Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain

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Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain Page 16

by Grand Ole Opry


  “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” earned Dolly her first professional accolade, a Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) songwriting award. New husband Carl dutifully put on a rented tuxedo and accompanied his wife to the 1967 ceremony. The photographers and crowds of well-wishers startled the reticent Carl. On the way home, he told Dolly that he’d support her music dreams in every way but that he would never be in the spotlight with her again. A man of his word, Carl has remained in the shadows ever since. He can be seen, however, in the background on the cover of his wife’s 1969 LP My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy.

  “He’s got tremendous pride and integrity,” says Dolly. “He don’t give a damn for show business or this ‘Dolly Parton’ business.

  “I think he was so happy to have someone to love and someone to love him. And he knew that I had come here to do this very thing. He sensed right on that it wouldn’t do him a bit of good to tell me not to do something, because I’m going to do what I’m going to do. I came here to do what I felt was my calling in life, so he never stood in the way of that.

  “Carl is pretty giving. He’s actually catered to me all of our whole relationship. I guess one of the reasons we have got along so good is that I stay gone enough to make it interesting. That and the fact that he don’t try to boss me around.”

  If country fans thought at all about any romance for Dolly, they probably assumed it was with her flamboyant TV costar and recording duet partner Porter Wagoner (1927–2007). The superstar’s “girl singer,” Norma Jean, had left his troupe to get married and retire. Porter had taken note of the vivacious newcomer and invited Dolly to join his show in 1967. It was a stupendous opportunity for the still-green twenty-one-year-old Dolly. When he hired her, Porter called a meeting with Carl Dean to assure him that his intentions with Dolly were honorable and to warn Carl that rumors were always spread about country duet partners.

  At the time, Porter Wagoner was one of the biggest stars in country music. Born August 12, 1927, in West Plains, Missouri, he had risen to prominence in his home state on the Ozark Jubilee. Such hits as “Company’s Comin’” (1954), “A Satisfied Mind” (1955), “Eat, Drink, and Be Merry (Tomorrow You’ll Cry)” (1955), and “Uncle Pen” (1956) led to an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry cast. Porter’s induction was on February 23, 1957.

  “The first night I joined the Opry, Roy Acuff come up and shook hands with me,” Porter recalled. “He said, ‘We really need people like you. You have a great rapport with the fans and the people.’ And he handed me a little piece of paper and said, ‘This is my home phone number. If I can help you in any way, just call this number.’ You can imagine what that meant to me, a kid five hundred miles from home who didn’t know anyone here. Even though I didn’t have to use the number, it gave me a feeling of confidence that I belonged.

  “Well, years later, on Roy’s eighty-fifth birthday, we had a party for him. I reminded him about that night at the Opry. I said, ‘You’ve meant more than you’ll probably ever know to me and my career.’ We had a wonderful evening, and we all had dinner. I went over to say good-bye to him. He said, ‘I’m glad that you came.’ And he handed me this little piece of paper. I opened it, and it said, ‘If you need anything, call me.’ It just hit me right in the heart.

  “I’ve thought a lot of times how fortunate I’ve been to have been associated with people I love and respect so much. People like Roy, Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, and Minnie Pearl, all these immortal country-music stars. I got to know them and work with them. What a gift.”

  Porter launched his syndicated television program in 1960. At its peak, The Porter Wagoner Show was seen in more than a hundred markets. For many people, it was the first time they’d seen country music performed. Porter’s road show was a state-of-the-art ensemble of flashy instrumentalists, comedy, elaborate costuming, and sincere presentation that played 230 concerts a year to packed houses. Gospel records recorded with The Blackwood Brothers had earned Porter Grammy Awards in 1966 and 1967 (he’d earn another in 1969), and his more than twenty classic recordings prior to hiring Dolly included “Misery Loves Company” (1962), “I’ve Enjoyed as Much of This as I Can Stand” (1963), “Sorrow on the Rocks” (1964), “Green, Green Grass of Home” (1965), “Skid Row Joe” (1966), and “The Cold Hard Facts of Life” (1967).

  In 1968, Dolly Parton scored the first top-ten hit of her career by singing a duet with Porter of “The Last Thing on My Mind.” It was the first of twenty-one hit collaborations by the pair. Porter and Dolly won Country Music Association (CMA) Awards for their partnership in 1968, 1970, and 1971. He brought her to RCA Records, where she soon began having solo hits as well. Her top-ten streak began with “Mule Skinner Blues” (1970), “Joshua” (1971), “Coat of Many Colors” (1971), and “Jolene” (1973). Porter also brought Dolly to the Opry cast, which she joined on January 4, 1969.

