[film reel whirs] ["Here I Am" begins] ♪ Here I am ♪ Here I am ♪ Here I am - Well, if I was trying to describe myself to someone that had never seen me before, I would say, "Calm down."

["9 to 5" begins] Don't get scared.

It's just me.

I know I look totally bizarre and artificial, but I'm totally real inside.

[Dolly giggles] ["Here You Come Again" begins] - [Lily] Dolly is somewhat a cartoon character.

- As superhuman as a human can be.

- She's a great singer and entertainer.

- She's a fierce businesswoman.

["Jolene" begins] - She has a playful side to her that comes out when you least expect it.

[Dolly laughs] [audience laughs] - She gives away very little.

She is who she is, even though she isn't.

[laughs] ♪ His smile is like a breath of spring ♪ ♪ Your voice is soft like summer rain ♪ ♪ And I cannot compete with you, Jolene ♪ - Sorta like that.

- I think there may be a secret Dolly.

- She knew very early on in her career that she was gonna have to carve out boundaries.

- The hot dogs are ready!

- There's a private Dolly when she's away from the cameras, and the recording studios and everything.

♪ Little sparrow - [Lily] It's an extraordinary tale from poverty to stardom, - I saw myself as special.

I wanted to be seen.

I wanted to be recognized.

I wanted to be appreciated for what I do.

[crowd cheers] - She knew that she was a shooting star, and she had some things she needed to get off her chest.

[audience laughs] And so she crafted heartbreaking and soul-stirring stories about the lives of people often overlooked.

She painted a picture with her words and then colored in the lines with that angelic voice.

- Dolly Parton is one of the most phenomenal songwriters, breasts included.

♪ I will... - I actually take my songwriting more serious than anything else I do.

So I would say I am a songwriter first.

♪ Will always love you It's my way of expressing myself.

It is my therapy.

You have to search for a long time 'cause I've written a lot of songs, but, yes, there are pieces of me, of course, in everything I write.

["I Will Always Love You" concludes] Hey, hey, how's everybody?

Hi, there.

[crowd cheers] Hey.

We're back.

When I was young, we always used to listen to the "Grand Ole Opry," and everybody would say, that's where you gotta go if you're a country star if you wanna try to make it in the business.

So that was always just my aim.

It's sort of like how Broadway people go to New York.

Well, Nashville was the Grand Ole Opry.

♪ Velvet-cushioned seats and soft armrests ♪ It is amazing to me, thinking back on my life as a little girl when I wanted to be on the "Grand Ole Opry" so bad.

Now, here I am 50 years later, and we're celebrating my 50th year on "Grand Old Opry."

I am so honored.

♪ Up on the silver screen, I picture me ♪ Hi, everybody.

- Hi, dear.

♪ Living out my passions, hopes, and fantasies ♪ - Well, it's nearly show time!

[crew cheers] And you thought it was easy being in show business.

I got people all over me.

[musicians tuning] It's fun having us all back together, ain't it?

I mean, we all been at this at least 50 years, right?

Some of you people looking really good for my age.

[laughs] I'm older than America.

[laughs] People just know that I'm gonna be there and that I'm gonna have fun with it, and I'm gonna try to help them have fun.

♪ They let you dream just to watch 'em shatter ♪ ♪ You're just a step on the bossman's ladder ♪ ♪ But you've got dreams he'll never take away ♪ I've done so many things.

I've been around a long time.

I guess it's just kinda, I feel like a family member to most people.

♪ And the tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll your way ♪ ♪ I just know it!

["9 to 5" concludes] ["Mule Skinner Blues [Blue Yodel No.

8]" begins] [Dolly whistles] ♪ Well, good mooooorning ♪ Captain I came here early on a Saturday morning with my little beat up suitcase of songs and my little old guitar and ragged little clothes.

♪ Good morning to you, sir ♪ Hey, hey, yeah I was hungry.

Cried myself to sleep every night.

But I did learn early on that you really had to stand up for yourself, especially being a girl in business at that time, and a country girl, that did look like a dumb blonde.

[laughs] ♪ Yodel-a-ee-he - When Dolly left home at the age of 18, she was laughed at by her classmates.

She couldn't imagine why they laughed because she was convinced that she would be a star.

If she had stayed back in the mountains, she would've just been living in poverty, keeping house, raising kids, all of those things she didn't wanna do.

And so it was really gutsy of her to just get up and go with actually very little money, a few sacks of dirty clothes.

- Dolly, thanks for coming in.

- Well, thank you for inviting me.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

- Can we start by talking about the biggest thing about you?

- Well, now what would that be?

- I think your determination.

- Okay.

[laughs] You scared me for a minute.

You know, well, what would we like to talk about?

I do definitely have a lot of determination.

I just wanted to accomplish everything that I possibly could in my life.

I feel that we all are here for a reason, and I aim to put everything that I can into my life.

["Mule Skinner Blues [Blue Yodel No.

8]" continues] - My first meeting with Dolly Parton was sometime in the middle of 1964.

A producer from upstairs at Capitol Records brought her down and he said, "I want you to meet this, this girl, singer."

He said, "She's got so much talent.

I can't get anyone interested in her."

Dolly was this beautiful little 18-year-old girl who seemed quite naive and uneducated.

Her language was kind of crude and gutter language, you know, for guys, and didn't seem to match her.

- The first time I saw Dolly, I thought, this is a teenager.

She was very pleasant.

She was, you know, seemed happy to meet us.

And then she started to sing and it was, whoa.

♪ You kindle the fire of love inside me ♪ - And she wasn't a bit bashful either when it came to singing, and I thought, you know, because that's a lot of what this business takes.

You have to believe you have something to offer, and I think she believed it.

♪ You must know how I feel - You've gotta be daring.

You've got to be able to get outside yourself.

And I didn't care.

I wasn't afraid of anybody.

I mean, what was you gonna do to me?

You're gonna kill me, and if you kill me, whatcha are you gonna do, eat me?

You know, you're gonna cook me and eat me?

No, I mean, it's like I'll either succeed or I will fail.

["Dumb Blonde" begins] ♪ Don't try to cry ♪ Your way outta this ♪ And don't try to lie ♪ Or I'll catch you in it - You underestimate Dolly at your peril.

And "Dumb Blonde" is a perfect way to launch a career.

She's so smart.

♪ 'Cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool ♪ - "Dumb Blonde" was my first chart record, and Curly Putman wrote the song.

He wrote it for me to record, and that was perfect for me because it does say, "Just because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb, 'cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool."

Everybody thinks I wrote that song, and I would've, I could've, I should've.

♪ Just because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb ♪ ♪ 'Cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool ♪ Thank you very much.

[church bells ring] - Dolly says she met her husband the first day she was in Nashville.

She was at the Wishy Washy Laundromat.

She was walking up and down the street, looking over her new neighborhood, and this good looking young man came by in a car and spoke to her.

- [Dolly] I went to the laundromat, first time I'd ever been in a laundromat.

