Latest / Wicked Radio with Bill Adams / 8-26: Farewell. Legend. 3 Dolly Parton Stories We Should Remember Forever

Transcript

8-26: Farewell. Legend. 3 Dolly Parton Stories We Should Remember Forever · Wicked Radio with Bill Adams

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: We throw around the term icon so easily these days,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: don't we? Just throw it in.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, an icon.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Iconic. Iconic. There are very few actual true icons, and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton, man, was certainly one of them. I should
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: say is one of them, though, because I got to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: tell you, for as many career accomplishments as Dolly Parton had,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: we'll get into that in a second here, she lives
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on forever somehow. How many people can you think of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: that became such an ingrained part of American culture that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you hear the word dolly And you instantly know what
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: you're talking about. And it had such an impact on
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: American culture and things we think about every single day.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know anybody. I've never met anybody. I've never
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: heard of anybody. I've never seen anything written. I've never
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: heard anybody say anything negative about Dolly Parton my entire life.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: And I'm in my 50s now. And you're probably the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: same way. And you could see that yesterday. And this
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: also tells you how connected we are with information these days.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: As soon as the sad news that we lost Dolly
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Parton came out yesterday, instantly. And it doesn't matter where
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: you are. Even if you were at home working, you
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: were flooded with the information about Dolly Parton. If you
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: were having lunch at a restaurant when this happened, you
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: heard people talking about it instantly. Oh, Dolly, I love Dolly.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I love Dolly. And then all the stories came out.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Everybody has some sort of a favorite Dolly Parton story
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: because her career was so long and she did so
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: much stuff and so much cool stuff. She was everywhere
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and always with class and always with style. And not
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: one of these, you know, Current stars that actually loves
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to talk about the struggles and all this other stuff.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Struggle is part of her story, obviously, coming from dirt
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: poor nothing and then becoming an icon, as we say.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: But man, did everything, everything with class. We'll get into it.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, legends and icons live on
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: in these stories that we tell about them. Everybody's got
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a favorite story. I picked out three, one of which
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I'd never even heard before. But let's cherry pick three.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: because legends and icons live on through the stories. We'll
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: get into it. Thanks for finding me. I appreciate you.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Sad day, but also you got to look at some
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: day like this when you lose somebody like Dolly Parton
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: as a blessing that you had somebody like that, that
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: we can look up to for so many decades, really, truly.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: All right. Thanks for finding me with the wicked radio
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: live stream and replay on X, YouTube, Facebook, all that stuff. And, uh,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: all those social media channels, audio podcasts. Thank you for
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the downloads and shares and follows your favorite audio podcast,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: wherever you like to get those. Let's get right into it. Uh,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton at 80 had been sick. But again, one
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: of these famous legends that kind of kept that under wraps,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: her friends and family knew for quite some time. More
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: than 100 million albums sold worldwide, 3,000 plus songs written.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: By the way, I found this out recently. I think
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it was a couple of years ago. She always identified herself,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: like put on her business card as songwriter. Before anything,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: movie star, sure. TV legend, right? Country star, Country Music
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. Always
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: identified herself as a songwriter. And man, what songs. 25
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: number one singles on the Hot Country Singles chart. That's
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: tied for most by female artists. 10 competitive Grammy artists,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: plus a Lifetime Achievement Award. We know that. Country Music
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. We said that. Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: She's a rock and roller. We're getting into rock star
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: in a second, too. Other honors. Library of Congress Living
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Legend Award. Kennedy Center honors, honorary Oscar for her philanthropy.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: We all know about that. We all know what a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: legend she was, no doubt about it. But how about
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: some of the best moments, though? I always think about this,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and this stuck out in my mind when we got
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that news just yesterday. I always loved her TV appearances.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: Great artist. You love Dolly Parton's songs. She wrote I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Will Always Love You, became the Whitney Houston hit, all that.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: She had the career struggles and all that other stuff.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: was always classy, was always full of style every time
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: she was doing an interview. And how many thousands of
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: interviews did she do over the years? The ones that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: stick out in my mind from being a kid, and
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: also in later years too, were the interviews she did
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: on The Tonight Show. More recently, but the best ones
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: ever were with Carson. This is a burning example of that.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: If you ever look back, and you'll find a lot
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of this stuff, and this is one of the great
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: things about social media, when we lose a legend like that,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: an icon like that, some of the best memories come
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: up in your algorithm to remember some of these things.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: This is one I actually remember watching and brought up
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: in the memory banks of how awesome she was and
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: how she handled everything. This was great. How great was Carson?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: I've always been pretty well-blessed. People are always asking if
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: they're real.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, I would never. I would never, you see. No,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you don't have to ask.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I would not.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I have certain guidelines.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: But I would give about a year's pay to.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Peek under there. Talking about, obviously, the Dolly Parton boobs.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine? Think about it for a second. Think
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: about when she broke into the business in the early 1960s, right?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine that in country music, not just popular music?
