olly Parton has reflected on what she would like her lasting legacy to be as the country music star prepares to release her first rock album.
The iconic singer has not only given the world a vast body of music and movies to enjoy, she created themepark Dollywood which has been bringing employment and tourism opportunities to her once struggling home town in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, since the 1960s.
Parton has also championed her global children’s reading initiative the Imagination Library for almost three decades, helped fund a Covid vaccine during lockdown and has given millions of dollars over the years to charitable causes.
Speaking to the Standard to promote her upcoming album Rockstar, which is due to be released on November 17, she said: “When I was young I used to wonder how I would be remembered and thought of if I made it in the business after I was old.
Dolly Parton recently visited the UK to promote her debut rock album Rockstar out November 17
/ Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images“I’m older now and it really touches my heart that people seem to care and that I have left some things that might have influenced some young people to say ‘well, this is how she did it, maybe I could that’.”
Despite turning 77 in January, she has absolutely no intention of slowing down or retiring any time soon and loves finding new ways to contribute to the world.
“I love my fans and I love to work, I’m one of those kinds of people where I’d be dangerous if I didn’t have tonnes to do because I’m a very high energy person and I try to channel that into the things that I do,” she explained.
“I just love seeing what is happening in this world and I wanted to see what I could accomplish in it while I’m here. It’s called making hay while the sun shines so I just love seeing all of the different things that I’m allowed to do.
“I didn’t leave home [aged 18 to move to Nashville] because I wasn’t proud of my people, that’s why I go back to do things like Dollywood and the Imagination Library. I tag everything to family somehow in my heart and in my mind.”
Dolly Parton pictured during a previous visit to London in 1977
/ Getty ImagesShe added: “Everybody has dreams but not many people get to see their dreams come true.”
As for immortalising her life on the big screen like Elvis or Elton John, she’s not so sure.
“I was thinking of doing a biopic, but everybody seems to be doing that and I love ’em, but I decided that I was going to go back to Broadway with my life story as a musical so I’m working real hard on that.
“I’m hoping that maybe somehow next year I might have something on Broadway. Then after that if it does great we’ll leave it there for a while and if it don’t, we’ll turn it into a movie or a biopic,” she explained.
While Parton is no stranger to the TV and movie realm having produced and starred in a numer of things over the years, she has an even bigger dream – her own TV network.
“Eventually I want to have my own network, do what I love and one of the things I want to do most is it’s gonna be called Life of Many Colours where I can actually have a series of telling different stories throughout my life.
“A lot of the people I grew up with and around are funny, great stories that were in my atmosphere you know at that time, stories about [my] mum and dad and all that but just talking about my life in a story so that beats saying it’s like a biopic in a way because people are gonna get an insight into some of the stuff they’ve never seen or heard.
“I’ve told just about everything that you’d want to know as far as what’s good for the press, but there’s so much in my life, so many people in my life that were so influential, so important to me that I think that’s going to make a great show.”