Took my little dirty clothes I brought from home, and it was called the Wishy Washy Washateria.

And so I met my husband that first day, which I've always joked about that, that it's been wishy-washy ever since.

[laughs] - I've never seen Carl Dean, nor ever met him.

I know he exists, but I don't know anybody that's ever seen Carl Dean.

He didn't go to any shows with her.

- I never met the man, so I don't know anything about him.

- Carl Dean?

Yes, I know Carl.

Why do I know Carl Dean?

- I have met Carl.

Carl is very handsome.

I spent the night at their home in Nashville, and Carl cooked us breakfast, very delicious breakfast.

First time I had fried green tomatoes.

And I remember sitting at the breakfast table and I said, "Describe the first time that you saw Dolly."

"Well," he said, "I was driving my truck, and I drove past a 7-Eleven.

And I saw her.

She was drinking an RC Cola."

And he said... And he was trying to articulate with his hands and his language what it was, the thing.

And he got so worked up that he fell backwards in his chair.

He fell over backwards.

[laughs] ♪ How I love to run barefoot through meadows ♪ - Dolly was not looking for a husband when she came to Nashville.

She was looking for a career.

Her producers also did not want her to get married.

And she went ahead and did it anyway because when Dolly wants to do something, I think she does it.

She kept the marriage a secret for a year, but I think that was also very clever because she demonstrated to her producers that she could in fact have a marriage and still be successful.

- You know, people ask me if I'm a feminist.

I love men, don't get me wrong.

I've always had one of my own, you know?

And I have, and I love men, and I've known more good men than I've known bad ones, but I've known the bad ones too.

But I also am all about being a woman and thinking that, you know, we are who we are.

And when I started out, it never crossed my mind that I couldn't do it 'cause I was a woman.

I was just gonna do it.

[camera flashes] - One way that we see Dolly's feminism, I think is in her marriage and the way that she arranged that with her husband so that it was understood that she was not going to stay home and cook and clean, that she had a plan for a career.

And she made it very clear from the outset that that was her plan.

♪ I can see you're disappointed ♪ ♪ By the way you look at me ♪ And I'm sorry that I'm not the woman ♪ ♪ You thought I'd be - "Just Because I'm a Woman" is a very extraordinary song for the late '60s.

Dolly says that it came about maybe six months after she and Carl had married.

What Dolly's doing in "Just Because I'm a Woman" is really calling out the sexual double standard of the time, and saying, you've had sex before we got married.

It's no different if I have sex before we've gotten married.

And I think she's not just talking to her husband about their personal situation, but she's talking to everyone.

And it sums up a larger idea about women and equality.

♪ My mistakes, they're no worse than yours ♪ ♪ Just because I'm a woman - [Dolly] I have done things in the past that I thought at that time was a mistake.

I have changed my thinking a lot about what I'm supposed to feel guilty over and what I'm not.

I do the best I can.

- [Lydia] Dolly writes "Just Because I'm a Woman" in the late '60s at the height of the sexual revolution.

Not surprisingly in the 1970s, people continually asked Dolly if she supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

She never gave a straight answer.

- [Interviewer] You said something quite astonishing about women's liberation and about burning your bra.

- [laughs] I said that when women's liberation came out that I was the first person to burn my bra, and it took the fire department three days to put the fire out.

[all laugh] But that's only a silly joke.

♪ My mistakes are no worse than yours ♪ ♪ Just because I'm a woman - Dolly won't do anything that will render uncomfortable the people who love her, and it's a very broad swath of people, I think, politically very broad, socially, economically, very broad.

She is, first and foremost, an entertainer.

She wants people to feel good.

So if she feels that identifying as a feminist will make some of those people who love her uncomfortable, she's not gonna say that, but her life is the life of a feminist, which means a woman who has fought to realize herself, to actualize her full self.

♪ Now I know that I am no angel ♪ ♪ If that's what you thought you'd found ♪ ♪ I was just the victim of ♪ A man that let me down - She's mastered the design of how to be a woman and succeed in this business without making a man feel bad.

In fact, without anybody, making anybody feel bad.

- Dolly, I read once that you didn't in fact consider yourself as a sex symbol.

Were you lying to them?

- I try very hard not to be a sex symbol.

[audience laughs] ♪ No, my mistakes are no worse than yours ♪ ♪ Just because I'm a woman [crowd cheers] Thank you very much.

Now you look back at it, and it was kind of one of the first Me Too movement songs.

I mean, I don't like that word so much no more.

You hear so much of it.

But it's really about women taking responsibility for themselves and not wanting to be blamed for everything that happens, or to think that we don't have some power and that we can't stand up and speak out for ourselves.

- [Porter] Right now, I want you to meet the little gal that I know you're going to really learn to love.

- [Announcer] Direct from Nashville, Tennessee, here's "The Porter Wagoner Show," starring Porter Wagoner, Dolly Parton.

- I had come to Nashville to be my own artist, to have my own band, and I'd had a couple of top 10 records when Porter saw me, but his show was going to send me on out there to be a big artist.

- Porter had a lot of power because of the television show, and because of Dolly as she came on board.

There's no question Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner had a great chemistry, and you can take that anywhere you wanna go with it.

♪ I thought I had seen pretty girls in my time ♪ ♪ That was before I met you ♪ I never saw one that I wanted for mine ♪ ♪ But that was before I met you ♪ - Well, Dolly had such a unique voice.

Her voice was much in a higher register, a brilliant songwriter.

That really sold me on Dolly too.

So we just kind of hit it off from that moment on.

♪ But that was before I met you ♪ ♪ I wanted to ramble and always be free ♪ - When you start out in the business, you start out to try to make it yourself, and then you wind up working with other people.

And if you're smart, like for instance, when I worked with "The Porter Wagoner Show," a show that I was with for many years, you learn from the best.

All the people around you, learn how they do things.

♪ I hollered, wake up Jacob, stir up a light ♪ ♪ Did you ever see a man and a pole cat fight ♪ ♪ Turn on the light and let me in ♪ ♪ Wake up Jacob, let me in - There's a famous story about one of my first sessions at RCA.

I was working with Porter Wagoner, and it was my big day to make, I think I was doing my first album.

And so I had also got a car that I wasn't used to driving, wasn't that good with my driving, and in my haste with my new car and with the idea that I was gonna be recording my album, I was just all those nerves and all that excitement.

So I pulled into the parking lot up to the wall and just kept going.

And I hit the wall, this brick wall, and it was a new building at that time, and a lot of these bricks just fell on top of my car.

I just got out, took the keys, just left it there.

And then later after the session, everybody was out in this parking lot.

They'd go out to take a little break to smoke or whatever, and somebody said, "Hell, somebody's run into the damn building."

[laughs] I never said anything.

Anyway, they actually replaced the bricks in that building, and some say you can still see the little difference in the color.

So yeah, I hit a brick wall, but I kept going.

