Dolly Parton’s first interview with a major country music publication was conducted by Everett Corbin for Music City News during the summer of 1967. Corbin, who served as editor of MCN at the time, visited with twenty-one-year-old Dolly in the living room of her pre-fame Nashville residence at the Glengarry Heights Apartments. The up-and-comer was rather reserved during this conversation. Almost timid. There are hints of her sense of humor, which would erupt in forthcoming interviews, but here she remained polite and precise with her answers.
The headline atop the September issue of Music City News declared Dolly Parton No ‘Dumb Blonde’. Corbin’s feature appeared prominently on the publication’s front page. “Hers is a success story of almost unbelievable proportions,” he wrote, “[and she] is quickly making her mark upon the Country music scene as singer supreme and songwriter extraordinary. . . . A winning combination—beauty and talent—is beginning to pay dividends for Monument recording artist Dolly Parton, ‘the Girl with a Song in Her Heart.’”
What follows is a transcription from Corbin’s forty-five-minute tape recording that served as the basis for his MCN cover story. He also recorded Dolly’s answers to several supplemental questions at the end of the tape. Those remarks have been worked into the interview according to chronology and/or theme. —Ed.
Everett Corbin: This tape was made June 7, 1967, at Glengarry Apartments on Murfreesboro Road and we’re interviewing Dolly Parton, Monument recording artist. Dolly, I suppose to write this story easy it’d help me if we just go back to the beginning and we’ll let you tell us about your background and where you were born and take us up to the present time.
Dolly Parton: OK, that’ll be fine. I was born . . . We’ll start with when I was born, OK? I was born on January the nineteenth, in 1946 in Sevier County. It’s Sevierville, Tennessee, a little town between Knoxville and Gatlinburg. You might shorten it by sayin’ “the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.” But if you wanna know the names of some hollers and some ridges and knobs where I lived, I was born at Pittman Center on Pittman Center Road. Then, when I was about five years old, we lived in a place called Boogertown. It really wasn’t the name of it, but that was what everybody called it. Then we moved to a place called Locust Ridge and I lived there for several years. We owned the whole big farm. We just farmed and that’s all we did. I used to work in the field and all this bit . . . hoe corn and set tobacco and all that.
Well, now this first town where you say you were born, was it a community or a town?
It was really what I guess you’d call a community, but it was called Pittman Center Road, but the town, the little community, was called Pittman Center. But where I lived, you might say, up til I moved out . . . I live on Birds Creek now, my folks do. But it was called Locust Ridge.
Are all these places that you name in the same general vicinity?
Yeah, just a few miles between each one.
Now, the town that you claim now as home is what?
Well, it’s Sevierville, Sevier County, but it’s called Birds Creek.
And all these communities are in the county?
Yeah. The Caton’s Chapel community and all that.
When did you start singin’?
I’m twenty-one years old now. I started singin’ . . . Mama said I was squallin’ when I was born. I’m still squallin’ . . . But I started singin’ in church. My grandfather was a preacher. I started singin’ in church when I was, oh . . . it was as far back as I can remember. I would imagine [I was] five or six years old. I started singin’ on a television and radio show in Knoxville at the age of ten and it was called The Cas Walker Show. We had a radio show in the daytime from 11:30, I think, until 1:00, and then we had a TV program on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. I think they started on Saturday night after I left. I sang on there during school vacations, in the summer, on holidays, and Christmas vacation.
What about your background?
There are twelve children in our family, as well as my mother and daddy. My daddy’s name is Robert Lee Parton and my mother’s name is Avie Lee. My daddy is forty-five and my mother is forty-three, if you’re interested in that. My mother is a housewife. My father is a construction worker. He works with a company that travels some. But he really don’t travel that far away from home that he has to stay away from home that much, but sometimes he’ll have to go two hundred or three hundred miles from home for maybe a couple of months. But usually he works around within a one-hundred-mile radius. So that’s about all that. So anything else you want to ask?
