The singer Dolly Parton knew no one could replace: “Nobody I related to more”
Dolly Parton never took a minute of her time in the spotlight for granted.
She knew that she had won the musical lottery by becoming one of the biggest stars in country music, and even if he didn’t like every step that she had to take, she was more than willing to do everything she could to make the music that she wanted to make. And while she did have to say goodbye to some of her friends along the way, she was sure that there were some voices that would be in her heart until the end of time.
Because even through all of their arguments, Parton was never going to forget about what Porter Wagoner had done for her. He was the one who took a chance on her when she first arrived in Nashville, and even if it took a while for her to get her bearings and figure out what she wanted to be, there are a few songs that she sang with him that she wouldn’t have traded for the world once she left.
But the world looked a lot different once she was able to talk about her own problems. She knew that there were a lot of things that people weren’t saying in country music that she could touch on, and even though ‘Jolene’ is one of the finest songs in her catalogue, tunes like ‘Coat of Many Colors’ are more in line with what she wanted to say. Everyone deserved a chance just like she did when she was a child, but she didn’t expect to become larger than life when she first began.
She was sure that her music could identify with people, but there were some entertainers that were almost too big to even fathom. Johnny Cash didn’t need to have the best voice in her opinion, but when looking at the soul and compassion that he put into every one of his songs, he felt more like a musical piece of history after a while. And the same thing could be said about Elvis Presley when Parton first heard him.
While Presley didn’t need to have the most complex band playing behind him, what sold America on ‘The King’ was the way that he moved his body. No one had seen anything so sexual in their lives in a musician, and even though Parton was happy enough listening to his records, she understood that the level of fame that Presley had is something that was only going to happen once in her lifetime.
There are still monster superstars in the world but nothing could ever compare to how Parton viewed Presley at the time, saying, “There were other people I liked to hear sing better, but there was nobody that I ever related to more. He touched people’s lives in a lot of ways. I don’t think [he] will be [replaced] soon, I don’t think it will be anythin’ you and me will ever see.” That’s not to say that some people haven’t at least tried to reach the same level that Presley had back in the day.
The Beatles may have been even bigger to a certain degree, but since they were all four people in a band, it was easier to share the spotlight than being part of this massive roller coaster that Presley was on. And while Michael Jackson is probably the closest to another version of Presley, the kind of pressure that puts on a person can be too much for anyone to take in, which explains why ‘The King of Pop’ ended up having even more problems than Presley did later down the line.
But whereas most people prefer to look at Presley like a sideshow that happened to feature the best rock music ever, that’s not how Parton ever saw it. Sure, she could have her problems with Presley’s team every now and again, but that wasn’t going to make her forget about the young kid that could make the entire Earth move every single time he swung his hips while singing ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.