[laughs] - Now that it's time to meet the pretty little gal, and she's got a song that, uh... You haven't done this before on the show, have you?

- [Dolly] I don't believe I have.

- And this is one of the prettiest songs you've written, and she's going to do it just with her and her little guitar.

It's called "The Bridge."

Miss Dolly Parton.

- [Dolly] Thank you.

♪ The bridge, so long ♪ The bridge, so wide ♪ Here is where it started ♪ On the bridge "The Bridge" is a song that I wrote when I was a teenager back home, sitting on an old bridge where I wrote songs a lot.

My own life was pretty ordinary.

My dad was pretty strict, so we didn't stray.

I wasn't like a wild child in any sense of the word.

I could be, though, in my songs.

And I figured, well, if I did love a boy and I did get pregnant, how would I handle that?

My daddy'd kill me if I don't kill myself.

[laughs] Back when I grew up, we didn't have the movies.

We didn't even have television for many years of my life.

So I used to write songs so my family could enjoy seeing these little stories.

So every song I write, I'd run home, and I'd sing them to the family, you know, whatever I was doing.

So it was kind of entertainment, but it really is like a little movie when I write songs.

- In "The Bridge," Dolly creates a strong sense of drama by giving us a story that focuses just on one person's experience and only through that one person's eyes.

It's very visceral.

♪ The bridge, so wide - [Lydia] You can feel that kind of rising tension through the music.

♪ Where once we stood together ♪ Tonight, I stand alone - It's the melody.

It's the rawness.

It's the, is she saying what I think she's saying?

- The song ends with no harmonic sense of closure.

The last chord doesn't finish anything out.

It just ends abruptly.

- I just thought, well, I start it with that, and then I'll tell my story, and then I'll end it the same way.

You don't hear the water splash, but you know, you know she went.

- That's pretty heavy duty that this woman killed herself and her unborn baby by jumping off a bridge.

And that song itself in 1967 from Dolly Parton was a very, very deep song to write.

♪ Today, tomorrow, and forever ♪ That's how long our love will last ♪ ♪ I'll never stop loving you, no never ♪ - [Porter] I'm not proud of everything I did for Dolly.

I even kind of gave up on my own career for a while to devote all of my time for her career.

So that I think that shows pretty much how much I loved Dolly and cared for her career.

- She was an asset to Porter's TV show and his records up until the point that she was getting offers from other producers and other record companies and stuff to do things and make movies and all that, which Porter didn't have anything to do with.

I think that there reached a point where Dolly was getting more fan mail than he was.

So I think she outgrew her need for his coaching.

♪ I do everything for you ♪ You never help yourself ♪ And I think I'd die from shock ♪ ♪ If you raised a hand to help - [Dolly] He was the boss, but he didn't have all the creativity, but he had control.

- Now that it's time to meet the pretty little gal... Beautiful little lady... One of the prettiest singing and songwriting little blondes in country music coming up right now.

♪ Your woman's gettin' tired of being your ole handy man ♪ - Occasionally we would have a run in about something, but I always won, because I always would, because I'm the boss.

I'm the one that signs the check.

♪ Your woman's gettin' tired of being your ole handy man ♪ - Thank you, Dolly.

Fine job.

That should tell 'em like it is there, kiddo.

- [Dolly] I started trying to move myself away, started talking to him and he wasn't hearing of it.

So we fought a lot because we were very similar.

We were very headstrong.

He knew what he wanted, and I knew what I wanted, and we were both gonna get it.

- Dolly, excuse me a second, we need to start one more.

And Tom, I'll count it this time.

Three, four... ♪ Well, I remember when I was just little ♪ ♪ Mommy used to cook in an old black kettle ♪ - She came to the office and sang me a bunch of the songs that she'd wrote and songs like "Daddy's Working Boots," "Mama's Old Black Kettle," songs about back home.

And I said, "Dolly, people don't care if your mama's got a kettle or a skillet.

Who in the hell cares, you know?

Dolly, you need something that people will listen to, and you need to write a song about the most identifiable subject on Earth, love."

She said, "Okay, smart aleck.

I'll just write you a song about love."

She came in two days later and she said, "I've got this song started," and she sang me what she had done of it at that time.

I said, "Now you're talking."

♪ If I should stay ♪ I would only be in your way ♪ So I'll go ♪ But I know ♪ I'll think of you each step of the way ♪ ♪ And I ♪ Will always love you ♪ Yes, I will always love you - [Porter] I said, "Dolly, that song will make you more money and more fame than all of your other songs put together."

- Although Porter says that Dolly wrote, "I Will Always Love You" as a response to his telling her she needed to write more love songs, which in fact he did do, I think Dolly's version of the events are more likely to be true, which is that she was trying to make the break from Porter.

He wouldn't listen, and the only way she could get through to him was to write a song.

♪ Bitter-sweet memories ♪ That's all I'm taking with me ♪ - "I Will Always Love You" is that signature song that when I was leaving "The Porter Wagoner Show," trying to make sense of what, you know, that I appreciate you I wish you well and I thank you for loving me and all that, but I've gotta go.

♪ But I ♪ Will always love you I've never been the kind of writer that's always looked for a perfect song.

I write because I have to.

I write because I love to and because I want to.

There are certain songs, though, that I do write.

I think, ooh, now that is good.

♪ And I hope life treats you kind ♪ "I Will Always Love You" has a simple melody, and it's easy to sing.

It also fits so many types of things.

Like people tell me, "We played this at the hospital when my daddy was dying.

He loved the song."

"They played this at my graduation when my son was going off to college."

♪ But above all this ♪ I wish you love In fact, Elvis' manager wanted to have the publishing on that song, and I wouldn't allow it 'cause it was my most important copyright.

It broke my heart 'cause Elvis didn't get to sing it, but I had to hold onto it.

Elvis loved the song.

In fact, Priscilla had told me that when she and Elvis were leaving the courthouse after they divorced, he was singing that to her walking out.

So she said he did love it.

- That was one of the great career decisions Dolly Parton made in her life 'cause Elvis was Elvis for God's sake.

And she said no, and that demonstrated her astuteness as a business woman.

That was a great chess move.

♪ And I ♪ Will always love you ♪ I will always love you - [Dolly] I thought it was the most unbelievable thing I'd ever heard.

I'd never even believed my little song could be done like that.

People say, "Well, she claims it's her record."

I said, "It is her record."

It's my song, but it's most definitely her record.

It didn't sound like that when I had it.

She made me rich.

♪ I will always love ♪ You ♪ You know I'll always love you ♪ [crowd cheering] [birds chirping] - [Dolly] My folks were just simple, poor mountain people.

We lived on a farm.

I'm from a family of 12 children.

And I think being the fourth one down, I didn't get paid a lot of attention, I was the kind of kid that needed a lot of attention.

[laughter] But I had an uncle that played guitar really good, and he saw early on how serious I was about my music.

So he used to take me around.

- [Announcer] Right now, here is our youngest singing sensation here, little Dolly Parton.

Dolly?