Were there really any bad hardships?
Oh, yes. There was twelve children in our family. Up until I was about eleven or twelve years old, we just farmed. We all had to work in the field and we all had a job to do. When you’re just farmin’ and that’s the only income you have, and you have twelve children, well, then you don’t have really have too much. In fact, we didn’t have anything. We had to walk about two miles to school and all that. That was the first four of us children. Then the last eight, the last seven and eight, had it better than the first four of us did. But we had a real hard time.
There were four children before you?
No, there were three children before me. The first four and five of us had it real bad, you know. We had it rougher than the rest. But then we moved out to what we called over in the holler. That’s where we lived. We owned the whole thing and we just farmed. I went to a one-room school until I was in the fifth grade. Or fourth grade. First through eighth grades it was Locust Ridge School. We had a teacher that taught first through the eighth. There were really about twelve students in the whole school. That was just farm families that lived here and there. We had to walk to school and the teacher would come there and teach us. He couldn’t have got paid much. I don’t think he had more than a high school education. But you know how it is. That’s the only school we had to go to. That’s the only way that we could have any education. But then we moved out and when I was in fifth I started going to a big public school. We still had it rough, though. [Laughs] We’re still havin’ it rough! Not as rough as we used to. When I graduated from high school, which was in ’64, I came to Nashville. I graduated on Friday night and hurried to get to Nashville, so I came down on Saturday mornin’. That was the first of June and I’ve been here three years. About two weeks after I came to Nashville I went down on Music Row to get my contract or an audition. I tried two or three places and they all were filled up with girl singers and the whole business. So then I heard that Fred Foster might be interested in me. He’s the president of Monument Records.
Right. Well, now can you tell me how did you happen to develop the interest or the desire, or maybe in some cases the nerve, to try for a recording contract?
[Laughs] Well, now I’d always loved to sing. I don’t know. And I’d been writin’ songs, too. I started writin’ when I was seven or eight years old. I was writin’ a little poetry and little things. The first song that I ever wrote—a real song that you might classify as bein’ fair—was when I was eight years old. But I’ve always had the urge to be in the music business. It’s just a talent that was a long background of music in our family. My mother and all my mother’s people sang and played instruments, and some of my daddy’s people, too. But I knew that I wanted to be in the music business and be a star. [Laughs] You might put it that way. But I really didn’t have to pick up the nerve because, see, I started when I was ten years old and you might say I got professional during that time. Or whatever you’d call it. I really wasn’t bashful at all. I always had a big mouth. And so I just made up my mind that’s what I wanted to do and anything I ever made up my mind I wanted to do I usually did it. So I came here to Nashville to get a contract. I didn’t come to get a job or anything, I just came to record.
What did you want most in your mind? To record your songs?
Well, mostly. I came to get a recording contract as well as a writin’ contract. And I did. With the same company.
Your first attempt with Monument, did it succeed?
Now, I guess I did jump the guns just a little bit. Before, while I was still in high school, when I was fifteen years old, I came to Nashville then. See, I had tried. I had come down occasionally. When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I did the Grand Ole Opry on a Friday night. They call it the Friday Night Opry. I did that and I got three encores, which was good. They said it was real good, you know, for a young girl and all that. I recorded a record for Mercury when I was fifteen and was still in school and couldn’t travel. I couldn’t leave school. Daddy and Mama were rather strict. They didn’t want me out runnin’ around at that age. You couldn’t blame ’em. I recorded a record for Mercury and it didn’t do anything. It was called “It May Not Kill Me” and then on the back side of it was . . . Oh, I don’t remember what the back side was of that song. But I did that and nothin’ happened all during high school. I really didn’t try because I wasn’t able to leave school. [Released in 1962, Dolly’s promotional single for Mercury was actually titled “It’s Sure Gonna Hurt,” and the flipside featured a tune called “The Love You Gave” by Robert Riley and Marie Jones. —Ed.]
