Speaker 1: Love Someone With Hello, my friend, and welcome back to
Speaker 1: Love Someone with Delilah. One of the things I love
Speaker 1: hearing from my listeners is how many generations have tuned
Speaker 1: into my radio show. After doing this little radio thang
Speaker 1: for over forty years now, it's not uncommon to hear
Speaker 1: my mom used to listen to you, and I'd go
Speaker 1: to sleep as a kid hearing your voice. Now now
Speaker 1: my kids go to bed listening to you. Today's guest
Speaker 1: on Love Someone With Delilah can also boast of entertaining
Speaker 1: multiple generations of fans. I fell in love with her
Speaker 1: when I was curled up on the floor next to
Speaker 1: my grandparents' woodstove after weekend family dinners. She was on
Speaker 1: a number of variety shows. She was a regular guest
Speaker 1: on he Remember that show? It was on TV. He
Speaker 1: hauw was my grandparent's favorite show, and they were so
Speaker 1: thrilled when she guest starred. My dad, Dick Luke, played
Speaker 1: guitar in a country Western band himself, and he was
Speaker 1: one of her biggest fans. She has remained active and
Speaker 1: irrelevant decade after decade, and is loved by my children.
Speaker 1: After her recent collaboration with the duo known as for
Speaker 1: King and Country. She had a huge hit last year
Speaker 1: called God only Knows Now. Even my grandchildren adore her,
Speaker 1: So think about that. My grandparents loved her, My parents
Speaker 1: loved her, I love her, my kids love her, and
Speaker 1: my grandkids love her. That's five generations. If her amazing
Speaker 1: talent wasn't enough to endear her to millions, her beautiful, warm,
Speaker 1: authentic personality, her eyes that out sparkle even her most
Speaker 1: lavish rhinestone goss dooms. Her unfailing sense of humor, Mostly
Speaker 1: her kind and generous heart would have done the trick anyway.
Speaker 1: I am so privileged to welcome quote the most honored
Speaker 1: and revered female country singer songwriter of all time to
Speaker 1: my podcast today. She has achieved twenty five gold, platinum
Speaker 1: and multi platinum awards. She's had twenty six songs reach
Speaker 1: number one on the Billboard Charts, a record for any
Speaker 1: female artist. I will be back with the One the
Speaker 1: Only Miss Dolly Rebecca parton right after we spend a
Speaker 1: little time talking about the folks who make this podcast possible,
Speaker 1: The home Depot. If you are listening to this podcast
Speaker 1: on your smartphone, take a minute and download the home
Speaker 1: Depot app, It opens up the whole Home Depot store
Speaker 1: to you. One of my favorite parts of the app
Speaker 1: how simple they make picking a new appliance needed for
Speaker 1: my home and imagining how it will fit into your home.
Speaker 1: Once you choose the appliance you'd like, you can use
Speaker 1: the same app and the phone camera to see just
Speaker 1: how it will look in your kitchen or your laundry room,
Speaker 1: wherever it's going. The Home Depot. How doers get more done? Hia,
Speaker 1: it's Delilah, Oh, Delilah. Hello, are you taking? Oh my gosh, Dollie,
Speaker 1: you have no idea how much I adore you. Oh? Well, good,
Speaker 1: thank you. I'm such a fan girl. I'm geeking out here.
Speaker 1: My heart is racing a million miles a minute. I
Speaker 1: love you. Don't give me the big head now, I'll
Speaker 1: get to thinking. You are something, Honey. God has blessed you,
Speaker 1: and you have blessed so many people. My sister, who
Speaker 1: is the producer of my podcast, she's an even bigger
Speaker 1: fan than I am. And we were talking about how
Speaker 1: when we were growing up, my grandparents loved you, and
Speaker 1: my parents loved you, and you were on the Porter
Speaker 1: Wagner Show and hehu and when you were on both
Speaker 1: shows in a week. It was like we had won
Speaker 1: the lottery. Well, those are fun shows that goes back
Speaker 1: a long time. But yeah, I've got a huge following.
