I interviewed her in 2023, when she was releasing her album ‘Rockstar’. She was on fantastic form: playful, spirited, frank. She never answered a question she didn’t care for, but her skill was never making you feel embarrassed for asking.
She just twirled around it, graceful as a figure skater, and told you something else, instead. And anyway, we got through a lot, from her "disaster" of a thanksgiving meal after politics came to the fore, her admiration for goddaughter Miley Cyrus, and how she wanted to be remembered. And yes, she sang my name to me, to the tune of her most iconic hit, after I explained how to pronounce it: "Ro-sheen, Ro-sheen, Ro-sheeeen." I’m not entirely sure what my expectations were for a career in music journalism, but they certainly didn’t include a living legend singing my name to the tune of one of her most famous songs.
I doubt my parents had that in mind when they decided to honour my Irish heritage, either. But here I am, on the phone to Dolly Parton, explaining how my name rhymes with that of the red-haired seductress from her 1973 classic “Jolene”. By the time I’ve returned to Earth, I can tell she’s at ease and in high spirits.
In her new book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, she writes about how she started going to bed with her make-up on while she was living in LA, just in case an earthquake sent her onto the streets in the middle of the night. Six decades into her career, the patron saint of heartbreak and resilience remains an enigma (The New York Times called it the Parton Paradox). She’s warm and voluble; ask her an awkward question and she’ll diffuse or deflect with effortless charm.
Perhaps her hair is so big because it’s full of secrets. She’s certainly a master at keeping them. When I tell her I sound dreadful due to a sore throat, she sympathises, then laughs when I say that means she has to do most of the talking.
Her new album, Rockstar, features Elton John, Paul McCartney and Ringo, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Mick Fleetwood, Debbie Harry, Lizzo and Miley Cyrus. I want to know if anyone actually dared to say no when she reached out to that gob-smacking list of collaborators. I wrote each of them a nice letter, addressed to their management; that way, if they didn’t wanna do it...” They all did, of course.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
