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I'm so glad that you've decided to come back and to to give us another gift for the holidays. It's been a while.
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It's been a while since you've given us a gift for the holidays.
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Well, it has, but this is a good year to have a lot of gifts and a lot of special holiday joy because people are not going to get to have the regular type of Christmas this year.
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So, I thought I'd just throw as much Dolly stuff out there as I could.
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That's the thing that I mean, that's one of the many many things that we all love about you, Dolly, is that you have spent your life through your music and through your philanthropy and through your activism, which must be recognized, giving. You are a giver.
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Were you always a giver even as a child? Were you an empath?
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Were you somebody who wanted to bring joy to other people and it helped you find your joy in yourself?
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Well, that's a good way of putting it and absolutely yes.
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All of my life I've loved people. I wanted to to give.
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I I really am one of those people that I enjoyed the giving more than I I did the getting and so I still love that.
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But, I just love that, you know, passing that back and forth, the love and the energy with people.
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One of the real treats on this record you've chosen on your playlist here, which is a collaboration and a duet with someone who's a who's a charismatron, you know, he brings so much joy to people weeknights in the evening time, late evening time.
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His name is Jimmy Fallon.
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Very natural charisma, very naturally funny and also has a wonderful aura about him.
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Was he always the person that you wanted to sing All I Want for Christmas with Dolly?
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Well, there's a little story about that.
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First of all, I love Jimmy Fallon.
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I've always loved him and uh we just have a little special connection.
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We just like each other even you know, I don't know him outside the dressing rooms or on the panel.
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But, uh I love watching Jimmy perform with all the different artists that are on his show and I've always thought he had a really good voice.
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So, a few years back I was on his show uh during the holiday season and he wanted me to sing All I Want for Christmas with you on his show, the Mariah Carey song.
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I did not know it well enough to be able to sing it.
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So, I begged off and I said You are in the 1% of the planet that doesn't know the words to that song.
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Well, and and the fact that, you know, Mariah is so great a singer, I thought, "Uh I don't want to be crucified, you know, for trying to mess up her great song."
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So, anyway, I I couldn't do it and I was felt bad, but then when this year when I got ready to do my album, uh I called him up and I said, "Jimmy, I said, I really think you have a great voice and I've learned that song that you love and I'm going to put it on my Christmas album.
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Would you sing it with me as a duet?"
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And he said, "Oh, Dolly, I don't I don't I don't take myself serious as a singer and I don't think anybody else would."
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I said, "I think they would. I know I do."
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I said, "Would you would you be willing to try it?"
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He said, "Well, yeah, I'll try it."
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And he said, "Will you promise me though if we if I record my part and it don't sound good, would you just take me off and sing it on your own?" I said, "That's a deal."
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So, we recorded it and he loved it and I thought it sounded great and it's one of my favorite things on the whole album.
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Um and that song, of course, written and uh and recorded and and sung by Mariah Carey, you know, a huge moment, a a a complete cornerstone of any holiday season.
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You've got a few of those yourself.
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You know, and one in particular has has reached an enormous milestone in the in recent weeks.
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I Will Always Love You, which, of course, was so beautifully recorded by yourself as an all-time copyright as as you sing it, was then taken and and famously re-recorded by Whitney Houston, the late great Whitney Houston, one of the greatest performers and singers in the history of music.
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You know, a recording that means so much to so many people has now crossed the 1 billion mark in terms of visibility and and and and people enjoying it.
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How does that number even register with you when you think about something that you wrote probably in a moment in time? It came out of nowhere.
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That you grabbed from this ether, this spiritual place where music presents itself and you're present enough to know it's there.
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That then goes on to reach a billion people.
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That little song, I did sing that when I wrote it, it did come from a very serious place in my heart, you know, about a thing going on at the time. But, I had no idea.
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I when I wrote it, I thought it was a good song.
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You never know what's going to be a hit or we'd all be rich, all songwriters, if you knew.
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But, you know, I just loved the song and then I had number I had a number one song number one on it twice.
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It's the first time that's ever been done by the same artist.
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I did it in '72 as a single on country radio and then I did it again in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas movie and it became number one again.
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But, it was only when Whitney took it and took it so worldwide and and speaking of what you just mentioned, I had I didn't know that about the that about the billion people seeing and hearing it until the other day I was watching the news and they they was playing it and I, of course, ran in there to see what they were playing and they said, "Coming up later, we have some information."
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And I saw I saw it on TV about the you know, about it becoming such a and it it just always makes me feel so proud.
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It's just like if you have a kid, you know, and it's done so well, you know, people love it.
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It makes you proud of them that you're its mama.
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So, I just take pride in the fact that's my little song that's done so well.
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Have you ever Do you allow yourself to become emotional at times when you hear your own songs?