Speaker 1: It's always fun. I have all these older fans and
Speaker 1: then their kids, like you said, your grandpa and your
Speaker 1: parents and now even some little kids. When I got
Speaker 1: to be on the Hannah Montannah Show with Molly, then
Speaker 1: I had a whole new little group of people. So
Speaker 1: I feel so blessed that I've been able to decade
Speaker 1: after decades, have these little fans coming along. So that
Speaker 1: makes me real proud. I was counting up with my sister,
Speaker 1: my grandparents, my parents, us, our kids, and now my
Speaker 1: grandkids they've discovered you, and it's it's amazing how you
Speaker 1: have the same impact on all of us in our heart.
Speaker 1: You know, it's that heart connection. Oh that's a sweet
Speaker 1: way of saying it. Well, I do love people, and
Speaker 1: I always talk about, you know, being brought up with
Speaker 1: such a big family, and all of my people had
Speaker 1: big family. So I see somebody in my family and
Speaker 1: everybody I meet, so I just feel like we're I'm
Speaker 1: always at a family reunion when I go to concerts,
Speaker 1: so when I meet people, I kind of connect with
Speaker 1: every person I did. Somebody already know when I just
Speaker 1: I just enjoyed my life, and I enjoy people, and
Speaker 1: I like things to be good if I make them
Speaker 1: good and try to make people happy. So how are you?
Speaker 1: Are you happy? What have you been doing dear ring
Speaker 1: the coronavirus slow down, shut down pandemic. Well, I've been
Speaker 1: working like usual. I've just been very creative because I'm
Speaker 1: the kind of person that I can't just sit around
Speaker 1: worry about things. I try to make things as right
Speaker 1: as I can. So I figured the best way that
Speaker 1: I can make the most of the downtime would be
Speaker 1: to write songs about it and create things. And so
Speaker 1: I've been writing a lot, and I wrote a lot
Speaker 1: of my Christmas album and did most of my whole
Speaker 1: new Christmas album that's coming out. You know, while we
Speaker 1: were kind of locked down, and we were very smart
Speaker 1: and very cautious in how we worked with wearing our
Speaker 1: mask and doing our social distancing. And I work in
Speaker 1: a very small circle. But I've just been working the
Speaker 1: whole time. I haven't missed a beat. So you touched
Speaker 1: on two things there that I get to talk about
Speaker 1: one is your new song, which is about what we're
Speaker 1: going through when life is good again. Yeah, that's one
Speaker 1: of the first songs I wrote when we were all
Speaker 1: going through this, and I realized people were just panicking
Speaker 1: and they were scared to death and needed a little
Speaker 1: bit of hope and a little bit of light, you know.
Speaker 1: And I just, you know, I just feel like life
Speaker 1: we'll be good again, and hopefully we'll be better people,
Speaker 1: be it deeper and smarter, and maybe have a little
Speaker 1: more love and a little more acceptance. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: hoping if there's something good to come out of this,
Speaker 1: and there will be that. But I did write that
Speaker 1: in several other songs about it. But that's what I do.
Speaker 1: That's how I kind of that's my therapy for myself
Speaker 1: is to write, and so I never let anything get
Speaker 1: me down. I just pray about things and ask for
Speaker 1: a direction and just kind of go with the flow.
Speaker 1: Like a hard candy Christmas, you don't let anything gets
Speaker 1: you down. Yeah, I have to tell you. Even though
Speaker 1: I know it's been hard on the world, hard on
Speaker 1: our country, hard on the economy, life for me and
Speaker 1: my kids was and is so good because I've never
Speaker 1: got to spend this much time with them before. Well,
Speaker 1: there's something good and everything, and that's why I think
Speaker 1: people should really look at all the positive things. I know,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to have to just be whole up
Speaker 1: all the time with kids and not being able to
Speaker 1: go to work yourself because you've got to take care
Speaker 1: of your kids and all. But you still, like you said,
Speaker 1: people have spent more time with their families than ever before.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of good. There's a reason and
Speaker 1: a season for everything, and I think this is just
Speaker 1: a season we're supposed to be going through, and hopefully
Speaker 1: we'll all recognize what all the reasons are supposed to be.
