it everything I had. I think that was one of the reasons I was just so grateful that they were, you know, really appreciative of me. And so that was great.

• 20:14Speaker 06

  But anyway, getting back to the food, the thing I love the most about the UK, I ordered always in room service, is the cream, the scones and the jellies and jams. And, oh, and, and I have the tea, the afternoon tea.

• 20:31Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 06

  And I have it all brought to my room. And Lord, I just, I can just die over all of the, the scones and that heavy cream or the, the cream that you have there that you spread all over that. And I usually gain, and I try to stay in my show clothes because I don't have, you know, time to change them. So it's really hard when I come there not to really put on the pounds, just eating all that great butter and that cream and milk. It's just so good.

• 20:58Jessie Ware?

  The cream is different, isn't it, to the steak?

• 21:00Speaker 06

  Yes, it is. Because we can't get it here. Nothing, the scones are not the same. We can't get it like that. I wanted to try to make them, but it's not the same. We cannot get that kind of cream. We cannot get that kind of, it's just something about the soil, I guess, about the taste of the butter, the cream. Whatever, it's good and it's fattening.

• 21:29Speaker 00

  State Fair food is getting smaller and pricier.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  We'll have room for fried cookies.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  Okay, you never overspent on food. What's your deal?

• 21:38Speaker 02

  What's his deal? He went to Metro and got $450 in value on the new Samsung Galaxy A37 5G for free and no activation fees.

• 21:46Speaker 00

  Free phone? Oh, sign me up.

• 21:49Speaker 02

  Get that more for your money feeling, only on Metro by 2 Mobile.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  Bring your number and activate $40 period plan. $150 based on device discount waived activation fee. Not available with Metro 2 Mobile in the past 180 days.

• 22:05Speaker 05

  Dolly, are you a great reader?

• 22:07Speaker 06

  Oh, I love to read. I've been, I've been reading since I was a little kid. That's always taken me anywhere I wanted to go. And I love books. I just order anything off of the New York Times Bestseller List and, you know, just anything from Oprah's and Reese Witherspoon's book club. But mostly I just swap books with, with friends.

• 22:28Speaker 05

  What inspired you to start the Imagination Library, besides wanting to promote literacy?

• 22:34Speaker 06

  Well, I've always loved books, as I said, but my, the reason I started that little program was because of my own father. My dad couldn't read and write. And he was from a very big, poor family because a lot of mountain people don't get a chance to go to school because usually their schools are so far away or there's a one-room school and you can't get there because of the weather, if the roads are washed out or snowed out. But most of them just have to go to work to help support a poor family. And my dad couldn't read and write and that just always bothered him and it always bothered me that that bothered him. And so I wanted to start something for, you know, for little kids to learn to read early in their most impressionable years. So I started that little Imagination

• 23:16Speaker 06

  Library just for our home county and for my dad. Got daddy involved to help me with it. And then it started taking on and the governor at that time, Governor Phil Brittison, he got a hold of that little program. He thought it was great. So we went statewide with it in Tennessee. Next thing you know, it's in Canada. Next thing you know, it's in places all over the world.

• 23:36Speaker 05

  It's in the UK.

• 23:38Speaker 06

  I know. By the end of this year, we're hoping to have given out 150 million books.

• 23:43Speaker 05

  150 million?

• 23:45Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's a lot of books.

• 23:46Speaker 05

  It's incredible.

• 23:47Speaker 06

  Yeah. Well, we've been going at it for 25 years and my daddy got to live long enough to see it doing really well. And he took such pride in it. And I tried to keep him as involved in it as I could to make it feel like that I could not have done it without him. And I never would have thought to do it without him. So he'd be right about that.

• 24:06Jessie Ware?

  There was this one that I came across the Imagination Library because a friend of mine uses it. And, and I borrowed a book and it was The Train That Can, I think it's called, or The Train That Could.

• 24:16Speaker 06

  The Little Engine That Could, yeah.

• 24:18Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. And it's like the train that goes up and I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. And it was so brilliant. There's such brilliant stories. So yeah, thank you.

• 24:25Speaker 06

  But that's actually, that's the first book that's, that the kids get from the Imagination Library from the start. And that's probably the one they'll always get because to me, that little book, it just builds your confidence. And I remember reading that myself as a child. And I remember thinking that too. And I will often say that I am Little Engine That Did. So I thought I could, I thought I could, and danged if I didn't.

