I think some people have superstitions about retiring. I had a science teacher in his seventies who refused to retire because he believed he would immediately die. My dad appears to be delaying his own retirement for that reason, at least that’s my read on the situation. But there are also people who just don’t want to retire at all. One of those people is living legend Dolly Parton. She’s 77 years old and shows no signs of slowing down. In a recent interview she said she doesn’t plan on retiring, period, unless something happens to her health or her husband Carl Dean’s health. She says she hopes she drops dead while performing, which made me laugh.
Dolly would never retire: Dolly Parton is “not one to sit around doing nothing.” The 77-year-old country music legend made it clear she has no plans to retire anytime soon. “I would never retire,” she told Greatest Hits Radio host Ken Bruce on Thursday. “I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage someday, hopefully one I’ve written. But anyway, that’s how I hope to go because we don’t have much of a choice in that. As long as I’m able to work, as long as my health is good and my husband is good, the only way that I would ever slow down would be for that reason,” she explained. The “Jolene” singer then declared, “But in the meantime, I’m going to make hay while the sun shines.”
What she plans to do in the future: When asked by Bruce if there is anything she hasn’t done that she’d like to do, the multihyphenate said, “I have new dreams every day.” One of those dreams is owning her own network television show where she could produce a series about her own life called The Life of Many Colors, for instance.
Parton said she wants to show “stuff that people haven’t seen or know or heard about and my people and where I come from, how I’ve got to be how and who I am, but to really have the behind the scenes and the adventures of my life.” Those glimpses into her life would include the different bands she has worked with and “all the situations that can come from that — the bad, the good, the ugly, the different.”
I think Dolly is so creative and is living out all her dreams and passions, so that’s why she won’t retire. She’d get bored! But she clearly has built in enough time for herself to rest, otherwise there’s no way she could keep doing everything that she’s doing. I’d totally watch a docuseries about Dolly. There already is one on Netflix but I found it pretty surface level. If anyone wants to learn more about Dolly’s life, I’d recommend her memoir, or if you want less of a time commitment, the podcast Dolly Parton’s America. But to hear more industry stories–now that would be interesting. Dolly’s been in the music industry since the 1960s. You know she’s got some stories. But she’ll never spill the real tea, because she’s too classy for that. She’s always been way too nice about Porter Wagoner, the country singer who put her on his popular TV show and helped her career grow–but then got jealous and controlling when he realized her star power would inevitably eclipse his. Maybe she’ll loosen up a bit and tell us some hot gossip, but even if she doesn’t, I’ll still watch whatever she puts out.
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Better to drop dead doing what she and so many other people love, than to drop dead on the plastic surgery table.
May she not go the way of Joan Rivers.
Her get-up is hilariously awful but don’t care since she’s so fabulous. Dolly can do no wrong and she worked hard many years to get where she is. The podcast DParton’s America was fun. We need more Dollys in the world.
I believe she famously said It’s expensive to look this cheap.
We love you, Dolly. Don’t even talk about not being around forever. Yes to the documentary.
I love her!
Or Lisa Marie Presley, apparently.
Anyhoo, I love Dolly’s voice, reminds me of sun-colored honey.
I think she’s absolutely right if that’s what she wants to do.