Was that the only recording there?
That’s not really the first. The first recording I ever had was one I really don’t even talk about because it was on a very small label when I was eleven or twelve years old. I did a record a long time ago. But I guess you would say the first record that I recorded to try to do anything with and to try to work with it and to go out on the road or promote it was with Monument Records. It was called “I Wasted My Tears” and the back side was “What Do You Think About Lovin’?” which I cowrote with my uncle Bill Owens. The back side I cowrote with Bill Owens and another uncle, Robert Owens.
Do you recall what date this was? What time?
It would have been in ’64. That’s when I graduated and I came down. It would have been in the winter of ’64, close to ’65, so after that I was doin’ pop. I really came to do country because I always sung country. That’s what I was and what I wanted to be. My voice is pitched real high and people thought it sounded childish. They thought it sounded young—too young—so they thought I might have a better chance in rock ’n’ roll since you really didn’t have to sing any certain way [Laughs] to be rock ’n’ roll. So they recorded me pop. Anything you wanna ask me, just go ahead. I was just kinda buttin’ in.
So they recorded you pop at Monument?
They recorded me pop for two years, up until now. Up until the last year. See, I’d been writin’ all this time, too, gettin’ all my songs gathered up, gettin’ a pretty good bunch of songs to have somethin’ to work with.
How many records did you have up until then?
I recorded five records for Monument before I got to do the country record that I had wanted to do all along. I wrote a song with my uncle Bill Owens called “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” which was a top ten song. We won a BMI award off that song, and I think it got to number four nationwide. I sung with Bill Phillips on it. It was recorded on Decca by Bill Phillips and I got to sing some harmony on it.
How did this happen with you being on Decca?
Well, I really wasn’t signed to Decca. The way that it happened . . . See, we hadn’t had any songs recorded before. Maybe a couple. And Bill Phillips was on a fairly good label and all that. I had done the demonstration tape on it with another man and they wanted to copy that arrangement as close as they could. They liked the way it had been done and asked Mr. Foster—Fred—if I could sing on it. He was real nice about it and said yes because we were getting a song recorded and he was tryin’ to help me every way he could. But I wasn’t tied up with Decca. I did more of a harmony part. I was more noticeable than they had intended because my voice is so odd. You can tell who I am, even if I’m singin’ in a group. My name wasn’t on the record as a singer, just as writin’ the song. Then all the disk jockeys were calling from everywhere wantin’ to know who the girl singer was on “Put It Off Until Tomorrow.” We got so much publicity off of that and we had somethin’ to fight with since I wanted to do country music. So we had a little discussion with Fred Foster. Saying “we,” I mean my uncle Bill Owens and I. We’ve always worked together. He’s always acted as my personal manager, you might say. We told him that I wanted to do country music, that’s what I felt, that’s what I wanted to do, and I had a better future in country music because I’d never had a pop hit. I had a song out called “Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby.” That was the best thing I’d had and it wasn’t even considered a hit at all. Then I did an answer to “Put It Off Until Tomorrow.” Fred agreed that I could do country because he had begun to see that I would have a better future in that. We had written a song, an answer to “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” and I did that, and it was backed up with a song that Bill Owens and I had written called “The Little Things.” After that came “Dumb Blonde,” which was the biggest record I’ve ever had of myself. It was a top ten record. It did real well for me.
Who wrote “Dumb Blonde”?
We didn’t write “Dumb Blonde.” Curly Putman of Tree Music—who wrote “Green, Green Grass of Home” and “My Elusive Dreams,” the new song that’s out now—he wrote “Dumb Blonde.” We went pickin’ material and wanted somethin’ that would be different and gimmicky that would get me on the road—somethin’ different—and we thought that suited me. [Laughs] I am a dumb blonde! No, but . . . Then came my new record that is just out. It’s called “Something Fishy.” And that brings us up to where we are now. It’s doin’ real well. In fact, it’s been out two and a half weeks, almost three weeks, and it has done real well. It came onto the charts in Billboard this week. That brings me up to date, as far as recording goes. I’ve written lots of songs.
