Country Icon Dolly Parton is the MusiCares Grammy Person of the Year and she sat down with Grammy.com to talk about how she’s always moving with several projects on her plate even in her 70s. Dolly says, “You are on a journey with yourself and with God, and that’s the only two things you are really responsible for.”
In the interview, Parton also shared that long before the recent #MeToo movement, she blazed a trail for strong, intelligent women by standing up for gender equality in her art and her business—and for that, she is a true inspiration.
“I really think it should not matter who you are whether it’s based on race, religion, color or gender,” says Parton. “You should be allowed to do a job and do your job. If you do it well, you should be appreciated, respected, and admired. I’m proud that I’ve done well in this business. . . I try to live that as a woman. I try to let it stand in the songs I’ve written through the years long before there was ever a movement I was moving in it and talking about it even my first album was called Just Because I’m A Woman. It was based on that and my mistakes are no worse than yours and just because I’m a woman. I should get the same chance.”
Dolly also was just nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her original song from the Jennifer Aniston Netflix movie Dumplin’.
The star also currently has eleven GRAMMY Awards, two songs in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” and received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. The Country Music Hall of Famer will be honored as the 2019 MusiCares Person of the Year on Feb. 8, 2019.
Parton will also be performing on the February 10th live telecast of the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on CBS.
-Nancy Brooks