Where is dolly parton from

The Dolly Statue in Sevierville is an excellent photo opportunity. The sculpture itself is beautifully crafted in cast bronze, and depicts Dolly perched upon a mountain boulder with a guitar in hand and a song in her heart. It is a tribute to a truly talented artist and a cherished daughter of the Smoky Mountains. At traffic light number Dolly Parton was born in Sevierville , Tennessee in As young as age 8, Dolly was playing the guitar and making up her own songs. Music was a way to rise above the poverty her family endured, if only for a short time.

Her large family, which eventually numbered 12 children in all, shared a run-down one-bedroom log cabin on Locust Ridge. At age 13, Dolly's musical talent was broadcast on Knoxville radio airwaves. Dolly was popular locally, but her talent took her to Nashville, the "Music City. She married him in , two years after they met, but not before she told Dean that she had no plans to give up her pursuit of success as a country singer.

Dolly's talent gave her that success when she was asked to join the Porter Wagoner television show as the new "girl singer. In , Dolly joined the Grand Ole' Opry. During the following decade, Dolly wrote and performed many of her most popular songs, such as "Just Because I'm a Woman" and "I Will Always Love you," a song so successful that even Elvis Presley was interested in covering it. Her success gave her independence from Wagoner in , and she won the Country Music Association's female vocalist award in and In the s, Dolly became more than just a talented country artist, however.

She developed her talents in music and also branched into film when she was cast in the hit movie "9 to 5," which featured an original song of the same title sung by Parton. In , Dolly starred in another silver screen production, "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," a comedy based on the true story of a house of ill-repute in Austin, Texas. A new rendition of "I Will Always Love You" arranged for the film soared on the charts again, while a duet with Kenny Rogers in gave Dolly another top pop hit, "Islands in the Stream.

Dolly topped the charts at number one again in with the single "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That," and in the same year starred in another successful film, Steel Magnolias. Dolly's first entry into Bluegrass, The Grass is Blue gained critical acclaim. In that same year, Dolly worked with an independent music label to produce her new bluegrass album The Grass is Blue, popular with fans and critics alike and winning the International Bluegrass Music Association's Album of the Year and a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album.

The amusement park remains a popular travel destination to this day. Over the years, Parton has enjoyed many other successful collaborations. The record won a Grammy Parton's sixth for best bluegrass album in Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and won another Grammy the following year for the song "Shine" off the album Little Sparrow.

Continuing to write and record, Parton released Backwoods Barbie in In , Parton received special recognition for her lifetime contributions to the arts as one of five artists feted at the annual Kennedy Center Honors.

She also picked up a second Academy Award nomination for the song "Travelin' Thru," which appeared on the soundtrack for 's Transamerica. In early , just before the music icon's 72nd birthday, a Sony Music press release revealed that she was still setting records and sweeping up accolades. Along with receiving gold and platinum certification for some of her songs, Parton was to be honored with the Governors' Award at the 32nd Midsouth Regional Emmy Awards.

Having already been honored by the Grammys with a Lifetime Achievement Award in , Parton received another tribute during the February awards show, with artists like Katy Perry , Miley Cyrus and Kacey Musgraves joining her on stage to sing a medley of her hits.

Later that year, Parton joined a televised special to celebrate her 50th anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. After writing so many of her own hits, Parton penned the songs for a new musical based on her earlier hit workplace comedy, 9 to 5. The show, starring Allison Janney who won a Tony for the role , ran on Broadway for several months in Parton has shown no signs of slowing down. In , she released Better Day , which fared well on the country album charts.

They know I like everybody. I want to be accepted myself, and I not only accept, but celebrate, the difference in everyone. The holiday season also saw the airing of the biopic sequel Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love. In June , Netflix announced plans for a Dolly Parton anthology series, with the iconic performer on board to executive produce and appear in select episodes.

Heartstrings premiered in November , with each of its eight episodes based on one of Parton's songs. Dolly Parton performing live onstage at the launch for her 'Imagination Library' literacy project. Parton has worked with charitable organizations in support of numerous causes over the years and established her own Dollywood Foundation in Though many of her charitable contributions are anonymous, Parton has used her success to give back to her community by providing scholarships for children, donating thousands to hospitals and providing technology and supplies for classrooms.

Do I have to be ugly to be a songwriter? This is the way I am, and it's what I choose to be. I'll never harden my heart, but I've toughened the muscles around it. I always love working with children. I never had children of my own. God has his purposes. God didn't let me have children so everybody's children could be mine. That's kind of how I'm looking at it. I figure if I keep my health, I have no intention of retiring.

I love to work. I want to be like Bob Hope. I want to keep on going out and doing what I love to do. Of course, I'm no Bob Hope , but I mean that feeling that you never are old and have things to offer and can be useful to somebody. I always want to be useful, I have no intentions of retiring unless I should get sick or something should happen to my husband.

Other than that I'm going to work until I fall over. My music is so mine, it's hard to turn it over to someone else. I have to be really involved in the production. It's like someone else taking care of your kids -- if they don't treat them well, you're going to be pissed off. I'm actually co-producing [Backwoods] with my guitar player of 20 years, Kent Wells. We make a good combination I think we're going to have a real good record.