[audience applauding] [young Dolly singing indistinctly] - But it was only when I got on stage the first time and sang in front of a crowd, and I was just about 10 then.

And I sang my song and they kept bringing me back, wanted me to sing it and sing it and sing it.

I remember looking up at my uncle, I said, "I'm gonna be a star, ain't I?"

[young Dolly singing indistinctly] That was the moment that I realized that that was what I was gonna do for the rest of my life.

[Dolly singing indistinctly] [audience applauding] - Our pride again, little Dolly Parton.

- I'll never forget when I went on the tour with her through Appalachia and the Ozarks, and I realized the extent to which Dolly's growing up in a hollow, in a shack, stimulated these talents in her.

We would go way back in the most remote hollows and find these little tar paper shacks.

I'd go to places where entire trees would have blue milk of magnesia bottles hanging over them, off the branches.

I'd walk into living rooms that were, there was nothing but shelves where salt and pepper shakers were collected, or everything was covered with tinfoil.

She took me to church, I was there on Easter Sunday, and she took me to church in a little one room church with a little woodburning stove and the preacher with his overalls and dirty fingernails and, you know, no electricity, no radio, no nothing in these places.

That's Dolly's world.

- Why does Dolly need that validation?

I think she just, growing up in a huge family, I think she wanted to stand out and be somebody and having to grow up poor, and she just wanted to be bigger-than-life Dolly.

Dolly told me once, I had invited her to our son's wedding and people wouldn't let her alone.

They wanted her autograph, they were just, I mean, take a picture with me, and the whole night, she was one after another after another.

And I finally kind of came around.

I said, "Dolly, that's not why we invited you here.

You know, you don't have to do that."

She said, "Mac, y'all know me better than that.

All my life, all I've ever wanted was to be a big star.

And this is just part of the deal."

- [Dolly] Hi, this is little Dolly Parton, and this is August the first, and we're in Bloomington, Illinois, and this is our first show.

[light upbeat music] [audience applauding] [bluegrass music] To me, stardom was more than a place, it was a feeling.

It was a fantasy.

It was a world that lived with inside of my own head and inside of my own heart.

♪ Well, a good ways down the railroad track ♪ ♪ There was this little ole rundown shack ♪ ♪ And in it lived a man I've never seen ♪ - Crossing over to pop was an ultimate goal, but it also was a destiny.

It was bound to happen.

Dolly's one of those people that breaks that line, as hillbilly as she might sound, people understand that she's bright and she's beautiful inside and out, and that just automatically drips off of Dolly.

So she was destined to go to the other side, and there was no way to stop that.

She was a rocket ship taken off, fully loaded.

[audience applauding] - Thank you.

[soft music] ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ I'm begging of you, please don't take my man ♪ ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Please don't take him just because you can ♪ - "Jolene" was probably Dolly's first crossover song, because it had what we called a hook, you know, it's the, [imitates guitar riff].

It's a gut string guitar.

It's a classical guitar.

It's not a steel string guitar, that also adds to the way you hear the guitar.

[guitar strumming] - That whole little guitar sound is as clever as the little song itself and just singing over and over, "Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene."

It's like, how hard can it be?

Like, "I will always love you."

[laughs] It's not like I'm a genius or nothing.

♪ You could have your choice of men ♪ ♪ But I could never love again ♪ He's the only one for me, Jolene ♪ - There's a few things going on.

One, that riff instantly is the hook.

Oh, but wait a minute, there's a whole other hook.

Because right when you hear that riff, you go right into "Jolene, Jolene," it's like the way, the arrangement.

♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Jolene, Jolene - And in that time, you're not used to hearing the chorus start off the song.

And then is that the verse, is there a pre-chorus?

Well, I'm confused, what's going on here?

But it doesn't matter because every single part is hooky.

♪ Jolene, Jolene - And then, forget about all that.

Put the story in there, Jolene.

Just that name is amazing.

- I wrote this song about 20 years ago about this woman down in Nashville that worked at the bank.

She was trying to take care of my husband while I was out on the road.

Well, that didn't go over too big with me.

I fought that redheaded woman like a wildcat.

She jerked my wig off and almost beat me to death with it.

[Dolly laughing] [audience laughing] But I kept my husband, I got that sucker home and I beat the tar outta him.

We got a whole bunch of redheaded women down here.

As a matter of fact, Jolene looked a whole lot like you.

You redheaded hussy.

[laughs] - In "Jolene," Dolly is singing a song about a cheating man, but she doesn't address the man at all.

In fact, he seems not to be relevant to the story.

She's really engaging with this other woman.

♪ Your beauty is beyond compare ♪ ♪ With flaming locks of auburn hair ♪ ♪ With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green ♪ - [Lydia] It may seem that she doesn't have very much power in that dynamic, but in fact, she's the one who speaks all the lines.

♪ And I cannot compete with you, Jolene ♪ - Jolene, I can see Jolene walking down the street.

I can see Dolly bristling.

Yeah, it's a real art of storytelling.

How to say a lot and paint the picture in a three minute or three and a half minute song.

♪ Oh, he talks about you in his sleep ♪ ♪ And there's nothing I can do to keep ♪ ♪ From crying when he calls your name, Jolene ♪ ♪ Oh, and I can easily understand ♪ ♪ How you could easily take my man ♪ ♪ But you don't know what he means to me, Jolene ♪ ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ I'm begging of you, please don't take my man ♪ ♪ Jolene, Jolene ♪ Jolene, Jolene - [Dolly] Jolene is a song that's, I think, fits a lot of people.

We all are insecure.

♪ Jolene, Jolene - [Dolly] There's always somebody that could take that person from you and you're vulnerable.

♪ Please don't take him even though you can ♪ - It's just that those little songs just stick.

And they just came out, and thank God they're still around.

♪ Jolene [airplane whooshing] - Good evening, Madam.

- Hi.

- Your passport, please.

Thank you.

- Miss Dolly Parton?

- That's right.

- And what is the reason for your visit?

- I'm a performer.

- You're a performer?

[upbeat music] - [Dolly] I absolutely had a game plan.

I wanted to do everything that a body could do as an entertainer.

I wanted to be worldwide.

I wanted to get in the movies.

♪ She has so many faces ♪ She wears so many names I thought, well, if I'm gonna be a star, why not be a big star?

So my plan was to find management, to get with a label that was really going to really support me as an individual star, not just part of a group.

- She came to me and basically introduced herself to me somewhere in the mid-'70s.

She just wanted to ask me a few questions about my career and how I got started and this and that.

[Mac singing] It was at the time that I had a television show and I said, "Here's my advice.

Talk to Sandy Gallin."

And she says, "Well, isn't he, he's your manager, right?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And she says, "Well, isn't he just, I mean, he's like a New York guy."

And I said, "Look, I'm from Lubbock, Texas.

Look what he did for me.

[audience applauding] I'm signed to Columbia Records.

I've got my own television show.

I mean, this is what he can do for you."

