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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
Finding That Spark
DA Sit-Down Conversation With Dolly Parton
By Jaan Uhelszki
olly Parton has a gift of intimacy, and makes every
person she comes into contact with feel like they’re
the only person in the world. It’s not something
you’d expect from one of country music’s most
recognizable icons—someone who has sold more
than 100 million records and just released her 42nd
album, Blue Smoke. So, how does she do it
“I never think of myself as a star. I think of myself as a working
girl, always have. That’s why I never had any ego problems. I’m
thankful and grateful,” she says. And you know she means it.
In a sit-down interview, TONEAudio talked to the eight-time
Grammy winner, theme park mogul, movie star, philanthropist,
and singer-songwriter about cooking, creativity, Bob Dylan, and
what she really thinks about when she’s onstage.
JU: You’ve just released your 42nd
studio album. How do you know when
it’s time to make a new record Does
a buzzer go off in your head
DP: Something like that. I have to weigh
everything and ask myself: Should I tour
Put together a band Record an album
I’m 68 now and I have to be smart about
time.
JU: So you overthink it Or do songs
usually just demand to be written and
you know it’s time.
DP: Yeah, most of them do. But in this
particular case, I had a lot of songs in
the can. “Blue Smoke” I wrote years ago,
and I used to do it onstage because it
was just a fun song to do. A lot of fans
remembered it and they kept saying,
“Why don’t you ever put that out” So
when I got ready to do this [album], not
only did I include the song but I thought
Blue Smoke was a great title because I
was going to do a lot of bluegrass stuff.
JU: And you love the word blue.
You’ve put the name in so many of
your song titles.
DP: I guess a lot of it comes from
growing up in the Smokey Mountains.
The Cherokee had a word, “shaconage,”
and it meant land of blue smoke.
That’s what they called them the Great
Smokey Mountains. When I did my
bluegrass album, I named it The Grass
Was Blue. I was going to travel around
with a bluegrass band, and at one time
I thought I was going to call my band
Blue Smoke. That was before I wrote the
song. I was going to call my label Blue
Indigo. I never thought about that until
you said that. I wrote a song called
“Blue Me.”
JU: I love how you referenced the
Cherokee word.
DP: Well, thank you, because I am very
spiritual. I’m not religious at all but I
totally believe in that. I have to. I need to.
I can’t imagine anybody not believing in
something bigger than us because I’d
choose to believe it even it wasn’t so.
JU: You are a known early bird, and
you’ve said you commune with God,
or you actually write songs with him
in what you call the Wee Wisdom
Hours.
DP: Wee-hour wisdom.
JU: Is there a time that you always
wake up [Self help guru] Wayne
Dwyer has said if you are awakened
early in the morning at the same
hour, you should stay up, because
someone/some universal force has a
message for you.
DP: Years ago, I used to wake, it was
almost like clockwork, it was just a
thing. I would wake up at 3:00 a.m.
every day. But now that I’m older, I’m
waking up earlier and earlier. I go to bed
early though, but I get up really early
because I love the mornings. That’s my
time. Nobody else around, everybody
asleep, all the energies have died down
and I really feel that God’s just waiting
to come there. I think about God as like
a farmer, and he’s always throwing stuff
out. I want to be one of those early-rising
people so I get some of that stuff before
it gets picked through. I always feel the
energies, other people’s energies, bad
or good, that the world is kind of settled
about that time. So I just feel like it’s
quieter and I have a clearer direction.
(continued)
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