I've never been the big recording star I'd love to be some day. I've had lots of hits off and on through the years but I've never had the success of other artists - one hit after another back-to-back-to-back and big hits, where every song is going to be number one.

I'm not greedy or nothing. I just want everything. Is there something wrong with that? It's when you treat people like freaks that you become one yourself. Sure, I'm in it for the money, but also because I love music. I picture myself in the future as a happy old lady, chubby, rosy cheeks, telling stories to the little kids. When I sit back in my rocker, I want to have done it all.

I was blessed to have family members who encouraged me to pursue my dreams. Whether it is your parents, or your uncles or your aunts or even the neighbor down the road, it's important that kids have someone who encourages them to chase their rainbow. Sometimes, you see folks who have a negative view of dreamers - people who sit around all day on their hindquarters and do absolutely nothing. These folks aren't dreamers - they are just lazy.

To me, dreaming is just part of being alive, inspired, and curious about the world. I feel blessed that I still have the little Dolly in my heart, I'm still the same girl that wants to squeeze every little drop out of life that I can. To me, it's about dreaming in the day and in the night. Dreams have always helped me visualize my goals and aspirations. When I was a child, I could see me on stage singing my heart out. I could see what I was wearing and where I was going. I would visit that dream every single day and as I look back, my dreams kept me focused on what I wanted to do and the person I wanted to be.

I have always been a firm believer in working hard for what is right and for making your own breaks if you want things to change. I never, ever get involved in politics.

With politics you are not allowed to be honest. I don't have time to deal with that. I would rather work with kids. They got a little bit of a head start on me, certainly Loretta, but we were all three good friends and actually ended up doing an album together.

But I think I was a little different from them. Loretta had a house full of kids and she wrote those being brought down by men songs. Hers were more about home life and all the women who had children and I totally love and respect her. Tammy could sing any number of things but she was also singing that "Stand By Your Man". I was singing songs like "Just Because I'm a Woman" I think we all did our little thing. I just filled my spot.

I saw early on that I could make a business out of this [music business] because I wanted money, I wanted to travel, I wanted clothes, I wanted to be loved, I wanted to be staying in fine hotels. It wasn't to get away from what I was because I knew that would always be me.

I've never been ashamed of my people. I love my people and I love my home. When the new country came out 10 to 15 years ago, people my age were almost too old.

But it never stopped me. I never stopped writing. I never stopped recording. It was never a marketing tool. People say that, but I dress this way for the same reasons I did when I first started doing it. It still comes from a serious place inside of me. I get up in the morning, and I think I just look better a certain way I do my makeup. I want to shine, I want to glitter. I'm not getting up thinking, "Oh, this'll get 'em. I'm just doing it to look like Dolly - the Dolly that I know and the Dolly that you know.

On plastic surgery: I'm a proud person. I'm not vain. I look at it like it is. If you've got the money and you're going to be out there, you owe it to people not to look like a dog if you can help it. On writing a musical version of 9 to 5 for Broadway: It's not like this is a job that I hope I do good at. It's a joy, and it's just my nature. And I've made it into something I can make money doing.

And thank God for that. Because nobody can ever make enough money for as many poor relatives as I've got. Somebody's got a sick kid, or somebody needs an operation, somebody ain't got this, somebody ain't got that. Or to give the kids all a car when they graduate.

Let them shine, let them do what they want to. And not just family - it's for a lot of other people to have their dreams, too. Going into a new business, you make a certain amount of money, build your name, build your brand, and it's prestigious, but it gives other people opportunities, too, even if it's not something I particularly want to do myself. I'm creating jobs.

I'm like Barack Obama! I want to be like one of those little fainting goats that get scared and then just fall over. I want to go and go and then drop dead in the middle of something I'm loving to do.

And if that doesn't happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I'll have my high heels on. I used to dream, when I would go to other people's shows and the artist had songs that people sang along with, "How cool must that be? I've been working this "9 to 5" job for 30 years, so God only knows how many times on the road I've sung it. Thousands of times, for sure. But I don't get tired of it, really. I think in a way, my music has been almost like my ministry.

Hopefully, it's healing in some ways, just having a good sense of humor to be able to lift people up, to have songs that people can relate to.

All these fine Christian-type people that seem to think they know what God wants for all of us, that's certainly more of a sin then anything they would claim about us. To judge people is one of the greatest sins. People say how down-home I seem to be.

I think of myself as a working girl, not a star or celebrity. I love my life, I would not bitch about it now. A lot of people do, but they don't deserve it, the fame or the money they make, when they are running away from their fans like that.

There are some people who just absolutely hate fans. I just think they're not happy in their own lives. I'm one of those people that if its something to eat I'm going to eat the whole thing, If I'm going to be in love I'm going to love you all the way and if my heart's broken, it's just shattered all to pieces. I think my life actually changed at That's when you realize you can't ride the fence anymore. You either have to get on one side or the other.

I think some of my best years were between 40 and I got my priorities straight and life is good to me now. It's only other people who say, "God, she's 50 years old! I feel like I just started. I always pattern my look after the town tramp. I swear to God that's true, but I can't give her name.