[upbeat music] ♪ I am a seeker ♪ And you are a teacher ♪ You are a reacher, so reach down ♪ - I knew relatively little, except that she was a great-looking, blonde, busty country artist who I had booked on "The Mac Davis Variety Show" in America.

And we had dinner.

She played me a new album she had just finished recording.

I knew without a question that I was in the presence of somebody extremely unusual, unbelievably interesting, magnificently beautiful.

And I couldn't get outta my mind that I thought she is going to be a gigantic, gigantic movie star.

Television star, media star.

I just thought, "Okay, how do we expose the whole world to this person?"

I thought having a pop hit record would bring her to the attention of millions of fans that had not known her.

♪ Here you come again ♪ Just when I've begun to get myself together ♪ ♪ You waltz right in the door ♪ Just like you've done before ♪ And wrap my heart 'round your little finger ♪ - [Dolly] I don't ever wanna get myself pigeonholed where people think I cannot do anything but one thing or that they put me in a place to where I'm not allowed to.

I won't allow that to happen either, 'cause I love being able to express myself in any way I feel like it.

♪ And here I go [soft music] - Why would Dolly sing somebody else's song?

Dolly is smart, and Dolly knows as a songwriter, she knew a hit song when she heard it.

♪ And shaking me up so ♪ That all I really know ♪ Is here you come again - She's known so well as a songwriter, I'm sure that people gave her credit for writing this song, and probably still do to this day.

♪ Here you go ♪ Here you come again - I mean, you never know 100%, but this sounded absolutely on the nose like a hit song.

And she recorded it and it was a number one record.

♪ You come again [audience applauding] - Thank you!

- She became that big star almost overnight.

"The Carson Show," everybody wanted her, and she was funny.

I believe it was Carson that asked her why she bought her family's little cabin up in the Tennessee Hills.

And she said, "Well, every now and then, a girl just wants to go pee off the porch."

[chuckles] And that's her.

- Well, we've arrived.

- Ah, looks like a dormitory.

- Well, it kind of does.

Actually, I have three closets in this room, but this one is the most special because this holds all of my stage clothes and all of these clothes are hand washable.

I just put 'em in the sink in a motel room.

I just rinse them out, they're wrinkle free.

I don't have to iron them.

Okay, now this is my couch, also this is my bed.

And then up here in these cabinets are my wigs.

So here's another Dolly, and another one, and another one.

- You don't have to look like this.

You're very beautiful.

You don't have to wear the blonde wigs, you don't have to wear the extreme clothes, right?

- No, it's certainly a choice.

I don't like to be like everybody else.

I've often made this statement that I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable.

That's the easiest thing in the world to do.

So I just decided that I would do something that would at least get the attention.

Once they got past the shock of the ridiculous way I looked and all that, then they would see there was parts of me to be appreciated.

Show business is a money-making joke.

And I've just always liked telling jokes, you know?

- But do you ever feel that you're a joke, that people make fun of you?

- Oh, I know they make fun of me.

But actually all these years, the people, you know, has thought the joke was on me, but it's actually been on the public.

I know exactly what I'm doing and I can change it at any time.

♪ A pair of false eyelashes ♪ And a tube of cheap lipstick - She's an entity that exists and she's kept it alive for how many decades?

So I think it's partly her now.

I mean, if it wasn't her before, which I think it partly was, I think it's certainly instilled itself in her so much that she is who she is, even though she isn't.

- [Dolly] I was very unusual at a very early age.

There was this woman in our hometown and she was called the town tramp.

I don't know what you call a loose woman.

The ones that throw it around a bit, as they say.

- That's all, boys.

- [Dolly] And as a little child, I used to, when we ever did get to go to town, I would see this woman walking up and down the streets.

She had a short skirt, she had beautiful skin.

And I remember saying, "Oh, she's so pretty.

She's so pretty."

Mama would say, "Oh, she's just trash."

And so I thought, in my mind, that's what I wanna be when I grow up, trash.

- I used to think that being self-conscious was pejorative, but Dolly is a good example of someone who is very conscious of self and has created a mythic, iconic character that's partly, well, I think that's entirely real, but.. Enhanced.

- How does Dolly have such a small waist?

It just puzzles me.

I mean, her waist is profoundly small.

- [Producer] All right, Barbie mode.

♪ I'm just a backwoods Barbie ♪ Too much makeup, too much hair ♪ - That's her brand.

That's her thing.

And she's never walked away from it, because I feel if Dolly were to look at Dolly and Dolly, that the Dolly that is the singer that everybody knows, Dolly owes, you know, and gives credit and respects and honors.

So it's like, well, I'm not gonna get rid of you now.

You've done so well for me.

You know, and you and I have been a great team.

It's like, I almost think there's two people there.

♪ Just a backwoods Barbie [dramatic music] - Well, hello out there, London!

Is everybody feeling good tonight?

I wanna say a great big hello to the most exciting and beautiful city in the world!

And the sweetest people I've ever known!

I know everybody must be ready for me to start sooner or later, right?

So everybody clap your hands along with me.

How about you folks?

Are we ready?

Then I guess I'm the only one that's dragging my feet.

- The concert we did in London, we were there for a week to make this show.

We got to play for all these great people.

That was in the time in London when I, over here, we called people like, we called them punks when, the way they wore the mohawks and everything.

And of course, that was great for Dolly because her look is unique as well.

So there was just like kind of a connection between her and that part of the audience.

♪ You got me on fire - It was just wonderful time, wonderful experience.

[audience applauding] - Oh, I knew you was gonna be fun to party with.

I know a fun crowd when I see one.

Oh Lordy Lord.

I've learned a lot from a lot of people, just being a sponge.

Ain't it amazing what some people will do for attention?

How to kind of pace yourself, how to put your jokes in with your dialogue and how to, your timing, your dynamics.

And this one with the purple and green and blue hair went like this.

[audience laughing] And I thought, well, I don't think my fans back home and I don't think my fans here in London would want that to happen to me, so I went like that back, is that okay?

[audience laughing] - I think a lot of comedians would be jealous of her timing and natural comedic ability.

She just definitely had that.

[audience applauding] - By the time the show's over, I'm just getting started and it takes me sometimes three or four hours to come down from just being overexcited.

And so sometimes I'll write my best songs after a performance, because of the audience and their reaction.

I suppose the last two years we've worked about 200 days on the road, which is a lot more than we should work, but I can write pretty good on the road, because when we travel from city to city, there's not that much to do.

- [Driver] Hello?

- Tell him I'm not here, tell him I'm not here.

- She isn't here right now.

[Dolly laughing] - Dolly's writing all the time.

I'll call her on the phone and she'll say, "Hey, I'm writing."

So I just say, "All right, I'll call you back."

You know what I mean?

I don't want to, you know, stifle her creativity.

She writes almost every day.

She writes a song a day, maybe more.

Just like "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" were written on the same evening.

[Dolly laughing] - I want to do a song for you now that's kind of a special little song to me.