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine the good old boy network she had
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to break through? And it became almost, and they tried
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: to give her a hard time about it because she
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: was actually, when she was first starting out, kind of chunky.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Not only had the the well-endowed chess, but was kind
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of chunky about it. They tried to give her a
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: hard time about it. And she took that, and she
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: owned it, and it became a signature identifying feature of hers.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Isn't that a great lesson for all of us, though?
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And she always handled it with class and style, and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: she actually loved it. One of the best lines I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: ever heard, and I totally forgot about this, some of
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: the recent interview clips that showed up, she had a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: famous joke about that, too. She said, everybody wants to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: talk about my boobs, but they forget I have a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: great ass, too. Ha ha ha! How can you not
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: love that? I mean, this is fantastic. But the class
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and the style with which she handled all of that
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: stuff and everything breaking through that business, that's what an
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: icon does. That's my first favorite Dolly Parton story is
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: how she would handle all of the stuff about her
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: physical features. And she even called herself a cartoon at times.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: You know, she made no bones about the fact that
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: it was a wig. Made no bones about the fact
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that she had giant boobs and that was identifying. She
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: took all the butt of the jokes, so to speak,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: And she handled it with style and owned them. Just
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: an absolute, absolute legend. There's another great story about Dolly Parton.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: You may have heard about Dollywood. We all know it.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've been there. I've never been there. Always the jokes.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's a redneck carnival. It's an
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: amusement park. It's kind of, you know, I don't know
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to the Smoky Mountains and going to Dollywood.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: There was so much more to Dollywood and is still today.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So much more to Dollywood than a lot of us
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: even recognize. Now, back in 1986, she opened up this thing.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: You might remember this. You might have seen this clip recently, too,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: when she welcomed everybody to the park, which is still
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: there and still thriving. We'll get into that in a second.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Dollywood.
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: I want to thank you, Governor, and thank you, Pigeon Forge,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Sevier County, and.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Thank you, God.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: I am very excited today. I've been home many, many times.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I never really left home, as the governor said, but
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: I feel like today is the first time I really
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: got to come home because I have dreamed for many
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: years of getting to come back, bringing something back, so
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: you folks will know that I'm as proud of you
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: as you've always been of me.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: What a legend. Now, that was one thing. Okay, it's
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: an opening. Great. Oh, what'd they do? They gave me
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the land. It's an opportunity. It's an economic thing. It's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: a business venture.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Sure, sure.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: All of that. There's a lot more than that, though.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: What they did, what this meant for that area, and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: she meant that about giving back to her area where
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: she grew up. There's an interview back in 1986. Wow,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: so long ago now, when she was talking about opening
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: up Dollywood and what it really actually meant to her.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: How beautiful that area is in the Smoky Mountains and
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the National Park. And I just for years wanted to
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: do something, take something back home for my people to
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: be proud of. And this is going to also provide
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: a lot of jobs for the people in that area,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: for my family as well as friends and other people there.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: So even the farmers are going to prosper from this
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in addition to the motels and the restaurants and shops
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: around there.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know if at the time anybody actually believed
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it because Dolly Parton was riding the high in 1986
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: and you figure it's just a business opportunity, right? Oh,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: it was more than that. She actually meant, another reason
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: why she's an icon, she meant what she said and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the long-term impact that's still being felt in that area
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: from her giving back in the form of Dollywood is
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: still there. What kind? How about this? Just look it up. Employment.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Dollywood is Sevier County's largest employer, the area where she's from, right? 3,000
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to 4,500 workers, peak season figures, 4,000, 4,200, right around
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: there it's estimated at. All of them, by the way,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: get tuition paid for, including seasonal part-time workers. That's pretty incredible.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Kids.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Kids looking for an opportunity to go to college. Wide
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: range of roles, operations, hospitality. How about, what kind of
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: money are we talking about here? What kind of revenue
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: is brought into that county? Pigeon Forge consistently generates $ 2
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: billion in annual gross revenue from tourism, Dollywood, with amusements
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: contributing to millions upon millions of this Sevier County ranks
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: third in Tennessee for visitor spending. Did that happen before
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: she opened Dollywood?
