Bonus Episode: A Tribute to Dolly Parton

DISGRACELAND

This bonus episode of Disgraceland pays heartfelt tribute to Dolly Parton following her passing, celebrating her as a musical icon and a mod

Key takeaways

• Dolly Parton's life was defined by grace, empathy, and an open-hearted approach to people and the world.

Main topics

• Dolly Parton's legacy as a musician and humanitarian
• Her grace and empathy in public interactions and performances

Notable quotes

"I can't think of another musician who lived with so much grace as Dolly Parton did."

Conclusion

Dolly Parton's life stands as a rare example of grace, generosity, and authenticity.

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:01) This is exactly right. Double Speaker 2 (0:11) Elvis. Speaker 4 (0:13) I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 3 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous situation that destroyed two families. It's a scorched earth war that shows just how far someone will go to get what they want. Speaker 8 (0:29) Cindy said I had to choose between the truth and my family, and I had to choose the truth. Speaker 4 (0:34) Listen to Season 3 of Burden of Guilt on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or Speaker 1 (0:40) wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome aboard season six of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. A beautiful woman smiles and hands you a scotch, but you have no idea just how messed up her job actually is. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. Until one day, a group of stewardesses spark a revolution that reshapes America. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (1:24) Hey, discos. Need a little more Disgraceland in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to Disgraceland, the after party. Speaker 3 (1:51) Welcome to the Disgraceland bonus episode, a little thing we like to call the after party. This is the show after the show, the party after the party, the bridge to get you from one full episode of Disgraceland to the other, the backyard to dig into the dirt. Our mission to uncover the truth and to confront the myth, to reclaim the story on this bonus episode, we pay tribute to one of the greatest songwriters to ever put. pen to paper, to ever pick up a guitar, to ever sing into a microphone. One of the all-time great human beings as well, Dolly Parton. We're going to take a trip into the punk scenes that you love and discuss what killed them and what kept them alive. We're also talking Alice Bagg in L.A. Punk Rock. And we've got a new episode of our video podcast. This film should be played loud to preview. Plus, we get into your emails, comments, DMs, and as always, a whole lot of Rosie. This is the podcast for the musically obsessed. the outsiders, the independent thinkers who know that the best history is the history that gets buried. Disgraceland is where I tell the stories you'll end up telling to someone else. All right, discos, let's get into it. So Dolly Parton Speaker 2 (3:05) passed away this week. Of all the musicians that we've covered who have died since we launched this podcast, this one feels different. And that's because Dolly Parton was so different in every way. From every one of her contemporaries, she was different. From every one of her predecessors, her protégés. The thing that made Dolly Parton so different, it wasn't necessarily her music or her persona or her image. It was her grace. I can't think... of another musician who lived with so much grace as Dolly Parton did, who put love and specifically empathy into nearly every move that she made. At least it seemed like that. And I'm not just talking about her charitable work, which is worth taking a serious look at and that we'll get into in just a moment, but I'm talking about the way that she interacted with other artists, Speaker 3 (4:00) the way in which she connected with the public. how she spoke, performed, wrote songs. If there's one singular quality to Dolly Parton, it's Speaker 2 (4:12) grace. When you watch her, you can feel the empathy. You can almost see the Dolly antenna fine-tuned to the needs of others. You can see it in those great... late night talk show interviews on Johnny Carson and David Letterman. You can see it in the award show acceptance speeches into the rock and roll and country halls of fame at the Grammys, presenting an award to Whitney Houston, to someone else for a song that she wrote. You can hear it in her biggest hits, I Will Always Love You and Jolene. Speaker 3 (4:42) You can feel it in her duets with Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers, in her collaborations with other female artists, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Miley Cyrus, and Nora Jones. You can see it in her big screen performances, Steel Magnolias and 9 to 5. You can watch it on the small screen on her TV specials, her variety show, on old episodes of Hee Haw or the Porter Wagoner Show. And hell, you can even see it in her guest spots on The Muppet Show with Kermit and Miss Piggy. It's always Dolly Parton making other people feel good, making us feel good, always. Even now, at the time of her death, when we think about her, we feel good. That's not an accident. That's intentional. That's grace. And