Flags are flying at half mast across the country this week in honor of Dolly Parton, who died yesterday at the age of 80. News of her death came as quite a shock as I was completely unaware that she was suffering from any health problems (she died of cancer). In fact she recorded a song this year with the Grascals that I’ve been playing on my radio show (“Broken Angels”) and it is nominated for Song of the Year at the IBMA Awards.
I was reading in the New York Times that a survey was done recently with thousands of people, asking them to rate a list of famous people according to their favorability, or likability. Dolly won that survey hands down over all other entertainers, politicians, religious leaders and celebrities. She was universally loved by everyone and the accolades she has been receiving since she died are unprecedented.
I had a chance to work with Dolly on one occasion, back in 2002, when I was co-producing the IBMA Awards Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Dolly had just recorded an album of bluegrass songs titled “My Grass is Blue” and it was nominated for several awards. So I called her management and asked if she would consider appearing on the show. Frankly, I didn’t think she would accept our invitation (there was no money involved) but to my surprise, she did.
She came to Louisville in her bus and parked it off the stage entrance so that she could use it as a dressing room. We didn’t need to provide that for her. She came to rehearsal all dressed up in her high heels and did everything we asked her to do. Our host for the show was Marty Stuart, who she knew very well, so she seemed comfortable and happy to be there. Dolly loved bluegrass music and this was her chance to be part of the bluegrass music community in a special way.
During the show, Dolly was backstage getting ready to perform one of the songs from her album whilc Marty Stuart was on stage introducing her. During his introduction, Marty slipped up by saying something like, “she’s come back to Blue Ass” and while he was trying to correct himself, Dolly immediately ran out on stage in her blue dress to scold Marty while the audience was howling in laughter. (You had to be there to appreciate the humor, but trust me, it was hilarious. We couldn’t have scripted a funnier bit.)
As a producer of the show, it was an honor to be able to work with Dolly and I am so thankful for the opportunity to chat with her for a few minutes. I asked her to record some liners for my radio show and she did that with her typical Dolly flair. I also got a picture with her in her blue dress that I will always treasure.