Speaker 1: So I heard that back in early April, right after
Speaker 1: this hit, you donated a substantial sum a large sum
Speaker 1: of money to Vanderbilt University for research on treating and
Speaker 1: preventing coronavirus. I'm trying to do my part out of way,
Speaker 1: and they're looking for a vaccination of course, pure for it,
Speaker 1: and I thought, well, I'll just get in early on
Speaker 1: it and just don't put my money where my mouth is,
Speaker 1: and you know, try to be of help. So I
Speaker 1: was happy that I was able to do that and
Speaker 1: Hopefully they're going to find a vaccine before long, and
Speaker 1: we will have to go through this forever, and you
Speaker 1: get back to some sort of a normal for all
Speaker 1: of us, and get back to where we can get
Speaker 1: out and sing our music and be in concert again,
Speaker 1: and get out and do whatever we want to do.
Speaker 1: But for now, we'll just be smart and do our
Speaker 1: best and hope for the best. And like I say,
Speaker 1: if things get harder, just pray. If it gets harder,
Speaker 1: pray harder. I read while I was doing research to
Speaker 1: get to talk to you, and by the way, Winona,
Speaker 1: who I love and who helped me through the hardest
Speaker 1: times of my life, said about you. She said, when
Speaker 1: you get to talk to Dolly, you're going to feel
Speaker 1: like you're meeting an old friend for the first time.
Speaker 1: I love that, I said, I can't wait. I hope
Speaker 1: I get to talk to her soon. So, uh, Whyona
Speaker 1: is your number one fan, tied with my sister and
Speaker 1: I great great singer. She is right, She's wonderful. What
Speaker 1: a voice, what a late what a heart? What I know?
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. And you never know what people say
Speaker 1: about you too. Somebody tells you what they said. But
Speaker 1: I've always loved her too, and you sound like a
Speaker 1: very personable person. I feel like I've known you too.
Speaker 1: Some people are like that, you feel like you've always known.
Speaker 1: That's what I was saying earlier about everybody being like
Speaker 1: somebody in my family. I think people relate to me
Speaker 1: because I think they feel like I'm like a sister
Speaker 1: or an aunt or somebody that they've always known. Because
Speaker 1: I just love people, and I just like to kind
Speaker 1: of reach out and you know, just kind of touch
Speaker 1: people with love if I can. And really, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a big, old, big male person. I just I
Speaker 1: just love people, so I just try to get in
Speaker 1: there and make people feel comfortable. I think the thing
Speaker 1: that I loved most about you when I was when
Speaker 1: I was, you know, first getting into the radio business
Speaker 1: and following your career is that you have the tenacity
Speaker 1: to say what we're all thinking. But because you say
Speaker 1: it with that sweet voice and that beautiful smile, you
Speaker 1: get away with it. You get away Nobody else could
Speaker 1: have done Nine to five back in the day that
Speaker 1: that movie was a hit. Facing the discrimination we face,
Speaker 1: you girls hit it head on the nail on the head,
Speaker 1: and you got away with it because of who you
Speaker 1: are and the love that you put into everything. Well,
Speaker 1: I just love people. I think everybody should have the
Speaker 1: right to be who they are exactly, and I think
Speaker 1: they should be ready, nuge, appreciated, love, paid, and everything
Speaker 1: about that. I just think we're all God's children and
Speaker 1: we're all equal in his eyes. And I think God
Speaker 1: must be a rainbow because he said he created us
Speaker 1: in his image, So we're all colors, grow all styles,
Speaker 1: grow who we are, and I think we should be
Speaker 1: allowed to do that. And I just try to rule
Speaker 1: with love. I let my love go first and everything
Speaker 1: I try to always, you know, Like I said, I
Speaker 1: don't mean to sound religious. I'm not religious. I'm very spiritual.
