Dolly Parton sits down with Dan Rather to discuss everything from her personal life to her career. She tells the story of how she had to turn down Elvis when he wanted to record "I Will Always Love You".
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00:00When you wrote I Will Always Love You and Elvis Presley was going to record it and suddenly
00:07you said, whoa, no, tell me about that.
00:11Well, actually Elvis loved the song.
00:14That was when he and Priscilla were having their problems, which I met her recently and
00:19she told me that Elvis loved that song and he had sung that to her on the day of their
00:23divorce.
00:24He said he kind of leaned in and sang a little bit of I Will Always Love You and so she told
00:29me how much he loved that song.
00:31This was recently, we were doing some business, but during that time, it's no fault of Elvis.
00:39He loved the song, but Tom Parker was in defense of Tom Parker too, Colonel Tom, his manager.
00:46He made some wise decisions evidently, so he knew what he was doing, but that goes back
00:53to that other thing because Elvis was ready to record it.
00:55I told my friends and people that he was recording it and they were in town to do
01:00the recording.
01:01They had invited me down to the session and Colonel Tom Parker calls me the day before
01:07and says, now you do know that Elvis is recording your song and you do know that Elvis don't
01:11record anything that he don't publish or at least get half the publishing on.
01:16I said, really?
01:17Which is to say he would have the rights.
01:19He would have the rights, at least half of the rights to the publishing of the song.
01:23I said, I can't do that.
01:25The song's already been a hit with me and this is in my publishing company and obviously
01:30this is going to be one of my most important copyrights and I can't give you half the publishing.
01:36Of course, that's stuff that I'm leaving for my family.
01:39And he said, well, then we can't record the song and I was just heartbroken.
01:43I said, well, I'm really sorry, but I can't do that, so I didn't.
01:48That took guts.
01:49Well, it didn't to me.
01:51It seemed to be the thing to do.
01:52It hurt me because I was so disappointed that I was going to have to tell my friends
01:55Elvis didn't record it.
01:58But I just knew that that was not right and that that was not, if it had been maybe, if
02:05I didn't have my own publishing company, had the song not already been a hit, it might
02:08have been different, but I couldn't give somebody half of a song that had already been number
02:13one and that was, you know, was evident, had already proved itself.
02:18Well, you had some redemption, Whitney Houston, then many years later.
02:22That's true.
02:23When Whitney recorded it, I was like, oh, good, because now I own 100% of the publishing,
02:27100% of the writing.
02:28And I did really well with that.
02:30But I didn't blame Elvis and I didn't blame Colonel Tom either.
02:33It was a decision I had to make at the time and I'm glad I did.
02:37But when Whitney Houston recorded it, which made it a worldwide hit all over again, not
02:42only made you a lot of money, that's true, but also as you yourself said, you said, hey,
02:48here it comes again.
02:49That really was a great song.
02:50My question is, Whitney Houston, African-American heritage, you from the mountains of East Tennessee,
02:58what went through your mind when it was Whitney Houston who brought the song back and made
03:02it again such a sensational bestseller?
03:04Well, it was overwhelming because I'd always loved her singing anyway.
03:08I mean, what a voice she had.
03:10I mean, at that time, nobody could out-sing her.
03:13But when I heard it, my heart just stopped.
03:16I just couldn't believe that my little song, my little simple song that was written straight
03:20from my heart, you know, about a subject that we all know and relate to one way or another,
03:26whether it's someone that's died or kids going off to school.
03:30People relate to that song in so many ways.
03:33But anyway, when I heard her sing it, I could not believe it.
03:36I was driving at that time from my office in Nashville to my house in Brentwood.
03:41And I heard it when she started singing that acapella.
03:45I thought, well, you know, I thought, what if I should stay?
03:49And it took a minute to realize.
03:51And then when it went into the, with the music part where she was singing, I honestly thought
03:57I was going to have a heart attack.