• 24:51Jessie Ware?

  What are you reading at the moment?

• 24:52Speaker 06

  I'm reading a book called The Keeper of Lost Things. It's just a sweet little book about an old man that, you know, found things and he would write on it where he found it and how he found it. And he had this great house and then he left, he left all his house to this girl that came to help him keep his things together. But part of her deal was she had to find all those people, you know, to, to return their lost things. And it's a real interesting little book. My favorite writer of all time is a Southern writer named Lee Smith. And she writes a lot of Southern stories and I really relate to that. And she just has such a beautiful way of, of saying it.

• 25:31Speaker 05

  When we initially had to lock down, I found it really hard to read. And I don't know why, I just couldn't concentrate on anything. I don't know whether you've found that as well.

• 25:42Speaker 06

  Yeah, but I read as much lately as I usually do because I needed to, I needed to do different things. I needed to do more writing. I needed to do more self-analysis and then be able to put that down and to really realize that, that all the different feelings that other people were going through that weren't able to write those feelings down. So I felt that it was my duty and my job to try to, to do things that I could get out there in the world to kind of help lift the mood and the spirit and the burdens of, of everybody else. So you're right, I couldn't, I can't concentrate as, as much right now, even still. Normally, because if you know something's okay, you've got your relaxing time, then you can go into that, that book. But I've had this little

• 26:26Speaker 06

  book, I've been reading on this for weeks. Normally, I can read a book that's good in a day, a day and a half.

• 26:32Speaker 05

  Hmm, yeah.

• 26:33Jessie Ware?

  I wanted to note, because you were saying you were writing, were you writing a lot of the album during lockdown, this Christmas album? And was that quite a nice escapism from what was going on?

• 26:43Speaker 06

  It was. And I really felt like that it was just a perfect time because I've been wanting to do a Christmas album for a while. But it just, timing is everything. And, and I've always been lucky, you know, with timing. And so it's like, it was a good time. But yes, I did write a lot of the, the new stuff while we were kind of, when this whole thing started. And so I wrote some of the, the original things that's on the album then. And I also have been writing a lot of other things. I just have to write what comes to me. I'm writing some things that don't have to do with anything other than just, just an idea will come to me if it's a love song, or if it's a happy song, if it's a sad song. I've just been, I think because I've been so emotional and being so in tune with people

• 27:28Speaker 06

  and their sorrows and just what's going on. And I'm a very emotional, sensitive person. So I just, I just write all the time. And it's been great therapy for me, though. It's been a great release for me, feeling like that I'm also being productive. So it's worked really well for me to be able to just express myself and hopefully express feelings for other people.

• 27:50Speaker 05

  You are the most prolific songwriter. I think I've read that you've written 3,000 songs?

• 27:56Speaker 06

  Well, I don't count them. I have at least that many.

• 28:00Speaker 05

  At least, but they're also so beautiful. I mean, one of my favorites is I Will Always Love You. What prompted you to write that song? Was it about anything in particular?

• 28:11Speaker 06

  Yes, thank you for asking. Of course, that has become probably, well, two songs, Jolene and that one have become the biggest song. Well, nine to five, they're, they're big. But I Will Always Love You is, is a very personal favorite of mine because it's a simple song that fits so many people about so many things. But for me, it was a song that I wrote that was born out of a, a heartache that I was going through of trying to separate myself from a man that had given me a, a great opportunity. A man named Porter Waggoner, he had the number one syndicated television show. And he gave me my first really big break. I was in Nashville and I had a couple of chart records and was beginning to come

• 28:55Speaker 06

  in. And he had seen me, you know, around the new girl in town. And so he had a vacant spot to fill. The girl that had been on the show, she was leaving. So he put me on. And so I said, I had no intentions or hadn't planned to come to Nashville to be part of someone else's group, just to be the girl singer. So I said, I can stay for five years and then I, I'm going to go out on my own. It was too big of a job not to take. So we had several big duets and we really were so interwoven and we, we didn't always get along. And so I was wanting to leave and go out on my own because I couldn't stay there forever when my five years came up. And so he just was not having it. And he was pitching