Yeah, you wrote “Something Fishy.”
Yeah. Yes, I did. I wrote “Something Fishy” myself.
I believe a few weeks ago I heard you on WENO [Radio in Nashville] and I don’t know if you were talking to Don Howser or who.
Yeah, it was Don Howser. Yes, it was. Yeah, I wrote “Something Fishy” and I’ve written a song recorded by Hank Williams Jr. that’s out now called “I’m in No Condition to Try to Love Again.” Or “I’m in No Condition” is the title of it. I wrote that myself. And then I cowrote with Bill Owens the song that’s just been out with Skeeter Davis that’s called “Fuel to a Flame.” That did pretty well. I think it got to number eight. Then we wrote “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” and then we wrote the song that was a follow-up to “Put It Off” by Bill Phillips just after that. It was called “You’re Known by the Company You Keep.” That I cowrote with Bill. Then I had a song recorded recently by Jan Howard called “Your Ole Handy Man” that I wrote. We’ve had several small songs that didn’t do anything and then some that did. We have Kitty Wells’s next release, too. The name of it is “More Love than Sense.” That about brings it up to where we are. So you can ask me anything you want to.
OK, now speaking of your songwriting career, would you give an estimate for how many songs you may have written?
Oh, mercy. Since I’ve been writin’, I guess I’ve written four hundred or five hundred songs. I wouldn’t say I’ve had that many good ones, but I’ve written that many . . . cowrote and wrote by myself.
Are you as strong as a songwriter as you are a singer? How do you feel about the two?
You mean would I make a choice between the two?
What preference do you have?
Well, I really couldn’t make a choice because I have to write and I have to sing and I’d rather do both. I don’t really care to sing my own songs but I do like to sing ’em because I think I can put more of the kind of feelin’ I want in it, rather than a song that someone else has written for me. But I wouldn’t say that all the time, ’cause I get tired of singin’ my own songs. [Laughs]
What type songs do you prefer?
I like ballads. Real strong, pitiful, sad, cryin’ ballads.
Do you have any favorite songwriters?
Yeah, I do, but I don’t never like to say who I like. But I have several. And I have several singers that I like more than others, but I don’t really like to say who.
Why don’t you tell me about your current plans.
Well, since I had “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy,” I’ve never really worked the road too much. Now I’ve got lots of things lined up. In fact, I’m booked almost through this month and the next month, and I have dates on out through the summer. I’ll be booked almost all summer, so things are real busy now. I have a new album out, I didn’t mention. It’s not out but it will be. It’s called Hello, I’m Dolly and it’s featuring “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy.”
This will be out before September?
Yeah, it should be out by the end of this month.
So we can say that?
So yeah, it’ll be out by then, I’m sure.
Twelve songs?
Yeah. And all these songs that are in the album, my uncle and I wrote. I wrote a couple by myself that are in the album and then the rest of ’em we cowrote together. There’s twelve songs that we’ve written. So I guess that takes care of the album.
How about your home life or family life? You care to mention anything?
No, I don’t care to. They don’t usually like for me to me to mention it. Fred and them don’t really like for me to mention it or to emphasize it real big, but I got married a year ago, the thirtieth of last month, on Memorial Day last year. My husband’s name is Carl Dean. He and his father are in the asphalt paving business here in town. You might classify that as a contractor or whatever. But anyway, we don’t have any children as yet and don’t have any on the way, but we plan to have some children. We’ll probably start our family or start tryin’ to have a family next summer because I need to do all this booking and everything now. I’m just getting started. But I’d like to have at least four children. I’d like to have six if we can afford it and if things go well . . . if everybody’s healthy and I got the energy to take care of ’em! [Laughs] I’ll know after the first one! But there are twelve children in my family. I was from a family a twelve. There’s six girls and six boys and I have a sister and two brothers older than me and I have eight children younger than me.