Speaker 1: I grew up in the church. But I just I
Speaker 1: just kind of draw on that higher wisdom in myself
Speaker 1: and I try to, you know, to think how I
Speaker 1: want to be treated, how I want to be loved.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to be myself, and I
Speaker 1: think people should be able to be free and to
Speaker 1: be appreciated, no matter who, what, or how they are.
Speaker 1: You collaborated last year with such a great group for
Speaker 1: King and Country. I have played them and promoted them
Speaker 1: for several years now and now you have a holiday
Speaker 1: album coming out. I think we should just have Christmas
Speaker 1: like for the next three months. What do you think
Speaker 1: I think we will. I think we're going to have
Speaker 1: it here. We've been. I've been having it since the
Speaker 1: right after the first of the year and writing all
Speaker 1: these song shoes and is always and then recording them.
Speaker 1: So I've been having Christmas. In fact, it is so funny.
Speaker 1: We kind of decorate the areas where we're working with
Speaker 1: Christmas trees and make it feel like Christmas when we're
Speaker 1: when we're working, and we've been doing a lot of
Speaker 1: interviews where they've got Christmas trees and presents and everything
Speaker 1: sitting around. I keep wanting for presidents see what I
Speaker 1: go for Christmas, all the other roof boxes. I think
Speaker 1: we need to just with with this crazy year we've had.
Speaker 1: I think we need to start Christmas now and put
Speaker 1: up the put up the sparkle and the tinsil and
Speaker 1: the lights and focus on that and play a Holly
Speaker 1: Dolly Christmas. A Hillway Dolly Christmas would be good. I
Speaker 1: think that's fun. And I thought I always loved the
Speaker 1: song Holly Jolly Christmas with Girl ives and years ago
Speaker 1: when I had a TV show on my own. He
Speaker 1: was a special guest and I got to sing that song.
Speaker 1: He's the one that made that song famous. And when
Speaker 1: I got ready to do my Christmas album, I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: Holly Dolly Christmas would be clever, clever. Yah. So tell
Speaker 1: me some of the artists that are on your Holly
Speaker 1: Dolly Christmas with you. Well, actually we have six special
Speaker 1: duets on the album We've Got. I wrote a song
Speaker 1: called Cozy Down, Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas with Michael Bublez,
Speaker 1: and that's going to be a single. I think the
Speaker 1: first song off the album. I did wait wait wait
Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. Don't I know
Speaker 1: that you've been married forever to your husband, but don't
Speaker 1: you just want to cozy down and cuddle up with
Speaker 1: Michael Bubley. He is such a love bug. I love him. Okay,
Speaker 1: go on, Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt, But he not
Speaker 1: only is all that, he is such a nice person.
Speaker 1: So we really had some nice conversations and some fun
Speaker 1: and so I think people are gonna love this little song.
Speaker 1: It is a very sexy song. It's about two people
Speaker 1: snowbound and all they got to do is all nothing
Speaker 1: else to do but love on you kind of thing
Speaker 1: and figuring their wine and all that. So it's a
Speaker 1: very cute. We kind of flirt and play in the song.
Speaker 1: But that was fun. And then of course I got
Speaker 1: to do another special friend of mine, Jimmy Fallon. We
Speaker 1: sang the Mariah Carey song All I Want for Christmas's Youth.
Speaker 1: And then Billy Ray Cyrus and I did a duet.