• 29:39Speaker 06

  a fit and we were having a lot of trouble. And so he wouldn't listen to any, any reasoning from me, why I needed to go and why now is the perfect time. It's to him, it's like you're going to shatter the whole show and all. So I went home and said, you're not going to communicate with him in any other, any other way than what you do best, write a song. So I wrote the song, I Will Always Love You, took it back to his office and said, Porter, sit down. I need to sing you a song. And so I started to sing the song and he started to cry. And he said, that's the best song you ever wrote and you can go. So that was kind of a, it was a sad thing, but it, you know, we still had trouble after

• 30:24Speaker 06

  that, but it was still, uh, but years later, we mended all of that and, uh, you know, we became best of friends and worked together again and in many different ways. But that's, that was born out of a very serious place, something I had and needed to say, and it did the trick.

• 30:40Speaker 05

  And did Whitney ask you if she could sing that song directly?

• 30:44Speaker 06

  The way that that came about, uh, when Whitney got a hold of the song, they, they had done the movie, The Bodyguard, and they had chosen a different song, uh, for that. And just before, uh, they were starting to get ready to put it out, someone else covered that song that they were planning to use. So they didn't want to use that. So they were looking for another song. And, uh, Kevin Costner and his, uh, girl in his office, uh, they knew about my song. And one of them said, well, what about Dolly Parton's song, I Will Always Love You? I've always loved that song. It's perfect. So then they asked me if they could use it. And I said, yes, but, uh, no, no matter what, make sure they

• 31:29Speaker 06

  use that last verse, cause I recited that verse and other people that had recorded it left that out altogether. I said, it's in the same melody as the other verses. So make sure if you use it to, uh, you know, to make that part of it. And so I never heard anything more about it. They had my permission to do it. And then I was heading home from my, my office one day and I had the radio on and I heard that sound, you know, if I should stay. And it's like, and it rang a bell, but it didn't, you know, it wasn't, it's like she was kind of talking there. And then it went into like the, I'm about died. I thought my heart was gonna stop. I about wrecked. And I just got a bolt off

• 32:10Speaker 06

  to like to hear it. And it was the most overwhelming over, I mean, it was just, uh, just such an overwhelming feeling. I've never had that before in a sense with a song. When my first little record played on the radio, about kill myself jumping off the cabinet to get to that. But other than that, this was like such a big thing to hear my little song done in such a big fashion like that. It was just, it just, just really overwhelmed me. And I cried and I laughed and I went, oh my, I mean, it's so great. She did such a great job on that.

• 32:43Jessie Ware?

  She did. Is it hard because you have, I mean, you're so successful and you are so loved and you have had so much success. I mean, do you still get the same buzz that you got when you were younger and you're starting out? Or is it kind of a different kind of feeling now?

• 32:58Speaker 06

  No, I, I love to write songs. I love to sing songs. I love the music business. I love doing the, the business end of the music business. I love the creative part. It's just who I am. This is a way with me. It's just, it's just who I am. It was what I feel I was born to do. And I still get as excited now when things happen. If I start writing a good song, I'm as excited about that as when I started years ago. Even more excited now, cause I feel like I can get more done with it, you know, because I'm, you know, I'm popular. When you're, right when you're younger, you're thinking, oh, I hope somebody likes it well enough to record it and, and all that. But no, I, I

• 33:38Speaker 06

  get excited about every single award. Anytime I'm, I'm recognized or acknowledged for something, it, it means a lot. I don't work for awards as much as I work for the rewards, cause it's very rewarding to me, you know, to just see things happen and to make things happen.

• 33:57Jessie Ware?

  Dolly, I mean, well, you're amazing, but I do need to know, do you think you've got good table manners? I feel like you must.

• 34:04Speaker 06

  I don't know that I have, I have good table manners. There's a lot of stuff I don't know about the, the table, you know, like how to, which dish to use, which fork and spoon. I still go through that, cause growing up like we did, you know, we never eating out in a, in a restaurant. And it's sort of like my daddy, you get embarrassed to ask somebody after. So, you know, cause he couldn't read and write, he wasn't gonna do it. So I kind of feel that way. So I just try to watch people if I'm out somewhere. But yeah, I'm certainly not, you know, I'm not a pig, you know, at, at the table. But I don't know what you girls do probably, because you're not as proper as the English.