Are there any in the music business?
Well, not really. Some of ’em sing, but they never really had the ambition to really make it in the music business. I have two sisters that sing real well. In fact, I guess you’d say they’re the only ones that really sing. My older sister writes some. She never really did anything with it, but she writes some poetry and some songs. Sometimes I work on her material for her. But I have two sisters that sing together. The three of us used to sing together in church and on the local radio stations some when I was home, but they don’t really have any ambition to really get in the music business. And I wouldn’t try to encourage ’em to if that’s not what they want ’cause it’s a hard life. [Laughs]
Is it a hard life now?
Well, it’s not a hard life. I mean it’s hard work. And if you enjoy it, that’s fine. That’s what I mean. I wouldn’t encourage anybody that really didn’t have their heart set on it, because I’d feel responsible if things didn’t go right.
How many days do you stay on the road now or anticipate staying on the road?
I didn’t book that much off “Dumb Blonde.” I just started. When “Dumb Blonde” was out I’d average about six to eight bookings a month, but now I would probably do about twenty days. Probably.
Who is your booking agent?
I book through One-Niters, Incorporated, which is run by Dub Allbritten, Brenda Lee’s manager. That’s who I book with, too. I write for Combine Publishing Company, which is run by Bob Beckham, and he really does a good job for us. That’s through Monument Records, owned by Monument, and I record for Monument Records. And Bob—well, I don’t know if he’d want me to mention that or not, so I won’t go into that, but—he used to be a singer, too. He still is. In fact, I think he’s gonna record again, too. He had a couple of big pop records “Just as Much as Ever” and a pop version of “Crazy Arms” for Decca. But you might not want to mention that because I don’t know how he feels about that, but anyway, he runs the company and does a real good job. He works real hard on our behalf. That’s about all I’ll say about him.
At what rate, do you know if your songs are being placed or recorded?
Well, I can say this. Up until “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” we really didn’t have hardly any songs recorded. Then we had one big hit. “Put It Off” was our first big hit, and then we’ve had at least two or three songs placed a week.
Do you have artists waiting for songs?
Yes, we have artists coming to ask for songs, and if we find out who’s recordin’, then we take ’em songs. The publishing company always checks to see who is in town and who’s recordin’. We pick out songs that we think would fit certain artists and then we take ’em and leave ’em there. If they like ’em, fine, if they don’t . . . But lots of times certain artists will come to listen to our material.
Do you have a lot of requests for tailor-made songs?
Yes, I do. Lots of times a lot of people ask us to write a song for ’em or a certain artist is recordin’ and we try to write a song for ’em or see if we’ve got anything that’d fit ’em. We do that all the time.
It seems from the information you’re giving me, that you’re as active as a songwriter as a singer. This is something sort of new for girls. They haven’t been as prominent as men, have they?
No, I don’t think they have. In fact, I guess you might say I’d been doin’ better in my writin’—up until “Dumb Blonde” —than I had been singin’. I had several songs recorded. I still write a lot to keep up songs for myself to record and other artists, too, so it really takes up all your time. I wouldn’t rather be a songwriter than a singer and I wouldn’t rather be a singer than songwriter. I have to do both because that’s what I feel.
What kind of contract do you have with Monument Records?
I’m signin’ a new contract with Monument now for three years. I had a three-year contract that expires in September, and I’m signin’ up for three more years. I’ll sign with the writin’, too, in September, for three more years. So that covers all that with Monument.
Have you played any of the big radio shows like the Opry or Wheeling or Shreveport or any of those?