A lot of folks that follow my career know that I write a lot of sad songs, and this one is absolutely pitiful.

[audience laughing] It's true.

It's a story about a little girl and a puppy dog.

♪ Late one cold and stormy night ♪ ♪ I heard a dog barking ♪ Then I thought I heard somebody at my door knocking ♪ ♪ I wondered who would be outside in such an awful storm ♪ ♪ Then I saw a little girl with a puppy in her arms ♪ ♪ Before I could say a word, she said, "My name is Sandy ♪ ♪ And this here is my puppy dog and his name is little Andy" ♪ - I write a lot of simple songs, because I'm limited to a degree as far as, you know, melodies and... see, I don't know music.

I totally write by heart and I play my instruments by ear.

I'm just a natural musician, a natural singer/songwriter.

I don't know how to sing, never tried to learn how to sing.

I just sing.

♪ Giddy up, Charlie horse going to the mill ♪ ♪ Can we stay the night?

♪ If you don't love us, no one will ♪ ♪ I promise we won't cry - I don't think people always understand that she's a really good guitar player.

She really can play really well and she doesn't play all that much on her shows, but she's fully capable of walking out and doing it completely by herself, if she had to.

♪ She was just a little girl ♪ Not more than six or seven ♪ That night as they slept ♪ The angels took them both to heaven ♪ ♪ God knew little Andy would be lonesome with her gone ♪ ♪ Now Sandy and her puppy dog won't ever be alone ♪ ♪ Ain't you got no gingerbread, ain't you got no candy ♪ ♪ Ain't you got an extra bed for me and little Andy ♪ - Thank you.

[audience applauding] - I think Dolly likes to move on.

She only likes to chew her tobacco once.

I thought she was a natural actress and I just wanted to bring her to the whole world.

- I hadn't wanted to do any movies until a right thing come along, because I'm not an actress.

I've never taken an acting lesson in my life and you'd have to be something that was pretty much close to me, to my personality.

But Jane Fonda came up with this idea to do "9 to 5" about women in the workplace.

- [Interviewer] Why Dolly Parton?

What gave you that idea?

She's not done a movie in her life, huh?

- No, no, but she's uh, I've been a fan of her music.

And even more particularly of her as a songwriter.

It was pow, it was a visceral sense that Dolly Parton had to be a secretary in "9 to 5."

I was driving home from having just seen Lily Tomlin for the first time in her one woman show called "Appearing Nightly."

And I was totally smitten by Lily, and I said to myself, "I don't want to be in a movie," which I was producing about secretaries, "unless Lily Tomlin is in it too."

Driving home, turned on the radio, "Two Doors Down" is playing, and I suddenly get an image of Dolly Parton sitting at a typewriter.

[laughs] And I thought that would be something to have Dolly Parton in her first movie playing a secretary in a movie that among many other things, is going to touch upon sexual harassment.

She's perfect.

- And here's to the beginning.

When Jane came to me with it, I said, "Well, this is a good opportunity, but I'll only do it if I can write the theme song."

So they said, "Okay."

I said, "Okay."

I thought, "Well, I will do it because Jane Fonda's a huge star and Lily Tomlin was, and I always thought, well, if it's a big hit, then I'll get, you know, the glory of it, like them with Lily and Jane.

And if it's a flop, I can blame it on them.

- Well, welcome to the front lines.

"9 to 5" is about working women in the workforce and their relationship to the boss, and however the corporate culture imposes itself on them.

- Hi Violet, how's everything going?

- She plays a abundantly sexy secretary to the boss who is an object of harassment on a daily basis.

And she's really a nice innocent Southern girl who sings a song and plays a guitar and has a husband.

And she just is as shocked and amazed that the boss is hitting on her all the time.

- Mr.

Hart, I've told you before, I'm a married woman.

- And I'm a married man.

That's what makes it so perfect.

- Oh, Mr.

Hart.

- And of course, all the other girls in the office, they don't like her because they think she's floozy.

- So you've been telling everybody I'm sleeping with you, huh?

Well, that explains it.

That's why these people treat me like some dime store floozy.

- No, no.

- They think I'm *****ing the boss.

- That's not it at all.

- Oh, and you just love it, don't you?

It gives you some sort of cheap thrill, like knocking over pencils and picking up papers.

- Doralee, now, let's don't get excited.

- Get your scummy hands off of me.

- Well, it was kind of modeled on her personality.

Dolly grew up poor in the sense of material advantages, so she knows what it feels like to be put upon, to be challenged, and I'm sure she's been sexually harassed in her life.

- Look, I got a gun out there in my purse.

And up to now, I've been forgiven and forgetting because of the way I was brought up.

But I tell you one thing, if you ever say another word about me or make another indecent proposal, I'm going to get that gun of mine and I'm going to change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot.

- [Dolly] It was fun.

It was such a joy to make, but I wasn't intimidated by them because like I say, I have all these sisters too.

I have all these sisters and aunts.

I love women.

You know, it's like, I know the nature of women, so it's just like having two new girlfriends.

- We just liked each other and we had an automatic camaraderie.

I think we each fancied we were lighting up the room.

I used to say we each one of us thought we were the one in the middle.

Jane was so political, so active.

I was a lesbian.

And so Dolly naturally thought she was in the middle.

- You cannot finish a day with Dolly without laughing so hard that you have to cross your legs.

[all laughing] - When we were starting "9 to 5," we were trying to get really chummy and we went to the Beverly Hills Hotel and we had two or three pajama parties.

[laughs] But Dolly, I don't remember Dolly ever really confiding anything to us.

She just sets a boundary for herself.

I've never seen Dolly without a wig.

To this day, I've never seen Dolly without her hair.

You know, during the entire time that I was with her, when she came out of her bedroom, she was done.

It was all made, you know, I never saw her without her regalia.

She's an utter professional.

I was very impressed.

- When I said I wanted to write the theme song, I'd read the script, but I wanted to get a feel for what was going on on the set.

They just do a few lines a day sometimes, and I'm just such an antsy little person.

I'm just like a wiggle worm, I can't be still.

So here I am in my trailer waiting for lights to be set up and I thought, "What am I going to do?"

I thought, "Well, I guess I'll write songs."

So I would just walk around on the set.

You know, I wear acrylic nails and I thought, well, I'm going to, you know, I would play the nails and I'd come up with little things that I would see on the set, like.

♪ Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen ♪ ♪ Pouring myself a cup And I thought, "Wow, that sounds like a typewriter."

- One memorable moment that Lily and I talk about from time to time was the morning that Dolly came to work and motioned us over and just outside the set, she said, "I've just written the song."

And she used her long nails as a washboard, and she sang "9 to 5."

And Lily and I looked at each other and we had goosebumps.

- Jane Fonda and I were just flabbergasted.

We thought it was so great.

I said to Jane, "This will make the movie a hit if nothing else."