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When you hear that song come on the radio, even when you're singing it and it takes you back to that moment when you originally recorded it?
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Do you get emotional the way others do?
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Yeah, I do and I do it for a couple of different reasons.
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Well, like with Whitney, you know, when I first heard her sing it, I was so overwhelmed and so emotional about how she did it, but also the fact that it was my song.
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So, it really I you know, it I feel it from from different different places.
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The fact that it's my song and what I was feeling and where it came from for me, but then how well done is to think that that my little song could be all that.
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It it humbles you, really.
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So, yes, it's uh it's it really has a a big effect on you.
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I always think when you write a song that comes from the heart that that allows you to move past something or to frame something in a way that seems so uncontrollable within the emotional frame.
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To bring it into a new frame and say, "Okay, I know what this means.
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I've been able to put it into words and to melody.
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I know what it means to me."
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How that feels going forward in life and how you look back on those songs and realize that I was such a different person back then going through emotions I didn't know how to translate them and this beautiful song came out.
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Are they just timestamps to you and do they transport you back there and are you able to sort of look back at that moment in your life through that portal with a wry smile and go, "Wow, Dolly, you were really taking that one hard." Uh well, all of that.
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Every bit of what you said you you feel as a songwriter.
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And I have just though always been so grateful that I can write and that I can rhyme and that I actually can take all those feelings, sorrow, grief, joy, whatever of my own and also people that I love and know, things they're going through that don't know how to express it, that I am able to do that. But, yes, it is amazing.
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In fact, I just put out a book this year called Songteller, um my life in lyrics and I talk about I did 175 songs in that and I talk about where I was emotionally, what happened and uh you know, where I was when I wrote the song.
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And and I really in putting that whole book together, it really was overwhelming and emotional cuz I had to go down to talk about stuff I never talked about and really got into where I was.
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So, it was really like I was kind of drained at the end of doing that whole cuz I took several days and talked for several hours and it's also on audio.
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But, by the time I was finished, I thought, "Uh, I don't even want to go back to some of those places." Yeah.
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When we think about your time in the holidays that you spent with some of your peers and your closest friends and family, there is someone who you have built such a strong creative relationship with as you both grew as artists and you actually cemented that and solidified it with your own Christmas album sometime ago.
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His name is Kenny Rogers and we now get to the Kenny Rogers part of the playlist, which is wonderful for me as someone who's really appreciated the way that you two bounce off each other, the two of you.
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Um so, I'd love to know just a a really nice deep reflection about your relationship with Kenny and and why it is you think that the two of you mean so much to us as a a couple through your music.
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I think we mean so much to all of you because we meant so much to each other.
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Kenny was like a soulmate of mine.
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We were He's from Texas, I'm from Tennessee and there's a famous old song called T for Texas, T for Tennessee and we just hooked up.
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We were like we were like brother, sister in a way, but we were really like best friends.
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There was just something about me and Kenny.
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I'm sure you have people in your life, some of those people it's like, "Now, hey, it's me.
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You're not You can say that to somebody else, but that ain't getting it with me."
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We could just look at each other about a situation, about other people in the room and just look like, "We all Mhm, sure."
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Anyway, but we loved we we loved each other to death.
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We we were so funny together.
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We both had a crazy uh sense of humor and we just we would just laugh so hard, you know, in between times cuz we just hit each other's funny bone.
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He he just touched me in a way that and made me laugh for in ways that other people didn't and I was the same with him.
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But, I think a part of that was just our honesty, our total upfront openness to one another.
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And so, but I loved our voices, too.
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See, I always loved his voice.
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Anyway, I never ever got tired of hearing Kenny when we were working on the road together, touring some.
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I'd watch his show every night from the wing, and I never got tired of his voice.
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And then when our voices would, you know, come together on the duets that we did, I thought it was a really good his thick voice and my smaller voice, there was just something that complimented it.
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Plus, I think that our emotions and our personal magic kind of wove itself into that, too.
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And I think people felt the the love and the and the passion that we had for one another.
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We were never lovers, but we were very passionate with each other.
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We loved each other to death.
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We could have been if it if all life had been different.
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We were that, you know, we were that strong with our love and our passion for one another, but it was more about our music and uh and the fact that we couldn't do it made it even more special. Yeah, I love that.
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I mean, it's listen, you know, people write so many songs about unrequited passion, but that actually is at the core of of a really pure human desire, and sometimes it breeds so much more passion when it remains unrequited. I think so, too.
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And I think the fact that we felt all that, but knew that we would never, you know, couldn't, wouldn't, didn't need to, and would mess up everything else, but but that passion, I think, kind of transcended into into our music and into our sparkle that we had with each other.
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It was It was always real.
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Everything that you saw about me and Kenny and heard was real.