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: She gave back taxes and public records. Tourism from the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Great Smoky Mountains, including Dollywood, generates substantial state and local
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: tax revenues, without which the landowners there, including farmers, would
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: have paid a lot more. Legend. Icon. That's what she did.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: She gave back. Probably that's tops for me as my
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: number one favorite story for Dolly Barton, what she gave
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: back in that area. And we just think of Dollywood
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: as like this kitschy kind of thing, right? It's an
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: amusement park. If you have any interest in going there,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I don't know what. Think about what that is. That
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: is one huge example of an absolute star giving back
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: to her community. She said she was going to do it,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and she did it, and she got it done.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Just absolutely amazing. This is a story I didn't even
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: know existed. I had no idea, but this is, again,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: if you want to look at the bright side of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: losing a star like this, All of these stories start
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to come up, and this is how we can remember them.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: This is 1990. She went on vacation, a family vacation
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to Ireland. But it's Ollie Parton, of course, and her family,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: so cameras are going to be everywhere. So she's dressed
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: to the nines, as apparently she always was. Stops by.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: She's in Ireland. Stops by a pub in County Kerry.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: What do they do? They ask her to sing a song. Again,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: this is just vacation. Now, how would that go? Amazingly well.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: which also speaks to her talent, by the way. How
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: many stars today, how many current pop or rock or
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: country stars could jump into a pub unannounced and stick
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: a microphone in her face and they put her together
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: with the band, whatever band is playing there, and this
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: just happens to be a guy with an acoustic guitar
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and sounds amazing. You could have recorded this, produced it,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: fixed it up a little bit, and you could have
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: released this as a single. How many people have that
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: kind of talent? She did, for sure. This was at
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: 1990 on vacation in a pub in County Kerry, Ireland.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Listen to how great this sounds.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Although we had no money, I was rich as I
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: could be. In my coat of many colors that mama
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: made for me.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine being there that night? Just showing up
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: and there's Dolly Parton. You just stepped in for a
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: pint of Guinness and there she is. Sounding, looking amazing.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: That's an icon. That's another one. And I had never
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: seen that clip or heard that clip before. That's incredible.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: But there's so many more out there because she had
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: such a long career of doing iconic stuff, including this
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't just like years ago. This wasn't decades ago, including very,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: very recently. It was only in 2023. She recorded something
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: she said she always wanted to do. She was always
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: a fan of all kinds of great songs and all
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: different genres, including rock. Wanted to become a rock star
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and became one. Like I said, was inducted into the
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Was going to be anyway,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: but mostly because of this. Recorded an album called Rockstar.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Couple of songs, you know, novelty kind of thing.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Went full bore into this with some of her favorite artists.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Personally invited them to be on Rockstar. 30 songs covered
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: mostly with duets. Who else was on this thing? McCartney
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and Ringo, Stevie Nicks, Elton John, Steve Perry, Sting, John Fogarty,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Peter Frampton, Joan Jett, Steven Tyler. And did a bunch
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of cover songs of her favorite handpicked and chosen songs.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: That's a rock star. And you know what? Did a
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: great job, wasn't it? This wasn't a throwaway novelty kind
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: of thing. This wasn't just like a specialty holiday album
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: with Christmas tunes and a lot of so-called legends put together. No,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: she put her heart and soul into this thing. And
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that album was freaking awesome. And then performed a lot
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of this stuff on stage. It's one thing to go
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: into a studio with these legends and produce it. No,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: she performed them live on stage. Not too long ago,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: after 2023, when she released Rockstar. This is her doing,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of all things, her version of Stairway to Heaven. And
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it's freaking amazing.
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: And she's buying a stairway to heaven.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Icon. Legend. Like I said, I don't know anybody. I've
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: never heard of anybody. And this is the only person
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: who's famous I can think of that I've never heard
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a negative word about.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Nothing.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: I worked in country radio for a long time. You know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: people that actually knew Dolly and worked with her a lot,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: they never said anything negative. You would think the stories
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: would come out, right? You would think somebody would have
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: written something negative.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Nope. Because they had nothing, but she was a bright soul.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And I got to tell you, it's like, we're not
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: supposed to worship celebrities, and you really shouldn't, but we
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: should be grateful that somebody like that actually broke through
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and was there for so many decades. That's fantastic. It
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: really is. Great stories. People and legends and icons live
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: on through those kinds of stories. That's why I wanted
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to bring three of them today. Remember that. That's what,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you know, our so-called celebrities and rock stars and movie
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: stars should live up to.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Her.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: That's a true icon. Tell you what else, too. Isn't
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: this a good example? Don't miss a chance to see
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: your favorite legends. It's like the next time somebody that's
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: a little bit older, maybe somebody who's in a band
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: you've never seen before, but you're like, ah, it's on
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: a Thursday night, I don't want to go. You just
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: never know. Don't turn down a chance to see your
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: favorite legends perform live. She's absolutely great. Legend, icon. Everybody,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: everybody loves Dolly Parton, and for good reason. All right,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: thanks for hanging out with me. Hopefully you don't lose
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: any legends tomorrow. Jeez, can't have two in one week.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Thanks for finding Wicked Radio on the live stream. A
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: replay on X YouTube, Facebook, clips from the show on
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: those same channels. Speaking of channels, your favorite audio podcast platforms.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Complete episode of the show uploaded just a couple of
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: minutes as soon as we get off the live stream here.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Thanks for hanging out. Make it a wicked awesome midweek,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: wicked awesome Wednesday. I'll talk to you tomorrow.