Dolly Parton on the Joys of Songwriting: 'It's What I Do and Who I Am'

Who are your songwriting heroes?

I have so many: Merle Haggard, Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul Simon. Hank Williams is one of the greatest ever because people can take his songs and do them in any fashion. They are simple, sweet songs, but they just touch your guts and reach you wherever they want to.

How did your first No. 1 hit change your life?

I remember feeling like all our hard work had paid off: I was going to be able to make a life in this business. I don’t remember making that much money from [“Joshua”] at that time, but I’m sure I spent it on stage clothes or my family or something like that. I remember watching it rise up the charts and thinking, “Golly, that’s such a great feeling!”

You’ve talked very eloquently about experiencing rough times in your life, especially during the 1980s. How did songwriting help you get through them?

My guitar and my songwriting: That’s my therapy; that’s my doctors, my nurses, my medicine. I really think my music has saved me — and saved a lot of other people because I’m able to write the feelings of people who are broken and don’t know how to express it. I can do it for them, and it really seems to help. It is wonderful when you’re going through hurt to be able to write about it.

What did you think the first time you heard Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You”?

When I heard that huge production with Whitney’s voice, my gosh, who could even sing better than that? And David Foster’s arrangement overwhelmed me. I would have never in a million years believed that my little heartfelt song could have turned into one of the biggest love songs of all time. I was never so proud in my life as a songwriter to think that my little song could be that good and that big.

In an interview with Billboard this summer, you said, “Of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter?” Your words ricocheted across social media — there was even a mural painted of you with that quote in Nashville. Did that reaction surprise you?

I don’t really realize it until it’s already said. I just answer from my heart when somebody asks me a direct question. I love everybody. And, of course, Black lives matter. We all matter. We’re all God’s children. I hope people learn to love one another a little more than they do, and if I can be any help in that respect, then I hope to be.

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 5, 2020, issue of Billboard.