Speaker 1: Molly and I did a duet on the album. Willie
Speaker 1: Nelson and I did a duet. He wrote a classic
Speaker 1: Christmas song many years ago called Pretty Paper. Roy Robson
Speaker 1: had the big record on it, but I thought, well,
Speaker 1: since he wrote it and it's one of my favorites,
Speaker 1: he played us a guitar and we sang on it
Speaker 1: is great. I did a duet with my brother Randy,
Speaker 1: who we sang great together. We had a big hit
Speaker 1: years ago called Old Flames Can't hold a Candle to You.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't realize that was my brother,
Speaker 1: but anyway, he was born in December. He was our
Speaker 1: Christmas baby. So I wrote a song called You Are
Speaker 1: My Christmas. It's a doe. It like a love song,
Speaker 1: and so then we did all those special people, and
Speaker 1: then we did some classes front I saw Mama Kiss
Speaker 1: and Santa Claus and Holly Jolly Christmas is some of
Speaker 1: those wonderful old Christmas songs as well. You're amazing, You're amazing.
Speaker 1: I wish this weren't a phone interview because I so
Speaker 1: want to hug you and just pour my love into you.
Speaker 1: See it. One last thing before you go that I
Speaker 1: want to talk about, because I heard you have hit
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty million your nonprofit Imagination Library. You
Speaker 1: give a book to anybody who wants to sign up
Speaker 1: for your literacy program. Books are donated to kids, and
Speaker 1: there was a big celebration when you hit one hundred million.
Speaker 1: Now what are you at giving books away? Yeah, well
Speaker 1: we are looking to be. One of these days maybe
Speaker 1: we'll give a billion books around the world. But we
Speaker 1: started this whole program twenty four years ago and now
Speaker 1: we're just in different places all over the world, and
Speaker 1: we do give books to children from the Condra born
Speaker 1: They get a book once a month, it comes to
Speaker 1: the mail with their name on it. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: we give books to children until let's start school. And
Speaker 1: so it's a wonderful, wonderful program. I'm so proud of it.
Speaker 1: And now that we've you know, got that many books
Speaker 1: in the hands of children, all we can do is
Speaker 1: hope to get more books there. So that's a program
Speaker 1: I'm very very proud of. You're augmenting that with Goodnight
Speaker 1: with Dolly, where you're reading a different children's book live.
Speaker 1: And I heard you've got over a million streams of
Speaker 1: kids watching good Night with Dolly. Well, that was just
Speaker 1: a one time thing. That was during the COVID, you know,
Speaker 1: when that first started and everybody was holding up for house.
Speaker 1: I just read about nine books from the Imagination Library.
Speaker 1: But everybody's saying, you gotta do this all the time.
Speaker 1: You got to do this all the time. But maybe
Speaker 1: I'll be doing some more. But that we just did
Speaker 1: like eight eight I think we did eight at that time.
Speaker 1: So those eight books have been watched over a million times.
Speaker 1: So thank you, but you're welcome. I enjoyed doing all that.
Speaker 1: I love the kids, and the kids relate to me.
Speaker 1: I'm like mother gooch Er, I'm like a cartoon character
Speaker 1: to the kids. Well, weren't you, weren't you on the
Speaker 1: school bus? I remember watching the Magic school Bus with
Speaker 1: some of my kids. And hearing your voice. Yes, I
Speaker 1: was on that years and years ago. I've been on
Speaker 1: almost all those kind of things, Alvin and the Chips.
Speaker 1: I've lending my voice many of those cartoons up things.
Speaker 1: But anyway, we're so excited about the Christmas album, Holiday Dollary,
Speaker 1: Christmas and all these wonderful guests, and I'm just hoping,
Speaker 1: like you said that people going to really be uplifted.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to pretty much stay at home anyway,
Speaker 1: not totally at home, but they're won't be spending more
Speaker 1: time at home than usual. So maybe they can play
Speaker 1: My Tell a woman enjoy that because I do a
Speaker 1: lot of talking on it too, and kind of you know,
Speaker 1: during the turnaround the instruments, you know, when they play
Speaker 1: the instruments do breaks, they call it. So I talk
Speaker 1: to people and kind of have a little fun. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of like I'm there in your house having
Speaker 1: Christmas with you. So I could like put on a
Speaker 1: really pretty dress and pretend I'm at a Christmas concert
Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, you could, or like you're at my
Speaker 1: house for Christmas. See you how many kids there were
Speaker 1: twelve in your family? Yeah, there are six boys and
Speaker 1: six girls in my family. But I have all these
Speaker 1: nieces and nephews and cousins. And when you were growing up,
Speaker 1: didn't I read that you lived at one time your
Speaker 1: family in a one room cabin. Well, we had two
Speaker 1: rooms and a pant outdoor toilet. So so I said,
Speaker 1: most people grew up in four rooms and a bath.