No, I haven’t. Like I said, I played the Opry once and I’m scheduled to be on the Opry this month or next with “Something Fishy.” I really could have done it before, but I just never did because I didn’t really care to be on the Opry unless I had a record out so that people would know who I was. I really never thought that much about it until I did have a record. I always wanted to be on the Opry, but I always wanted to have some reason to be on it. I’ve done some TV shows. I’ve done The Bill Anderson Show that’s shown on Saturday evenings in most places, and I did The Wilburn Brothers Show two weeks ago. That’s really about all I’ve done. I have been doin’ a lot of local TV work here. I’m not doin’ that much anymore. With the bookings I have, and recording, and tryin’ to keep up with my writin’, and tryin’ to keep the house decent enough to live in, the apartment, I really don’t have that much time to do anything. At any rate, that covers about all that. So if there’s anything else . . .
In addition to this increased activity on the road now, what are your plans?
I really don’t have any plans other than bookin’ and recordin’ and writin’. That’ll take up all my time. And doin’ what I have to do here.
I know a lot of country music people recently have made some country music type films.
Oh yeah. Well, I think I am supposed to do some of those. I could have done some of those before, too, but it goes back to what I said about the Opry. I really didn’t care to do anything like that until I had something that people would know me from. I think they’re making a new movie here in town that someone had mentioned to me here the other day that they wanted me to be in it. I’ve had offers lots of times to do some acting, but I don’t care to act.
You don’t care about dramatic acting?
No. I told ’em I would do a part where I could sing and maybe just have a few lines, but I’m too common to try to act. I really don’t care to ’cause of all the writin’ and my family to take care of, and singin’, and bookin’ and recordin’ I really don’t have any desire to get involved in anything I’m not that interested in. But I will be doin’ some singin’ parts in some movies and stuff. That’s really all I care to do.
How are you presented on the road? What kind of band do you have with you?
Like I told you before, I hadn’t really been doin’ all that much bookin’. Since I came here I’d do occasional bookings or go out with somebody, but really I never did do that much bookin’. Up until now, I’ve always had a lead guitar player that we would go on the road and he would play on my songs and lead the other band. Usually we played with the band that was already there. I’d just book as “take one musician.” Now I just started a new band. I got a band together. They’re all my relatives on my mama’s side. They all sing and play somethin’. But the name of the band will be called the Kinfolk. Dolly Parton and the Kinfolk.
So how many will be in the band?
There’ll be three in the band. I play on stage. I really don’t play that much in clubs or anything because I like to do little routines and all. But I’ll have drums. Dwight Puckett will be on drums, Louis Owens on bass, and Bill Owens on lead guitar. Later on we’ll pick up a steel player. It’s so hard to find anybody who can play a steel, or one that plays all that well that’s not already booked with somebody. Most of the good steel players are booked.
Do you play straight guitar?
I play straight guitar. I play other instruments but I really haven’t done anything. I’m gonna try to work up a little routine. I play piano and I can use tambourine and play banjo a little. Just very little. But I’ve always played guitar. That’s the only thing that I can do a really good job at. I really can’t do that hot at that! So that’s about it. That covers that part.
Speaking about playing musical instruments, do you practice much or does it come naturally or what?
Well, I really don’t play that well. I’ve always played guitar. I’ve always fooled around on the guitar, but I started playin’ on the shows when I started singin’ in Knoxville when I was ten years old. I’ve been playin’ guitar enough to know everything I played—just straight chords—since I was eight. I’m really not a master on guitar. I just play my own songs and I don’t play any lead. I can play a little folk, but I really don’t practice guitar. I just write so much and sing so much I just use it all the time anyway.
Speaking about folk music, do you have any other types of music that you’re interested in besides country?
Oh, I love folk music and sacred songs.
Do you have any plans to record any sacred songs?
I certainly hope so. I’ve written several sacred songs, but I hope to do a sacred album just as soon as I can ’cause that’s always been something I really look forward to. Just as soon as I can do that, I hope to. We were talking about it not long ago that I might get my two sisters that I used to sing with and let them sing with me on it. Just somethin’ different because we always used to sing together in church and everything. I enjoy country and ballads and all that stuff.
