Exclusively in the May/June Issue of AARP The Magazine: Dolly Parton Opens Up About Growing Up Poor, Never Having Children, Decades of Rumors, and How She's Fighting Ageism in the Music Industry

Exclusively in the May/June Issue of AARP The Magazine: Dolly Parton Opens Up About Growing Up Poor, Never Having Children, Decades of Rumors, and How She's Fighting Ageism in the Music Industry

"After you reach a certain age, they think you're over. Well, I will never be over. I'll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I've done that in my past, and I'd do it again." - Dolly Parton to AARP The Magazine.

WASHINGTON, March 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Legendary singer Dolly Parton reveals the down-to-earth, authentic woman behind the bigger-than-life appearance to AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with more than 34 million readers. In this exclusive one-on-one interview about how she's kept her small-town values while building a quarter-billion dollar empire, Parton, 63, is candid about growing up poor, never having children, and clearing up decades of rumors about her closest relationships. She also speaks of her professional track record, which is extraordinary. In the last few decades, Parton has made 80 albums, garnered 25 number one singles, and published more than 3,000 of her own songs.

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Featured on the cover of the May/June issue of AARP The Magazine -- available March 24th and online at www.aarpmagazine.org -- the Grammy Award-winning songstress shares how she's stayed grounded through her relationships with childhood girlfriend, Judy Ogle, and her husband of 43 years, Carl Dean, "They knew me before I became a star. They still see me as me."

While discussing how she created her own record label to produce her latest CD, Parton laments that, "The music business is not what it used to be," but she staunchly refuses to be confined by her age. "After you reach a certain age, they think you're over. Well, I will never be over. I'll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I've done that in my past, and I'd do it again."

On Growing Up In Economically Depressed Great Smoky Mountains:

"Back in the early days, what we had was each other."

"You knew you were worse off than some, but there were no really rich people around us."

"We grew our own food. Daddy would get up in the morning and work till he had to go to his job doing construction. Then he'd come home and still be workin' on the farm till way after dark. We used to soak Daddy's old feet. Mama had some kind of salve she'd made up for Daddy's hands because they'd crack and bleed, and I remember rubbing Daddy's hands with it."

On Her Abiding Faith:

"I have a place of worship in each of my homes. Even in my apartment, I have a little pray-do where I can kneel. I pray as I walk around, but it's a way to remind you that it ain't gonna hurt you to get on your knees and humble yourself before God."

"I'm not some crazy Holy Roller, though I grew up with that."

"I've learned through the years to communicate with God as I perceive him. I pray for guidance, and I accept the things that come as an answer to prayers."

On Her Marriage, Fighting Rumors About Close Relationships, and Knowing Who To Trust:

"You're not going to see your dreams come true if you don't put wings, legs and arms, hands and feet, on 'em. You gotta have people to help carry out those dreams, and, Lord, I've been surrounded by great people."

"They knew me before I became a star. They still see me as me," she says of her childhood girlfriend, Judy Ogle, and her husband of 43 years, Carl Dean.

"We're absolutely, totally honest, open, and comfortable with each other," Parton says about her relationship with Ogle. "We've been accused of being lovers. We do love each other, but we've never been like that."

"It wasn't meant to be," Parton says of motherhood, "Me and Carl are each other's children."

"We're not together enough to get on each other's nerves," Parton says about Dean.

"Carl has always been proud of me. As long as I don't drag him into my work, he's fine and lets me do what I want to do."

"I know we'll never divorce. He always knows I'm coming home."

On Achieving and Recognizing Success:

"I've been fortunate to live long enough to see that I have made it, that people do have some respect for the things I've achieved. Some people say that I've been an inspiration."

"There wasn't ever a time I thought I wasn't going to make it."

"I never had any doubt that I was going to spend my life in music."

"I'm happy now in a special kind of way."

"You can do anything you want to do as long as you keep a good attitude and keep working at it." "But the second you give up, you're screwed."

"It makes you feel better about your own success if you don't just hoard all that money. I always pray to God, 'Well, give me enough to share and enough to spare.'"

On the Entertainment Business Today:

"The music business is not what it used to be."

"After you reach a certain age, they think you're over. Well, I will never be over. I'll be making records if I have to sell them out of the trunk of my car. I've done that in my past, and I'd do it again."

"I always feel like I'm going to a family reunion when I go out there with my audience. I often say they don't come to see me be me, they come to see me be them."

"When I fix up, I look good to me. I don't try to be something else."

"I thought, 'It's an investment in myself," she said on founding her own record label. "If it pays off, great. If not, I'll count it as a tax loss."

"I knew Dollywood would be a great business for me, but I also knew it would generate a lot of money in that area and provide jobs. That's true success -- when everybody's making money."

On Aging and If She'll Ever Retire:

"You don't live this long and not have tales to tell."

"I went from no electricity in my early days right into this world. Course I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground about it, but I surround myself with people that do."

"I doubt I'll ever be burning up the woods with old exercise, but my brain sweats. My mind goes all the time."

"It's so boring to me to go on a treadmill or to get on the floor. I'd rather pull cotton, you know, and think."

"The last break I took was the longest two weeks I've ever spent. I was like, enough already."

"I never feel like I've got too much to do. I love being creative. I love to work."

"I'll always want to have something to do, and hopefully I can just fall dead right in the middle of it."

"In my older years I'm going to go into that world of children. That's the way to keep yourself young. Be childlike, not childish."

About AARP The Magazine

With more than 34 million readers nationwide, AARP The Magazine (www.aarpmagazine.org) is the world's largest circulation magazine and the definitive lifestyle publication for Americans 50+. Reaching over 24 million households, AARP The Magazine delivers comprehensive content through in-depth celebrity interviews, health and fitness features, consumer interest information and tips, book and movie reviews and financial guidance. Published bimonthly in print and continually online, AARP The Magazine was founded in 1958 and is the flagship title of AARP Publications.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates. We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with over 34 million readers; AARP Bulletin and AARP Bulletin Today, the go-to daily news source for AARP's 40 million members and Americans 50+; AARP Segunda Juventud, the only bilingual U.S. publication dedicated exclusively to the 50+ Hispanic community; and our Web site, AARP.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Source: AARP

CONTACT: Meghan Holston, Coburn Communication, +1-212-382-4450,
Meghan.Holston@Coburnww.com, for AARP; or Michelle Alvarez, AARP,
+1-202-434-2555, malvarez@aarp.org

Web Site: http://www.aarp.org/
http://www.aarpmagazine.org/

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