Speaker 1: We had two rooms and paths and running water when
Speaker 1: we'd run and get it. I went to my great
Speaker 1: grandma's house in Arkansas, and she had she had two
Speaker 1: rooms in a path. And I was like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? And my grandma handed me a hoe
Speaker 1: and she said, you got to take the hoe with
Speaker 1: you when you when you go out the path. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be working in the garden at night.
Speaker 1: And she said, Sissy, you got to take the hope
Speaker 1: for the snakes. I'm like, oh, hell no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: take me home like that for the biggest part of
Speaker 1: my life in the mountains, you know. So did you
Speaker 1: have the hope for the snakes? Did you have did
Speaker 1: you have cotton mouths? You had to work? Well, we
Speaker 1: didn't have cotton mouse in the toilet that was in
Speaker 1: the river. No, I'm saying on the path to the
Speaker 1: to the outhouse. My grandma had snakes. Yeah, we had snakes,
Speaker 1: but not cotton mouth usually out in the water. But
Speaker 1: there were snakes all around, rattlesnake's, copperheaded, black snakes, garden snakes,
Speaker 1: green snakes, all kind of snakes in the mountains. But
Speaker 1: you gotta grow you know, you know that's their home too,
Speaker 1: so you just kind of have to have a hole
Speaker 1: to scoot all away. Yeah, when my grandma said take
Speaker 1: the hoe, I was like, oh, I and I grew
Speaker 1: up on a farm. It's not like I was a
Speaker 1: city girl. But that was taking it a little too
Speaker 1: far way. Ho. You do what you gotta do when
Speaker 1: you gotta go. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Dolly,
Speaker 1: thank you for spending this time with us. I am
Speaker 1: so glad I get to play when Life Is Good
Speaker 1: again on my radio show. And I can't wait for Christmas.
Speaker 1: Holly Dolly Christmas is available now wherever you buy your music,
Speaker 1: so I can play have a Holly Dolly Christmas and
Speaker 1: let everybody else hears your beautiful voice. And Billy Ray
Speaker 1: and Michael Boublay and your brother and Jimmy. It's going
Speaker 1: to be wonderful. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: I can tell you're going to be one. I'm going
Speaker 1: to want to hug when we can hug again, when
Speaker 1: we can hug again, I'm going to give you the
Speaker 1: biggest squeeze and just think. I thank God for you.
Speaker 1: I thank God for you and your talent and your
Speaker 1: gift of love. Well, thank you so much. What Merry Christmas?
Speaker 1: Do you? Merry Christmas? Dolly? Thank you? She's an American
Speaker 1: icon known for her musical acting talents, her unapologetic flambuoyant hair,
Speaker 1: her clothing styles, her bling bling bling, her theme park Dollywood,
Speaker 1: and her tremendous generosity towards children, which has earned her
Speaker 1: the nickname the book Lady. She defies stereotype, she defies
Speaker 1: the aging process, and for her entire life, she has
Speaker 1: defied the odds. Dolly Rebecca Pardon, the fourth of twelve
Speaker 1: children born into extreme poverty, has known some bad times.
Speaker 1: She continues to share her unfailing hope with the world
Speaker 1: through her philanthropy and always, always, always her music, letting
Speaker 1: us know that life will be good again. Whatever struggles
Speaker 1: you may be facing, do Dolly and eye crowd, keep
Speaker 1: up your faith your hope and keep changing the world
Speaker 1: from one heart at a time. Dear