It’d be nice to do like Tennessee Ernie Ford. He went back to Bristol and made a hometown album.
He did, yes. That’s a good idea! Well, I know he’s done several, but I don’t really recall when he did that. I think it would be a good idea and I would enjoy it and they would, too. It would be something for the family to always have. I hope to do a folk album, too, just as soon as I can. I do a lot of folk music—country folk, you might call it—and then I write an awful lot of that, too. That seems to be my specialty. I write a lot of poetry and some stories. I never did anything with ’em, but I still get ’em out of my system.
Do you have any plans of publishing them?
Well, someday I hope to publish some kind of little volume of my poetry and some short stories. I like to write little children’s stories, so maybe I can have it published for my children. Just somethin’ to keep for them. I doubt that I’ll ever try to have anything done with them ’cause it’s just somethin’ I like to do. I guess you might say it’s a hobby.
Speaking about children’s songs, some of the older country artists used to record a lot of children’s songs. I believe that one artist was on M-G-M [Records] and I can’t recall his name right now. Do you know many of the older artists? I think Carson Jay Robison or somebody he was affiliated with at M-G-M used to record a lot of children’s songs.
I really don’t know who you’re talkin’ about but I really haven’t heard that many. Burl Ives does a lot of children’s songs and all that. Just albums. But I’m really not too familiar with people.
I remember now . . . Tex Ritter had a number of children’s albums out, but none of the current country artists I know of have recorded anything of that nature.
That would be a good idea. I might do that, too. Don’t be surprised if you see one comin’ out!
I think it’d be not only rewarding but lucrative, too.
Yeah, I love to do things like that.
It looks like it’d be an open field for country artists.
Yeah, that’s a good idea. I might do an album on that. I’ve never really ever brought it up. Like I said, if nothin’ else, I’d like to put down the things like that just to keep for my own children and for grandchildren and all that.
I’m sure there’d be a big market for it and there probably is a void there. I would think so.
I’ve really never heard anybody talk about it. I guess it would be a good idea. So maybe. Don’t be surprised if you see one comin’ out . . .
We’ll be lookin’ for it.
Dolly Parton . . . Dumb Blonde Sings Childish. [Laughs] I like some of all types of music, but my favorite songs are sacred and country and folk. And I like some pop. I like songs like “My Cup Runneth Over” and “Yesterday” and things like that. I really don’t care to be in rock ’n’ roll field. I wouldn’t mind at all havin’ a good song that would go pop but I just want to stay basically country because that’s what I feel. ’Cause if that’s what you are, that’s all you can feel, really. . . . I did a song that I wrote, and I love to write sacred- or spiritual-flavored songs and I have a song that I just recorded while I was doin’ the album they pulled for a single. It’s called “Everything Is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)” and it might be the next release. It’ll have a real country song on back of it, but it’s not pop, it’s kinda folky/sacred/country/pop. [Laughs] Real different. It’s about life, the way it is, and all the things that are really beautiful that people don’t stop to see that God has made that way. These’re the kind of songs I like. It could be a pop record, but yet it’s country lyrics. I just put down what I feel, and however it turns out, then that’s the way I record it. I don’t think anybody would dislike that because if that’s what you feel, I think that’s what you should do. I feel country, but songs like this come from the heart and I just do ’em like the way they feel that they should be done.
Do you have any favorite hobbies?
Everybody always asks me what my hobbies are. I really don’t have any special ones or anything outstanding other than I fish. I like to fish. And I write the short stories that I was talkin’ about before. And I write some poetry. And I do just a few things occasionally but nothin’ that I’m really hung up on. So you might say my hobbies are fishin’ and writin’ ’cause I really don’t have time for a real strict hobby by the time I do everything else. So that’s about the extent of my hobbies, too.
Have you gotten any reports of any pop action on any of the two recent records?