♪ Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen ♪ ♪ Pour myself a cup of ambition ♪ ♪ And yawn and stretch and try to come to life ♪ ♪ Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin' ♪ ♪ Out on the street, the traffic starts jumpin' ♪ ♪ With folks like me on the job from nine to five ♪ - And we knew this is not just a movie song, this is an anthem.

♪ Workin' nine to five ♪ What a way to make a livin' ♪ Barely gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin' ♪ - Jane said, "Oh, we love it, we love it.

You got to finish, you got to finish it."

So I kind of spread it out on purpose.

So it'd be kind of like one of our little fun things, our little hobby of, "What did you write tonight?

What did you write?"

And I had a hundred verses on that I didn't use just because I was writing about everything, even comedy, even stuff that I knew wasn't going to be used, just real things that happened.

When I had to narrow it down to do it as a record, I brought all the women on the show to come in and sing background on it, and I played nails.

And on the record it says nails by me.

[laughs] [upbeat music] ♪ They let you dream just to watch 'em shatter ♪ ♪ You're just a step on the bossman's ladder ♪ ♪ But you've got dreams he'll never take away ♪ - A song like "9 to 5," everyone could relate to.

♪ Waiting for the day - And from a woman's standpoint, like, a lot of those lyrics are so, like, they're kind of hitting on some hot buttons that we're still talking about today.

♪ Gettin' by, it's all takin' and no givin' ♪ - Any song that has the word livin' in it, L-I-V-I-N-apostrophe, is a country song.

- You know, pop, it's popular, it's popular.

So she made country music, she gave it a wider audience, you know, made it even more popular.

♪ You would think that I ♪ Would deserve a fair promotion ♪ - "9 to 5" was very successful.

I think it was the second highest grossing film of the year, which was remarkable for a woman-led film.

♪ Nine to five, yeah - Being in "9 to 5" just showed Dolly's versatility.

She was a big musical star and now a movie audience with a huge hit, as "9 to 5" was, just makes her better.

A queen, an empress.

♪ Nine to five, yeah [audience applauds] - Thank you!

- There might have been a little bit of backlash when she went to Hollywood and kind of wandered off and, "Dolly's gone pop," and all those cliches that you heard.

But Dolly has that ability again to get away with murder with music and with her fan base because they know, they know that she's got magic in her pocket as a musician.

[soft upbeat music] [horn honks] - Those who have tickets for Dolly Parton, please line up to the left.

- Her voice.

- Her voice.

- Is a real good voice.

- Yeah, she's beautiful.

I really like her a lot.

- You better believe it.

♪ Rely on each other - It's like through her songs, she opens her arms wide and embraces such a broad swath of people that don't always feel seen.

And it's why people love her and it's why, you know, when we've been in public with her, her fans will drive for hours to be where she is.

I've been with a lot of big movie stars.

I've never seen the devotion that her fans have for her in, anyone else's.

It's quite extraordinary.

[people screaming] ♪ Two doors down ♪ They're laughin' and drinkin' and having a party ♪ ♪ Two doors down, they're not aware that I'm around ♪ ♪ But here I am, no longer cryin' and feelin' sorry ♪ - Yeah, Dolly always says that the irony of the Imagination Library is that when she grew up, she had no books in her home.

And the only book that they really had in their home was the Bible.

Dolly's father farmed.

She always says he's the smartest man she has ever known, but she also was mindful that his inability to read and write limited his opportunities.

And what she's told me is, "I want to do whatever I can to make sure all other children, smart children would never have that kind of ceiling imposed on them.

They can always transcend it."

[gentle music] ♪ Hey, maybe I'll dye my hair ♪ Maybe I'll move somewhere - [Dolly] With all the glamour and all the other businesses and all the stuff I do, you'd be shocked to know how little I still am, how small and how vulnerable and how country, and how I'm still so that little girl.

♪ Maybe I'll gain some weight ♪ Maybe I'll clear my junk ♪ Maybe I'll just get drunk on apple wine ♪ - By the 1990s, it was pretty hard to categorize Dolly Parton.

Was she a country singer?

Was she a movie star?

Was she a philanthropist?

Was she a businesswoman?

She was definitely an icon, but her pop career was relatively short.

And in some ways, she aged out of it.

By the end of the '80s and into the '90s, she's in her mid 40's and and she's not going to get a lot of radio play either in pop or country, for that matter.

- I mean, we think about Dolly and I talk about the light emanating from her and all of that.

There's got to be the other side.

The light doesn't happen without the dark, so that's got to be there somewhere.

How much of it she would like to reveal, or needs to reveal, I don't know.

[gentle music] - Around this time, RCA dropped Dolly's contract and that was a real blow.

She had been with them for decades and yet she wasn't selling anymore.

- I guess the music business, the public had become oversaturated with Dolly Parton.

She was everywhere.

For a while.

You know, a lot of times, when you get burned out, you quit.

But I think in her case, she reset and kind of got back to her roots.

♪ Little sparrow ♪ Little sparrow ♪ Precious, fragile little thing ♪ - I still felt like I had as much passion about it as I ever did.

And if I ever was any good, then I was as good as I ever was, so I thought, you know, I can't give up on this.

We decided that we were going to do some more traditional things and I was just going to kind of manage myself.

I said, I'm going to do my music if I have to just pay for it and send it out of the trunk of my car.

♪ And feels no pain - I was sitting with Dave Buckingham, my friend and my producer, he'd produced several of my records, and he said, "I read a very interesting thing in the magazine that they asked the fans who they would most like to hear do a bluegrass album."

And they said me, and I said, "Really?"

And he said, "Yeah, you were like number one on that whole chart that you were the person they'd like."

I said, "Well, let's do one."

♪ Leaving you to never mend - I think when we first heard that she was going to do a bluegrass record, it made sense to me because this is, that kind of music, that's where she came from.

The people playing on the back porches, fiddles and banjos and guitars.

- My first awareness of music in general, my people were very, very musical.

My mother's people, they all played some sort of musical instrument.

And it was mostly old mountain music.

The old world stories where people carried the messages of the world in song.

[bluegrass music] All of that stuff that were brought over by our ancestors was just embedded in my soul.

I call it my Smoky Mountain DNA.

That's why I think, you know, that style of music is still my favorite and I think that I do that better than any other music that I do.

I thought, "Well, what am I going to call my bluegrass album?"

I thought, "The Grass is Blue."

I'm going to call it "The Grass is Blue."

And I thought, well, what am I going to say about "The Grass is Blue"?

We all know grass is green.

And I just started writing this song and all of a sudden I thought, well, if the grass is green, the grass is blue, I will write opposite.

I'll start to, you know, I'll make everything in the whole song in opposite.

♪ And the rivers flow backwards and my tears are dry ♪ ♪ Swans hate the water and eagles can't fly ♪ You know, I thought, oh, this is good.

So I just kept on doing that.

It's one of my favorite songs that I've ever written.

- "The Grass is Blue" is a really sophisticated song, both musically and lyrically.

It's from the perspective of someone who has just been broken up with and is devastated and can't see a way forward.

