Dolly Parton Reflects on _Hard_ Time Two Months After Husband Carl Dean_s Death (Exclusive)
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00:00Dolly Parton's career has been one hit after another.
00:04I mean, from the music to film to her wildly successful theme park.
00:09We sat down with the Queen of Country to celebrate Dollywood's 40th anniversary
00:13and got the latest on all things Dolly.
00:16I would sit in my bus when we first opened and looking out the window
00:20like a kid having his first party and worried that nobody's going to come.
00:24And then I started seeing cars coming in and I remember how exciting that feeling was
00:28when the parking lot filled up and 40 years later we've got them still coming
00:32and the food's great, the rides are great and we've just got something for everybody.
00:37I ride this antique car through the park when I'm up here
00:41and it is just amazing to see all their little faces and see the joy and the excitement
00:47and it's just overwhelming to me.
00:49Do you go on any of the rides?
00:51No, I don't do the rides. That's not for me.
00:53I wear wigs and, you know, I've got all this that could just, you know, come out.
00:58Please, please, please, please don't bring me to tears when I just did my makeup so nice.
01:07We've got to talk about some music.
01:10The collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter was amazing.
01:14How did that come about?
01:15Well, she said she'd always been a fan of mine since she was a little girl.
01:20And my nieces and nephews were over the moon because they're huge fans of hers, the young ones.
01:24And they thought that was the coolest thing ever that I could sing with her.
01:28People are also very excited about your show coming to Broadway.
01:32But it's premiering in Nashville in just like, what, two months?
01:36It is. I'm very excited that we got to work it up in Nashville.
01:40And we are going to have the world premiere there.
01:43And it'll open on Broadway next year.
01:45And we've got some great dollars.
01:47It touches on some of everything.
01:49I wouldn't be here if you hadn't been there.
01:55If You Hadn't Been There was a very touching song.
01:59What did it mean to you to put that out and to have it received the way that it's been received?
02:03Well, that song is one of the songs that's in the musical.
02:07It's like, I wouldn't be here if you hadn't been there.
02:09And so that song is like the theme of when Carl passed away, I just thought, wow, you know, I was in pieces.
02:15And I thought, well, what can I do to do something for me and for him and for the fans to express, you know, what I was feeling.
02:23So that's the song that I put out kind of in honor of him.
02:27And it's going to, I think, be one of the favorite songs in the musical as well.
02:31Yeah.
02:32I mean, it's a beautiful ballad about, you know, obviously your husband and grief.
02:36I think anybody that's lost somebody, it means something to anybody.
02:40Yeah, we were together 16 years.
02:41We dated two years and then we married after that.
02:44But I met him the first day I moved to Nash when I was 18 years old.
02:48So it's like we spent a lifetime with him and it's a hard one, so.
02:53Yeah, of course.
02:53But, you know, we move on, we work and he'd expect that of me and I expect it of myself, so.
02:58Yeah.
02:59Yeah, I'll always love him and miss him now.
03:01I know that you've said you would never retire.
03:03Do you still feel that way?
03:04What would I do?
03:06There's no way I could not, not write songs, you know, and sing them and dream dreams and have plans.
03:14I would go crazy myself not having that outlet.
03:17So I'm going to stay right where I'm at, make hay while the sun shines.
03:21I'd rather sit in my rocking chair regretting a few things I did than to regret things that I did not do.
03:28I'm going to stay good at you.
03:32You're welcome.