KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – WVLT’s Kyle Grainger sat down with Dolly Parton for a one-on-one on Dollywood’s opening day for the 2024 season.
Kyle Grainger: So Dolly, 39 seasons of Dollywood!
Dolly Parton: I do know! I solely simply turned 39. How did that occur? I can’t imagine it, although. It looks like it was simply eight or ten years in the past.
KG: We’ve been right here wanting on the progress of the park for the previous couple years. We’re sitting within the model new HeartSong. You type of teased us this morning and stated there’s extra to return with the lodging.
DP: We stated there was going to be 5 earlier than we have been completed, so we’ve bought a number of extra within the works. That is the second. This one is totally fabulous; it’s huge. I nonetheless love the DreamMore, although. It’ll at all times be the love of my coronary heart, as a result of it was the primary one.
That is only a great lodge, although, and everybody appears to be having fun with it. I’m simply happy with every thing we do. There’s such class and delight that goes into it from all the individuals who work on all of it. That is one thing to be happy with right here at Dollywood. I’ve watched it develop for 39 years, and yearly it will get higher.
KG: You additionally teased us with some new sights. One thing new that’s going to be Earth-shattering.
DP: Effectively, it’s! That’s how we tease the viewers, nevertheless it’s true. It’s going to be great. Yearly, we attempt to do one thing nice, and this 12 months, we’re actually enthusiastic about our new museum, what they’re calling the “Dolly Parton Expertise.”
It’s my life, and it’s a museum, nevertheless it’s greater than that, with all of the lights and high-tech stuff with all our down-home type of issues. But it surely’s nonetheless family-based, and folks will be capable of work together with quite a lot of the issues we’ve occurring.
We’ve bought quite a lot of new issues and quite a lot of issues to stay up for.
KG: After we look to the brand new museum, we’re going to have plenty of various things that we will see and work together with and alter it out.
DP: Yeah, and we will change it out, with the totally different costumes, and we’re going to have our personal museum in Nashville, and we’re going to swap issues out so folks don’t get uninterested in issues.
But it surely’s nonetheless a museum and the historical past of me and the way in which we current it from my childhood, and it provides the viewers an opportunity to work together with us on quite a lot of issues. I feel “expertise” is an effective phrase for it as a result of folks will get to see various things than when it was a stationary factor. But it surely’s nonetheless the historical past.
KG: Together with your outfits!
DP: Oh yeah! We’ll have a number of of the garments that individuals have identified that I’ve worn by the years. A few of the garments from the albums or sure events, however we’ll even have some great robes that individuals like to see— the glamor.
It’s deliberate to open in Might, and we hope we meet that deadline on Might 24. I’m wanting ahead to folks coming to see that.
KG: You have been working along with your niece on all that?
DP: She’s labored very intently with all of the folks at Dollywood. They’re an exquisite crew right here at Dollywood. She’s going to be a giant a part of my Nashville museum, and she or he’ll assist swap issues out so issues keep new. It’s virtually like a dwelling factor, so issues can change and be extra attention-grabbing.
This 12 months, we’ve quite a lot of great issues occurring. I’m certain you noticed the trio. And we’ve the sing-along with the “I Will All the time Love You” pageant that did so nice final 12 months once we turned 50. And the Broadway-type musical is completed very well.
KG: This reinvestment in leisure appears to be a giant part of this 12 months.
DP: Effectively, thanks for bringing that up. I’ve at all times stated we should always have extra leisure than we did as a result of that’s who I’m, and music is a part of that. And I feel the followers are going to like that as effectively.
We’ve at all times completed nice. Individuals cherished once we had the Competition of Nations and all of the stuff that individuals bought to be part of, however we’re swapping quite a lot of stuff out. Like we’re having the Flowers and Meals pageant as a substitute of that, as a result of when COVID hit, we couldn’t have folks from different international locations and all that. So we thought we’d ensure that to have one thing nice for everyone.
KG: Let’s speak about some private stuff now; you’re a rockstar now.
DP: I do know! I’m. That album did actually good—my first and solely rock and roll album. I bought to sing with quite a lot of nice artists, a few of them singing on the songs that they made well-known. I’m so grateful to try this. We’re heading towards a platinum album, and I’m enthusiastic about that.
KG: And I’ve heard rumors a couple of gospel album?
DP: I’d love sometime to do an excellent gospel album, however that’s not within the works for the time being. I’m engaged on my life story as a Broadway musical. It could be that my subsequent album is simply the solid album. It’s quite a lot of work, placing on a Broadway present as a result of I’m writing all of the music and the guide together with Maria Schlatter, the lady who wrote with me on the Christmas on the Sq. film.
KG: Do you want watching WVLT?
DP: I do! I’ve been watching you all for years—nice station!
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