03:59You've been a remarkably successful businesswoman.
04:03How has that happened?
04:04Well, my dad was like that.
04:07My dad raised 12 children.
04:09My daddy could not read nor write, never had a chance to go to school, but my daddy
04:14was so smart.
04:15You know, he was just, I've just always wondered what all my daddy might've been able to do
04:20had he had an education.
04:22But I, my daddy, I watched him maneuver.
04:24I watched how he would, he could trade and barter and you know, it's like he would, well,
04:29they call it good horse sense or horse trading.
04:32They call it street smarts if you're from the city, but good old country horse sense.
04:36My daddy was so smart and I just watched him through the years.
04:40And my daddy was also one of those people that was really willing to work.
04:44He was up all the time, up early, having to farm before he went to work on construction
04:49or doing whatever he had to do to, to keep food on the table.
04:53But he always just managed to make some of the best deals and some of the best choices.
05:00And I, I was very influenced by that.
05:02Now I got my music from my mother's side of the family and most musical people, musicians
05:08don't want to work at anything else.
05:10So I got my work ethic from my dad.
05:12I got my music from my mama.
05:14And I tried in the early days when, when, when I would think about it and I started
05:19seeing that I could make money at this, I thought, well, they do call this the music
05:24business.
05:25So why don't I kind of lay a little heavy on the business side of things?
05:30So I got to thinking, you know, what I should do to make it really profitable, not just
05:36to sing and just let the money roll in and let it be gone before you think about it.
05:41So I started thinking about keeping my publishing to myself, you know, publishing my own songs,
05:48starting my own publishing company and just different things like that, that I thought
05:52would be, you know, smart business.
05:54So through the years, I have been lucky and made some really good choices, but I've got
06:00a lot of good people that's helped me a lot too.
06:02I owe a lot of my success to a lot of smart people.
06:06But I'm thinking of a young, say an 18 year old Dolly Parton in Nashville, trying to make
06:12it, talented.
06:17In that period, there weren't many opportunities for women, bluntly put, how did you keep the
06:22men off of you and keep your mind and their mind on business and therefore build a business
06:30which is now tens of millions of dollars a year business?
06:34When I was young, you got to remember, I first of all believed in my talent.
06:39I really believed that I was heading to Nashville with something to sell.
06:43I thought my songs were good and I thought I was, you know, a good enough singer that
06:47I could pull that off.
06:50I had all these brothers, so I knew men.
06:53Had my dad, my uncles that I loved, and my grandpas.
06:56So I knew how men thought.
06:59I knew them all so well.
07:01And I always said I kind of, I look like a woman, but I can also think like a man.
07:05So I was not intimidated.
07:06And I was a right pretty girl, you know, for the times, you know, a little overdone, of
07:11course, but I used that.
07:14I was not intimidated.
07:15I took it as a compliment when men thought I was, if they thought I was pretty.
07:19I thought, well, this is all good.
07:21I can use this to my benefit.
07:23But I did not use it for anything other than to know what to do.
07:29I knew that I had something and I would say things like, look, I think I can make us both
07:34a lot of money if you want to, you know, work with me on this.
07:38And if sometimes some men did get, you know, a little out of line, a little out of place,
07:42but I knew how to manage that without hurting their feelings, to compliment them or not
07:47to take it as an insult because it wasn't.
07:49But if someone did get out of hand, I would know kind of what to say.
07:54So I never slept with anybody to get anywhere.
07:56If I slept with somebody, it's because I wanted to, not to try to get ahead in the business.
08:01So I just, with some people, especially with me being overdone and overexaggerated with
08:07the makeup and the hair and the way I dressed, some people might have thought I was dumb,
08:12but I would have the deal done and gone before they realized what had happened.
08:15So I would, I just looked at it like a business and I was always proud to be a woman.
08:20I never took their flirting as an insult.
08:23I thought it was a compliment, but I knew how to handle it.