• 34:41Speaker 05

  How did your parents keep track on 12 children and to make sure they all had their elbows off the table and were holding their knife and fork?

• 34:50Speaker 06

  The grown kids had a fork and the little kids had a spoon. And, you know, we had, it was a whole different thing back then. I don't think anybody was thinking about who put elbows on the table.

• 35:01Speaker 05

  Could you all sit down at one table?

• 35:03Speaker 06

  Yeah, yeah, we did.

• 35:04Speaker 05

  Did you have a very big table?

• 35:06Speaker 06

  We did have a big table that my daddy built. And we had a bench, we had like a church bench on the backside. And the little kids would stand up on that bench to eat. And the other, you know, the bigger ones had, uh, you know, around the table. But seriously, we didn't have matching dishes. We didn't have still, you know, silverware drawers. And they weren't, you're talking about country people here. So, but we were not, uh, I mean, we were, we certainly, you know, we had to mind our manners as far as we're, we're eating now. We're not going to be, you know, doing this or, or doing that. But we didn't, uh, you know, it's a whole different thing when you're, and how you grow up. But for now, uh, you know, I still kind of watch people on each side of me, you know, what they're using. Should I use this?

• 35:51Speaker 05

  I don't think you need to.

• 35:53Speaker 06

  But I don't worry about it anymore. I figure, you know, they don't like it. They can move to the next table.

• 35:59Speaker 05

  Do you like getting glammed up to go out for dinner or to any of these ceremonies?

• 36:04Speaker 06

  You know, one of the most, uh, my favorite things in the world to do is to dress up really fancy, really pretty and go out to the best restaurant in Nashville, in California, in New York to where, and I love that. I love being in that surrounding. That's just one of my favorite things. And I've missed that a lot during this lockdown, that you can't go anywhere. You can't go anywhere. You know, and I, I really miss that a lot, dressing up and going out to dinner and using bad table manners.

• 36:41Jessie Ware?

  Um, I wanted to know, like, because you, we're all having to cook so much and you like cooking. Is that, do you listen to music when you're cooking?

• 36:47Speaker 06

  Well, actually, when I, I'm always so involved in what I'm doing. I do some of my best writing and my best cooking at the same time. I always like, I get very creative. The more creative I am with my songs, the better my food's gonna taste and vice versa. So I usually, I don't listen to radio much because I'm so involved in either a project I need to do, or I just like the peace and quiet, or I just work on my own things. So, but at Christmas though, I play everybody's Christmas albums that I like. And hopefully this year I'll have one that other people will, you know, enjoy listening to while they cook.

• 37:23Jessie Ware?

  We ask everybody this question, but, um, as a singer, I don't particularly enjoy doing karaoke. I just kind of find it a bit, I feel like it's for my friends that aren't singers. But we have to ask you what your karaoke song is. If you do like karaoke.

• 37:36Speaker 06

  I, I don't necessarily get a chance to do that, cause I don't go out where they have that. But I can take great pride in the fact that I have several songs on the karaoke list. Yeah. And nine, five, a big one. Jolene, a big one. I Will Always Love You is a real big one. So I have several songs that other people like to sing. And I hear more about how they make fools of themselves singing my songs. But I love that kind of stuff though. My kids, my little nieces and nephews, they have their little karaoke machines. And when we're together, we sing along with stuff, but I don't go out to do it.

• 38:10Jessie Ware?

  Have they ever tried your songs?

• 38:11Speaker 06

  Oh yeah. They love my songs anyway. They know all my songs by heart.

• 38:16Speaker 05

  When you go, do you do line dancing?

• 38:19Speaker 06

  No, I never did do that. I'm, I, I don't really go out to the clubs like that. I really, I take pride in, in, in other people doing line dancing. Like my song, Why Did You Come In Here Looking Like That? Was a really big popular song with the line dancers.

• 38:34Speaker 05

  Oh yes, I love that song.

