Dolly Parton, Songteller

Dolly Parton, with music journalist Robert K. Oermann, presents her life story through the lyrics and personal histories behind her songs. Spanning more than six decades, the book is organized chronologically across fourteen chapters. Parton opens by declaring that if she could choose only one identity, it would be songwriter, explaining that songs lead to everything else in her life. She describes writing on tour buses, airplanes, and in bathtubs.

Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, one of twelve children raised in unheated shacks without indoor plumbing, electricity, or running water. Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was an illiterate laborer. Her mother, Avie Lee Owens Parton, sang traditional Anglo-Celtic folk songs in a style foundational to Parton's own music. Around age six, Parton composed her first song, "Little Tiny Tasseltop," about a corncob doll her mother had made. Her uncle Bill Owens gave her a real guitar around age eight. Songs like "Coat of Many Colors" (1971), which recounts her mother sewing her a coat from rags and classmates mocking her at school, and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" (1968) establish the Appalachian childhood that became the wellspring of her songwriting. Her father's inability to read later inspired her to launch the Imagination Library, a free book distribution program that has given away over 130 million books.

At age ten, Uncle Bill took Parton to audition for Cas Walker, a Knoxville businessman with a radio and TV show. By thirteen, she had released her debut single, "Puppy Love" (1959), and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, the preeminent country-music stage and radio show in Nashville, where country star Johnny Cash introduced her. She graduated from high school in 1964, the first in her family to do so, and left for Nashville the next day. She met her future husband, Carl Dean, her first day in the city and eloped with him in 1966, keeping the marriage secret from record label owner Fred Foster, who had warned her not to marry.

Parton and Uncle Bill signed songwriting contracts with Combine Music, a Nashville publishing company. Their song "Put It Off until Tomorrow" (1966) became a No. 6 hit for country singer Bill Phillips and won a Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Song of the Year award, establishing her as a serious songwriter. Several established artists recorded her songs. Her proto-feminist single "Just Because I'm a Woman" (1968), inspired by a painful marital conversation about sexual double standards, reached No. 17.

Country superstar Porter Wagoner hired Parton as the female singer for his road show and syndicated TV program in 1967. She was twenty-one; he was forty. The job provided a major career boost: Wagoner engineered her move to RCA Records, helped her become a Grand Ole Opry member in 1969, and mentored her showmanship. But the relationship proved volatile. Wagoner attempted to control her career and pushed aside her uncles and previous business associates. The grueling workload produced some of her most respected work, but Parton grew increasingly determined to leave.

She had planned to stay five years but remained nearly seven as duet successes mounted. When arguments failed to win her release, she turned to songwriting. "I Will Always Love You" (1974) was born from this impasse. She wrote it at home while crying, then played it for Wagoner in his office. He wept and agreed to let her go in exchange for producing the recording. The song became a No. 1 country hit, and pop superstar Whitney Houston's 1992 version later made it one of the biggest pop hits in history. Parton reveals that rock and roll icon Elvis Presley wanted to record the song, but his manager demanded half the publishing rights; she refused, protecting her copyright.

During this period, Parton also produced iconic solo work. "Jolene" (1973), inspired by a young fan's name and loosely drawn from Carl Dean's flirting with a bank teller, became her most recorded song worldwide, with over 400 versions. Parton reveals that "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" may have been written on the same day, as both appear back-to-back on the same cassette tape.

After leaving Wagoner, Parton formed her own publishing company, Velvet Apple Music, and began touring with her own band. She was named Country Music Association (CMA) Female Vocalist of the Year in 1975 and 1976, then CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1978, only the second woman to receive the honor. Wagoner sued her for one million dollars; the lawsuit drained her emotionally and financially. She hired Los Angeles manager Sandy Gallin to expand beyond country. "Here You Come Again" (1977) won a Grammy and made her a pop star.

Actress Jane Fonda cast Parton in the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5. Parton wrote the title song by clicking her fingernails like a typewriter on set. "9 to 5" topped the country, pop, and adult contemporary charts, won two Grammys, and earned an Oscar nomination. She re-recorded "I Will Always Love You" for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), making her the only artist to top charts twice with the same song. Her song "Travelin' Thru" (2005), written for the transgender-themed film Transamerica, earned a second Academy Award nomination.

The early 1980s brought Parton's most difficult personal period. She experienced gynecological problems, weight struggles, depression, death threats, and financial stress from the Wagoner lawsuit. She relied on songwriting rather than therapy as her primary healing method. The landmark Trio album (1987) with rock star Linda Ronstadt and country singer Emmylou Harris became her best-selling album at over three million copies and restored her critical standing. She was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year her Dollywood theme park opened in East Tennessee.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Parton returned to her musical roots. She formed her own record label, Blue Eye Records, wanting to own her recordings. The Grass Is Blue (1999), her first full bluegrass album, won both a Grammy and an International Bluegrass Music Association award. Gospel music runs throughout Parton's work. Her grandfather Jake Owens, a Pentecostal preacher, and her aunt Dorothy Jo Owens Hope, an evangelist and multi-instrumentalist, shaped her spiritual life and songwriting. "The Seeker" (1975) became her biggest gospel hit without ever mentioning God or Jesus by name.

The book's later chapters chronicle Parton's status as a cultural icon. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001. She received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2006 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Her score for 9 to 5: The Musical earned four Tony nominations when it opened on Broadway in 2009. After wildfires devastated East Tennessee in 2016, she organized a telethon that raised $8.9 million for victims. During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, she pledged one million dollars to fund vaccine research. Throughout, she reflects on her enduring marriage to Carl Dean.

The book closes with a characteristic blend of ambition and whimsy: A secret song is locked in a chestnut-wood box at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort, not to be opened for thirty years. Parton will be ninety-nine when it opens, and she intends to be there.