Dolly Parton had more of it than any successful artist from music history that I can think of. She will be deeply missed and Speaker 2 (5:35) she will never be replaced. And there's a lot being said about the trailblazing nature of Dolly's career, the way in which she modeled self-worth for future generations of women. And that should not be overlooked. She stared down Colonel Tom Parker, turned down Speaker 3 (5:52) Elvis Presley, broke free from Porter Wagoner, and she did it all with a smile on her face. But Dolly Parton was more than just a feminist. She was a humanist. A model for all of us, not just women, not just musicians, not just Southerners, not just music fans, not just country music fans. If you want to have a better life, if you want to live a better life, if you want to be treated better, if you want to treat people better, if you want to write better songs, if you want to understand how to present yourself on screen, how to act, how to sing, how to make people laugh, how to love. Well, I can't think of another person who better modeled all of these things Speaker 2 (6:30) than Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton credited her faith for the reason her heart was so big, saying she was open to, quote, everybody and everything, unquote. Man, I wish I had that quality. On his face, you know, we think about that, you know, she's saying she was open to everybody and everything. You know, I like to think that I'm that way. We all like to think that we're that way. Speaker 3 (6:59) But you go out into the world and that goodwill, that openness to others, it can be hard to summon. Life's little annoyances, the impatience we encounter from other people, the dismissiveness, the unnecessary. Attitudes, the judgment, our own imperfections, our own shortcomings, our own judgment, the cynicism of modern life, the world's natural injustices, the pigs in power, all of it. Life has a way of closing your heart to everybody and everything, not opening it, as Dolly Parton said. Again, she said, my heart is open to everybody and everything. That is grace. Dolly Parton broke free from generational poverty and created generational wealth. She died with a net worth of $650 million and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars to various charities along the way throughout her life. She gifted over 300 million books to children worldwide, provided millions in scholarships, donated to local hospitals, schools, businesses, kids in her community who needed a hand, disaster relief, and way more. Dolly Parton was good to people because Dolly Parton believed in, as she said, the goodness of people. And man, all of us could benefit from being more like Dolly Parton. From having even just a small percentage of the grace Dolly Parton lived with. I sometimes fantasize about hosting a different podcast. One that isn't based largely on the dark and evil transgressions from music history. One that isn't focused so often on Speaker 2 (8:40) the shittiness and narcissism of so many musicians, but that is instead based on the good that musicians put into the world. The grace. Of course, instead of calling it Disgraceland, We'll call it Graceland. Or maybe we should just call it Dollyland. Rest in peace, Dolly Parton. So, you know, the way Dolly lived, you might not know it from that tribute that I just paid to her. She's fucking hysterical. Just there's so many funny stories popping up. There's one here I'm going to read. Matt sent us a bunch this morning. This one's so good. On the set of 9 to 5, the director raised his voice at Dolly Parton in front of the whole crew saying something like, I don't know why they hired you for this film. You can't even act. And she responded, they Speaker 3 (9:39) hired me because I'm Dolly Parton and they hired you to make it look like I can act. Speaker 3 (9:45) I love that. And there's way funnier stuff that's out there making the rounds right now. People are online talking about it. So we're Speaker 2 (9:53) going to dive into some of the funnier stuff, some of the levity connected to Dolly Parton in the exclusive section of this after party. Zeth and I, Zeth's out there pounding the pavement, trying to get some stuff for you that hopefully you haven't seen yet. We'll talk about that in the exclusive section of the after party. Go to disgracelandpod.com to sign up, get exclusive content like this, plus ad-free listening. Speaker 3 (10:11) All right. In the feed right now, we have our Alice Bag episode. If you're a Spotify listener, check it out. Listen, apologies, man. I don't know. We don't have an explanation, but it didn't publish to Spotify until late, late, late Tuesday night. Almost 24 hours. from when it normally posts and we don't know why it was just spotify it hit everywhere else on apple podcasts so if you haven't heard the alice bag episode if you don't have it if you're like what is that what the fuck is he talking about uh check your feed you should have it refresh your feed um if you're spotify listeners especially everybody else you know there were some operational gremlins in the background so i don't know if you're on another player and you don't have it Again, refresh your feed Speaker 2 (10:57) or close your app and reopen it and let us know if you got