• 38:36Speaker 06

  So no, I don't, I don't go out to clubs. I, I don't really. If I'm around home, I like to stay home. But, uh, I'm not much of a dancer anyway. Uh, I just don't have that type of rhythm. We never did do much of that. Oh, there's, there's always that stuff that you do when you're having your, your jamborees and your pie suppers and your little things. Everybody dancing, but there's no real particular type of dancing. We never did it. Like it wasn't structured. Anybody just get up and just move and be happy doing it.

• 39:05Jessie Ware?

  Um, Dolly, I was gonna say, I really enjoyed Dolly Parton's America, which is this amazing podcast that you were involved in. And there was really candid interviews with you on it. And it was, I mean, it was very, it was incredibly interesting. Um, and was that kind of your first foray into podcasts and?

• 39:23Speaker 06

  Yes. Yes, it was. In fact, the, uh, the guy that did that, Jada Boomerang, he's, uh, he's just wonderful. He has that huge podcast. He goes out to millions of people, as you know, weekly. But his father is one of my doctors in Nashville at Vanderbilt. And, uh, I I came about through him. I didn't even know his son was even in the business. I've known him for years. He'd never mentioned it. And then one day he said, well, you know, my son, Dad, you know, has a podcast and he'd love to interview you. And I said, well, sure. So it because of that, and that's how I got to know him. And then I got to know Jad and he was absolutely fantastic. He won, you know, several awards on that.

• 40:08Jessie Ware?

  It's a phenomenal podcast series. It's so substantial. I mean, I found the bit about listening about Nelson Mandela and in in Robben Island and Jolene coming over the Tannoy's and that kind of how Jolene's very, I mean, Jolene's huge everywhere, but that song became this kind of anthem for the prisoners on Robben Island. I mean, all this stuff, I mean, you must have discovered things too through this podcast.

• 40:34Speaker 06

  I have to honestly tell you, I learned more about myself through that than I knew my whole career. Honestly, I didn't know. But you know, Dad did not know me that well until he started working on this podcast. He's such a thorough person. He did it, but he did all that research. And it was just amazing. I was I was just floored with all the the stuff that he had had gathered up. But he should have won an award just for his own hard work without me. But I was very, very proud for him and of myself and of that whole situation. So that that was really well done.

• 41:09Jessie Ware?

  Dolly, it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you. This is honestly pinch yourself moment for us. And I feel like Christmas has come early. And I'm so thankful for you doing this when you are probably very, very busy doing promotion for this record. And it's been so lovely to talk to you and thank you. And I just want to know what's next. You know, the the Christmas record is out now. And then are you doing any more acting? I mean, I'm sure you're writing songs left, right and centre. You've got an autobiography. Is it coming out soon? Am I right in thinking that?

• 41:42Speaker 06

  Oh, you're talking about the Songteller book?

• 41:44Jessie Ware?

  Yes, Songteller book, yes.

• 41:46Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's actually, that's out now. And that's, that's, yeah, that's called Songteller. And it's got 170 some songs I've written and stories about them. But I'm going to be doing more things. It's so hard to know what's going to come next year. I've been working on my life story as a musical. And so that's going to be something that I'm hoping to get on his feet at some point in time. And I've just signed a new branding deal where I'm going to have actually have my own cosmetics and my own perfume and that sort of stuff. So as I've often said, I wake up with new dreams every day. And I've hopefully I'll live long enough to see the rest of them come true. But I've been very blessed. If I died tomorrow, I can honestly say that I've had a great life, a wonderful life,

• 42:31Speaker 06

  and I couldn't ask for more. But of course, knowing me, there's going to be more if I keep living. So there's going to be more. More is more with me.

• 42:54Jessie Ware?

  That was Dolly Parton on Second Helpings. I really, really want to do another episode with Dolly. In the flesh. In the flesh. And I believe it will happen. And also, really do go and listen to Dolly Parton's America podcast. It's so fantastic. At the end, she also talked about future projects. And one was about creating a musical of her life. And we are pleased to say she's finished it. And it will be on Broadway this winter. It's called Dolly, a true original musical about the life and career of Dolly Parton. And it's scheduled to come to the St. James's Theatre on Broadway, starting with previews in December 2026. It's opening in January 2027, and no doubt will be brilliant. Thank you, Dolly, for

• 43:36Jessie Ware?

  taking the time to come on the podcast. And we'll see you next week for more Second Helpings.

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