Well, I heard . . . I had several people say that they were playin’ “Something Fishy” on some pop stations, but it’s a country record—really country—with steel guitar and the whole thing, but that’s what I mean. You never know what’s gonna go pop. You might record “Possum up a Gum Stump” and it’d be a big pop record. And then again, you might try for the pop and it wouldn’t play at all. You just never can tell. But I’d like to record something that could go either way, but I still want to be country, basically country. I’ll never record a record with both sides pop flavored. There’ll always be a real country song on one side and no farther out than maybe a Sandy Posey type thing.
Do you try to balance your songs with both ballads and novelties?
I try to. That depends on what I do. It really wouldn’t have to be a novelty to be uptempo but I think most record companies try to record one ballad and one uptempo. That’s what I have done so far. So I imagine that’s what I’ll be doin’. Really, there’s no set rules on that, I don’t think. Depends on what you want played. But at any time it seems like they’ll let you have a slow song and uptempo. They’ll usually play the uptempo quicker than they will the ballad. You just never can tell. I mean, if people knew what was gonna sell and what was gonna go on, they’d never have to worry if this was a good song to record and all this.
Now, since this story will come out in September and your record has just come out, would you have anything right after this that you might think would be released?
Well, I don’t know that there would be one released that soon. But that’s what . . . Let’s see . . . This is June . . . July, August, September . . . Four months. Yeah. I imagine I will have. And maybe it would be that . . .
Do you have anything ready to go?
Yes, I have several things ready to go. The song I was tellin’ you about, “Everything Is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)” is a beautiful song. It’s somethin’ different and it’s a clean idea. It’s somethin’ people need. People seem to forget about God and ever’thing when all this stuff is goin’ on in the world and they don’t really think to look around at the things that really mean anything. So I think it would be a good song to put out now. But I really don’t know for sure if that will be it or not, but I can let you know by then.
May I ask you how you get your ideas?
Well, now that depends. A lot of people write about their own experiences. I wrote some about my own experiences, but not really that much because I write a lot of sad songs and I just write about things I’ve seen happen or things that have been in the family or things I’ve read. And in a general conversation with somebody, I might just get some good ideas. I just write. I don’t know where I get my ideas. I don’t really go out to look for any, they just seem to come natural.
What length of time would you say that it takes to write a good song?
That would depend. Some of my very best songs I’ve written within thirty minutes’ time. And then some songs it takes me [longer]. Really, I can’t really say that I’ve ever taken more than an hour on a song. Usually I can write a song—especially an uptempo song—in just a few minutes. Especially if I have the idea and everything in my mind. Now, I can write a song in fifteen minutes and complete it. But then I start sayin’ it back over and everything and I’ll hear a lot of things I don’t think would be good in there. So I go back and change lines and change ideas.
Do you put things on tape right away?
No, I don’t. Now I do sometimes, but usually I’ll just write. I’ll write the chords or the words, but usually, after I sing a song a couple of times, I’ll remember how it goes.
Can you read music?
No, I can’t. But I write all my tunes and my words and everything. Now I can read a little music, but not enough to brag about. Not enough to really work with. It depends on the song and what I’m tryin’ to write. If it’s somethin’ real deep or somethin’ that I want to write about and get a lot of good ideas in, then sometimes it will take me longer. It won’t take me that long if I will just sit and write it, but sometimes I’ll be writin’ a song and I’ll be cookin’ or I’ll be doin’ this or that and I’ll just be thinkin’ while I’m doin’ it and I just write when I think of a good line. I just think before I write it down. Sometimes—I think most everybody does—I dream of songs. I dream of writin’ songs. Sometimes I can remember ’em the next mornin’ and then sometimes I can’t. Usually I get a lot of good ideas in the night. I guess it’s ’cause it’s so quiet. I’ll get up and write ’em down and maybe finish them the next morning. And then maybe I’ll just stay up and write ’em. It depends on how knocked-out I am! [Laughs] So my ideas just come from different places. I get inspired from different things. So that’s about the extent of that.