And the only way that she can cope is to pretend that the opposite of everything is true.

♪ The opposite's true - She weaves these together in an amazing way to demonstrate the effort that it takes to overcome this kind of heartbreak.

- She started singing and all the cold chills would just go up your back just like, "Oh man, there's my whole life," you know, in one sound, in a person's voice.

♪ But I'm perfectly fine now ♪ And I don't miss you - What I've always said about Dolly's voice is that she uses her voice as if it's an instrument.

So I'm trying to use my instrument as if it's her voice.

[string music] ♪ Oh, the rivers flow backwards ♪ ♪ And my tears are dry ♪ Swans hate the water ♪ And eagles can't fly ♪ Oh, but I'm all right now ♪ Now that I'm over you - At the end, I wanted to keep building because I wanted those bluegrass harmonies to just keep going, you know, before it kind of resolved into like its sad little place where the grass was still blue.

♪ I don't love you ♪ And the grass ♪ Is blue - But I really think that was very effective in the song and I thought that out carefully.

[audience applauds] I've never gone where anybody expected me to go and I do that often in my songs.

You might think you know me, but I might surprise you.

- These are albums that they've gotten great critical acclaim, but you know, they don't sell a lot.

You don't make much money in this acoustic bluegrass music.

- I went to Europe with her in 2002, touring the bluegrass record "Halos & Horns," and it was a very small affair.

I think she was riding in a camper and the guys were riding in a Ray Charles bus with seats and it was small venues and very under promoted.

And I don't think she enjoyed that very much.

I think she's kind of like, "Look, you know, I don't need to be doing this."

- [Photographer] Dolly, this way, please.

- After 1991 to about 2004, I think she was more considered kind of like a heritage artist, but I thought, "Hey, this woman's a superstar icon.

We have to market this differently."

She hadn't had a manager for 17 years prior to me, so she was very reluctant.

She's like, "Who's this young punk trying to tell me what to do?"

You know?

That doesn't go over well.

[laughs] [upbeat twangy music] ♪ Blue smoke climbing up the mountain ♪ ♪ Blue smoke winding round the bend ♪ - I knew she needed a guy like that, that could come on and take her on and spar with her and do the yin and the yang that she likes.

- He's doing good.

I think his Valium's kicked in.

[everyone laughs] - Dolly was basically like, "Hey, if you lose me millions of dollars, you're fired.

Are you sure you want to take this risk?"

And I said, "Absolutely, I want to take this risk."

You know, I believe in the research, the planning, and the strategy that I've done, and now I'm going to execute and follow through.

♪ Blue smoke climbing up the mountain ♪ ♪ Blue smoke winding 'round the bend ♪ ♪ Blue smoke is the name of the heartbreak train ♪ ♪ That I am ridin' in - [Danny] We put tickets on sale six months in advance.

We sold 14 arenas out in 60 minutes.

I put another seven shows on sale and we sold 21 shows out.

♪ Oh, clickety, clickety, clickety clack ♪ ♪ Just stay on track and never look back ♪ - It was massive.

I mean, the largest solo tour that she had ever done in the history of her career.

I think in recent years that she's getting more credibility from being a songwriter.

The songs that she does have have been some of the biggest, I mean, "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" and "9 to 5."

I mean, they're just staples, you know what I mean?

The audiences range from three years old to 70 years old.

And I can tell you that when those songs come on, there's just nobody that doesn't know it on a global level.

♪ Whoa, whoa, roll with me now [audience chanting] - [Dolly] I grew up in the country, so this mud ain't nothing new to me.

[audience cheers] And it's nothing new to you either, is it?

[gentle music] ♪ Back through the years, I go wandering once again ♪ ♪ Back to the seasons of my youth ♪ ♪ And I recall a box of rags that someone gave us ♪ ♪ And how my mama put the rags to use ♪ ♪ There were rags of many colors ♪ ♪ But every piece was small ♪ And I didn't have a coat and it was way down in the fall ♪ - "Coat of Many Colors" is my favorite song because it really covers a lot of ground.

First of all, it's about my mother, who I loved dearly.

It's about confidence, it's about bullying, it's about acceptance.

♪ Some patches on my britches ♪ Holes in both my shoes ♪ In my coat of many colors, I hurried off to school ♪ ♪ Just to find the others laughing and makin' fun of me ♪ ♪ In my coat of many colors mama made for me ♪ - I think about where I am now compared to where I've been, where I came from and how much I have achieved.

And that is my philosophy, that little song.

It's okay to be different, you know?

It's okay to not be like everybody else.

In fact, it's not only not okay, it's wonderful that you are who you are.

- Oh, hello, hello.

Show time, show time.

This one.

Things are different once you become a star.

But I wanted to be a star and I don't complain about that now because I appreciate the fact that people know me and recognize me.

I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be recognized, I wanted to be appreciated for what I do.

Okay, I'm good to go.

But it's so different now, the business, than when it was when I was a girl here in Nashville.

I'm so happy that I was one of those old timers that really got to grow with it and know what it was really about to really build a career, not necessarily have someone else build one for you and just hand it to you.

- [Host] Ladies and gentlemen, celebrating 50 years as a member of the Grand Ole Opry, please welcome Dolly Parton.

[audience applauds] - Hey, hey!

How are you?

Woo!

Hello, everybody.

And you, and you.

Hey, up there.

Well, 50 years at the Grand Ole Opry.

Ha!

Well, this is really a special night for me and thank you for standing up for me, or were you just resting your butts?

[laughs] - That woman's not retiring.

There's no reason for her to retire.

She's still writing songs.

She's got like over 1,000 songs people haven't heard.

She has Dollywood, you know, she's making movies.

She's not going anywhere anytime soon.

- This is a song I like to end my show with and it kind of, of course it was written for other reasons, but it says the perfect thing to you.

[gentle music] ♪ Hmm, hmm, hmm ♪ If I should stay ♪ I would only be in your way ♪ So I'll go, but I know ♪ I'll think of you each step of the way ♪ ♪ And I ♪ Will always love you - I think there will always be country music.

I do believe that people will search out those songs like the "Jolenes" hopefully, or the "I Will Always Love Yous" or the Hank Williams songs and all those great songs because they are the stories that people naturally lived.

♪ That's all I'll be taking with me ♪ - There are few finer songwriters, male or female that have ever lived.

Her life's work, to me, is a narrative of painful, beautiful, poetic, melodic commentary on what it's like to be human, and on what it's like to be a woman in America.

[audience applauds] Dolly, it is my pleasure to induct you into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[audience cheers] - I'm a rock star now!

♪ I hope life treats you kind ♪ And I hope you have all you ever dreamed of ♪ ♪ Oh, I do wish you joy ♪ And lots of happiness ♪ But above all this ♪ I wish you love ♪ And I ♪ Will always love you ♪ I will always ♪ Love you ♪ I will always ♪ Love ♪ You know I'll always love you ♪ - [Dolly] Thank you so, so much!