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September makes me feel so good and emotional.
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It's like I want to cry on the dance floor when I hear it.
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I don't even know what it is about it.
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What What is it about it for you? What's your story?
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Well, I think I Well, I think Earth, Wind & Fire, that's one of the greatest groups ever.
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I love the title, but I love their sound, too.
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I loved all the musicians on their albums.
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They made great great records.
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But, I think that that goes back to kind of what I was saying about Kenny and I. There's a passion.
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I think they felt it as musicians and singers.
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I think they connected, too.
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And there's nothing more joyful than uh than singers and musicians that really work and mesh together so good.
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It's really like a an orgasm in a way.
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When you create something that great, uh they feel it, and it's powerful, and I think that the listener all they get that.
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Could you think of a story that relates to Stevie Wonder as we're about to play another one of his stone-cold classics on this impeccably created playlist?
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I remember the one of the first times that I got to work with him, you know, uh when Stevie we he was like I was going to lead him off stage. We'd done something.
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Was going to lead him off, and we were walking across, and he said, "What is this?
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The blonde leading the blind?"
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And I said, "Yep, that's what this is." That's what we were.
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But, anyway, he had a great, you know, he has great sense of humor about everything.
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And uh yeah, but I love his music.
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What a creative genius he was.
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I'm going to make an executive decision, which is very rare, and and feel free to shoot me down, but I'm I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to put a song on your playlist.
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I'm going to put a song on your playlist, which is very bold of me, I know.
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And this is where you're like, "Excuse me?
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This is What are you going to do here?"
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But, the way you were describing yourself then reminds me so much of someone that's so close to you and is and is family, and that is Miley, who I hold in the highest regard. I love her.
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her in the highest I hold her in the highest So do I.
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Because because she is the same.
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She is like, "I know my truth at that moment in time.
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I am unafraid at that moment in time.
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I may change in another time, but today, this is what I think. It is my truth. Take it or leave it."
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And I And I I can't help but feel that that that you have had such an impact on her as a as a person, and I wonder whether you would acknowledge that.
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And you've had moments when you've had to help her and talk to her and say, "It's okay. I've been through this.
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I know what you're going through. Hold the line."
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Well, I do believe everything you said is right about her.
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I think she is the most professional person, a great singer, a great writer, a great little human being, great comedian.
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I think she knows exactly what she's doing all the time.
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And she's, like me, not afraid to do it.
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I mean, who you afraid of?
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You know, I always have to say often, "What they going to do? Kill me?
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If they kill me, they're going to eat me?"
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You know, it's like, "What's the worst that can happen?"
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But, I think it's bold of her to to be willing to be who she is and to try new things.
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I respect that and love her to death.
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I've loved her since before she was born when I rubbed on her mama's belly knowing that she was going to be my little fairy godchild because I loved Billy Ray, her dad, and we'd worked together a lot.
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But, Miley came out special, and she'll go out special.
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And I have nothing but wonderful things to say about her.
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Reba McEntire, up here, a true original, someone who is one of the greatest of all time.
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And again, an artist who I feel followed in your footsteps.
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Please take that the right way.
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I'm not trying to deflect from Reba's own achievements, but ultimately, you showed a light.
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You shone a light on what was possible, and great artists followed you.
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It must be wonderful to know that you've been able to develop a a relationship with someone as as as equally talented as that.
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And And why are we playing Reba?
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What's What's special in your heart?
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Well, Reba and I have always been like girlfriends or almost like sisters.
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She's always seemed kind of like my relatives, and we've been at it for so long.
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And we, in the early days of our our career and hers, for sure, you know, we would do things for each other.
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I'd go back home to, you know, to her hometown when it was Reba McEntire Day and ride in the parade.
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She'd come to do things for me on special charity things.
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And we've just always had a really good connection.
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She was always generous in in talking about my songs and and that I had meant something to her and that I had inspired her.
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And you can't you can't imagine how humbled I am and how what a compliment it is for people like Miley and and Reba and all these other young girls, you know, coming up saying that I have influenced them some way.
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Cuz you don't know what's going to happen, you know, when you start out.
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You don't know what you're going to mean, and you hope you do well and hope you're meaningful.
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And it's only when you get older that you can look back and see.
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But, with Reba, I just think she's a true talent, a great great girl.
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She's She knows how to perform.
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She's a great actress, too. She knows how to host.
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She knows how to Well, she knows how to do anything you need to do.
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You're very similar in that regard.
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Both of you really did find a way to touch multiple parts of the show bit of this entertainment industry and remain authentically yourself.
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That's There's not a lot of all-rounders out there.
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That's true, but I think that goes back to also what I said before. She knows who she is.
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She's anchored in that, and then that allows you to do so many things without fear.