Dolly Parton on retirement plans: “I want to be like Bob Hope”
At this point, calling Dolly Parton a country singer is a little like calling Arnold Schwarzenegger a bodybuilder, or Dr Dre a producer.
It may be true, from a certain point of view. It may possibly still be the thing that each of those three figures does best. However, what’s undeniable is just how utterly each of them has transcended the way that they first achieved prominence. They all have the kind of clout that goes well beyond wealth and straight into genuine cultural importance, and Parton may still be the biggest of all of them.
Considering that’s a list that contains the ex-governor of California, that’s saying something. The United States of America is too vast and too divided to agree on anything like a national treasure, but Dolly Parton might just be the girl for the job. She’s got everything you could possibly want for it. The look? Take your pick of the wigs, the height, the chest or the nails, every part of it as indisputably her as the rest. The wit? Try quotes like “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!”
Most of all, she has still got the absolutely peerless collection of songs. With ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Coat of Many Colors‘, ‘9 To 5’, and the deathless ‘Jolene’, hers is the kind of back catalogue that vanishingly few songwriters have, striking a perfect balance between nostalgic and ever-present. These are songs that are so beloved that they never need to be relevant. For lack of a better way of putting it, we will always love them and thus, will always love Dolly Parton.
How does Dolly Parton view her fame?
Now, it’s already basically impossible to relate to someone with the slightest level of fame. The moment someone begins to think twice about walking down the street for fear someone will recognise them is the moment that they stop being anyone you or I can actually understand. Then you get the level of fame that Dolly Parton has. The kind of fame that translates almost to godhood everywhere you go, where she can headline stadiums in her native country, then nip across the Atlantic and do the single biggest set at Glastonbury festival of all time.
What’s more, none of this is an accident. Parton had a vision for this level of fame quite a bit longer than most people reading this have been alive for, and getting to her advanced years while still looking and acting the way she does was absolutely the plan. She once said, “I figure if I keep my health, I have no intention of retiring. I love to work. I want to be like Bob Hope. I want to keep on going out and doing what I love to do. Of course, I’m no Bob Hope, but I mean that feeling that you never are old and have things to offer and can be useful to somebody.”
Thing is, though, she’s right. She is no Bob Hope, but only because Bob Hope wishes he could be as beloved as Dolly Parton. As someone whose level of fame is second only to how adored she is the world over, it’s fair to say that there will never be a moment when the music of Dolly Parton won’t be useful to somebody.
