Dollywood is 40 years old, and Dolly Parton says it's time to visit
The living legend is always juggling multiple projects.
'And why not?' Parton told USA TODAY. 'I've lived this life, and I'm going to keep living it as long as I can, and I'm going to make hay while the sun shines.'
Her new musical 'Dolly: A True Original Musical' debuts in Nashville on Friday. That's also where she's featured in a special Country Music Hall of Fame exhibit through September. This winter, she'll return to Las Vegas for her first run of shows there in more than 30 years. And all year long, her namesake theme park, which she co-owns with Herschend, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Parton spoke to USA TODAY about Dollywood and other matters close to her heart earlier this park season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
QUESTION: You dreamed of opening a theme park. What was your vision?
Dolly Parton: When I first started getting successful, I used to think if I ever made it as big as I hoped to, then I (would) want to have my own theme park.
I was just dreaming of having a wonderful place for people to come, have a good time, having all kinds of things to enjoy and providing jobs for my family and the kin folks around here and the good neighbors. And sure enough, we've got all that now.
Of course we opened 40 years ago. It took a little while to get it all in the works, but it's more than I even imagined that it could be.
When you have a dream, you gotta dream big, so I'm always dreaming big, but sometimes your dreams really take on a life of their own, and that's the way that it is with Dollywood.
This is a wonderful part of the country to be in. We get a lot of tourists. I can't take credit for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They were drawing people for many years before we came – another reason that I knew this would be a good place to have a business like Dollywood.
A lot of great people have worked really hard to make it what it is. And here we are 40 years later and it's just bigger and better every year.
Dollywood's original dream team: They came for the summer and stayed 40 years
What would you want folks around the country to know about Dollywood?
DP: I want them to know they should get here and do whatever you gotta do to get here cause once you've been here, you're going to love it. Almost everybody that's been here, they always come back.
Our slogan is (creating) memories worth repeating and love every moment. And we've had different slogans through the years like that, but I really think people just make beautiful memories here because there's something for every age group in the family.
Even the teenagers can get their jollies, as they say, on the roller coasters and a lot of the things we have. Grandparents can love all the shopping, all the arts and crafts and the old mill and the glass blowing and so many wonderful things that couples can enjoy and the kids can enjoy, so they can meet up at one point or another during the day. You can bring the whole family and there's something for everybody to enjoy without being in each other's face all day.
You've also got Splash Country and these world-class resorts and your dinner theater opportunities. You could have a whole week's vacation.
DP: I am very proud of the businesses that we have over on the parkway. We have the Pirates Voyage. We have the Stampede and we have the Comedy Barn. We have so many things, like the Hatfields and McCoys and all the fun things (outside) the park.
But here in the (resort) we have, as you mentioned, Splash Country; people love that. We open early in May, and we go through until September when the weather starts to cool off.
We just have something for everybody in this whole area. Plus, not to be selfish with just my own, but there's so many great businesses around here, so many great things for people to see.
This, to me, is sincerely one of the greatest places that anyone could visit. This part of the country, right here in Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg, and in this general area, there's just so much.
You're the Dreamer in Chief here. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
DP: Well, we all get together and we kind of brainstorm, thinking about how well we've done with certain things and how much better this did than that and what we don't need to do again. And then we think, 'Oh, we need to really expand on this idea.' And so out of the great people that have great minds, we come up with great things.
Sometimes I'll come up with an idea and it's not always great, but they'll take that and we can incorporate that into something else in the park.
For instance, the restaurants, we even theme a lot of our meals based on things that I've talked about, about my own childhood, like stone soup ... My mom used to make that. We all felt special because we thought that stone made it twice as good as what it was, only because of Mama's stories and she was a good cook.
But we try to have little things that really connect people to me as much as we possibly can, stories that I've told, songs that I've written, memories that I've had, talking about the people in the community. We try to have little links to kind of connect that chain that goes all the way through any and all the businesses that we have.
Over the past 40 years, you've done so much through the park. What are you most proud of?
DP: Well, I'm proud of all of it. I'm proud of the whole idea that it was a big dream and it came true. That's a lot to be proud of. I'm proud of all the things we have, but I'm extremely proud of the Imagination Library, which is our Dollywood Foundation, and we do a lot of giving. We do a lot of things through that, and the Imagination Library is one of the things I'm proudest of anything I've done, even outside the park, just my whole career in general.
That's a very warm, loving, emotional thing for me to think that I'm the book lady and that I've done something for the little kids, because being from a big family, I have a special love for children. There are eight kids younger than me in my family. I have a sister and two older brothers, but there's just something about young kids.
They're the future. They're the ones that's going to be going on after us, and so I think if you can give them a head start, a little chance of any kind in their early years and their most impressionable years, that's a good thing.
A lot of theme parks try to make you feel like you're in one place or another, but Dollywood really showcases the Smokies. What was the intention behind that?
DP: Well, we wanted to try to keep as much of the Smoky Mountains and all the nature that we can. It always breaks your heart when you're going to have to build something. You have to cut down a tree or bushes or uproot this or that. But we've tried very hard to work around as much nature as we can rather than just mowing it down and just scooting it off a mountain somewhere or off a bank. We try to work around nature, and we try to keep as much as we can.
We have all the beautiful flowers all over the park. I think it's one of the prettiest parks ever. You'd have to agree, right? I mean, when you walk around, there's trees and bushes and flowers everywhere, and we love that. So, we want to keep as much of the Smokies and that attitude and that feeling, because I'm a mountain girl and I think people know all that and they would expect that of me as well.
Mountain people are also very important to you. For those who haven't been here, how would you describe the warmth and hospitality of the people?
DP: There's just something about Southern people in general – they call that the Southern hospitality – but there's something even more than that about mountain people, people that are in the hills 'cause most of them grew up hard, so they have an appreciation and understanding of all people.
There's just a warmth and a depth and a knowing in mountain people, I think. And they welcome you because most of them are from big families. Most of them take their own kinfolk in like that, so it's just almost like everybody's a friend, everybody's a family member.
I know myself, when I do shows, I look out at my audience. I can see somebody I know in every person out there. Somebody reminds me of Uncle So-and-so. That looks just like my sister Stella. Oh, that person looks like Uncle Fred, so I kind of feel that warmth and I play to those people, so I'm always home wherever I'm at.
And I think people go away from here, when they've been here, they think, 'Wow, that's just like we're having to leave some kin folks that we really like. Can't wait to go back next summer and spend our summer vacation out on the farm with the Partons and the Owenses.'
So many people want to connect with you, and they have some other ways to do so around the country coming up
DP: Come and be part of it and enjoy it. I'm very proud of my life story as a musical. We're going to open that in Nashville. We're actually doing previews in July and August. Then we go to New York, and we'll be opening on Broadway sometime next year, along with the (Nashville) hotel. I'm very excited about that and my museum (exhibit).
And I have a new book coming out called 'Star of the Show.' It's about my life on stage and on the road, and so there's this whole lot of stuff going on.
As much as I can do while I'm living, I'm going to try to get it done.
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