  All of Dolly’s early RCA records were produced by Porter. But his name isn’t listed as such on any of them.

  “The reason they couldn’t put my name on them as producer is because RCA Victor had a rule where they didn’t have any outside producers, just ‘in-house’ [employees],” Porter explained. “Bob Ferguson was ‘in house,’ so that’s why his name is on all the things I produced on myself. Same on Dolly’s things, our duets and everything. Had Bob Ferguson’s name [on them]. He wasn’t even there. Credit really didn’t bother me. I just wanted to get it done the best it could be.”

  Although Porter was her mentor and producer, Dolly was just as strong-willed as he was. As she gained confidence and built a catalog of her own hits, she began to resist his control and domination. Dolly left Porter’s employ in 1974, penning the unforgettable “I Will Always Love You” as her farewell song to him. Their last show together was on June 9, 1974. He remained her record producer until 1977, when she made the break final.

  “Me and Porter did have our love-hate relationship,” she reflects. “We fought like cats and dogs, but we loved every minute. . . . We were very bonded and very bullheaded. There was a lot of passion in that relationship. I don’t know that it broke his heart [when she left him]. I think more than anything, it broke his pocketbook. He sued me for a million dollars . . . and got it. It took me a while to pay it off, but he got the first million dollars I ever made.

  “But I always loved Porter, and I’m sure there was a part of him that always loved me. When we grew older, all those old hurts and aggravations faded away, and it turned into a pure kind of sweet love, peaceful and nice.”

  Porter’s national television show continued until 1981. His further solo hits included “The Carroll County Accident” (1968), “Big Wind” (1969), “What Ain’t to Be Just Might Happen” (1972), “Highway Headin’ South” (1974), and “Ole Slew Foot” (1978). In 1971, he recorded the cult-favorite insanity song “The Rubber Room.” Porter was also notable for making concept albums about prisoners, alcoholics, and farmers, often illustrating their jackets with vivid portraits of himself in costume.

  He created controversy in 1979 by bringing soul superstar James Brown to the Opry stage. He produced an album for R&B singer Joe Simon in 1981. In 1982, Porter appeared in the Clint Eastwood movie Honkytonk Man. In the 1990s, he became the unofficial ambassador of the Opry, flashing his toothy smile and $8,000 rhinestone suits for visitors. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2002.

  On May 19, 2007, Porter Wagoner celebrated his fiftieth anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member. Dolly sang “Just Someone I Used to Know” with him and sang “I Will Always Love You” to him.

  A month later, Porter’s acclaimed Wagonmaster comeback CD was issued. Produced by Marty Stuart, the collection led to Porter performing in July at Madison Square Garden, opening for the star rock band The White Stripes.

  But the “victory lap” was short-lived. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Porter Wagoner entered hospice care on Friday, October 26, 2007.

  “I went over on Sunday afternoon and spent the last few hours with Porter and his family,” Dolly recalls, “so I
was able to say good-bye. I sang for him and prayed with him. It felt good that I had the opportunity to say good-bye properly.” Porter died that night, on October 28, 2007.

  The funeral took place at the Opry House on November 1. Opry stars Marty Stuart, The Carol Lee Singers, Ricky Skaggs, The Whites, Patty Loveless, and Vince Gill sang for Porter. The gospel song “Drifting Too Far from the Shore,” Dolly’s final duet with Porter, was played over the loudspeakers. He’d been sending her a lot of gospel tunes during the previous year.

  She commented on that at the funeral. “I said, ‘Porter, are you cramming? After all those years living like we did?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I guess I am cramming.’ He was ready to go home. It’s a sad day for everybody but Porter.”

  Mourners included Porter’s Opry cast mates Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Hal Ketchum, Jan Howard, Jeannie Seely, Bill Anderson, Jim Ed Brown, Jimmy Dickens, Martina McBride, Charlie Louvin, Steve Wariner, Del McCoury, and George Jones. Dolly led them in singing “I Saw the Light,” then looked at the flower-topped casket at the foot of the Opry stage and said softly, “Good-bye, Porter.”

  “When Porter died, it was like a piece of me died with him,” Dolly told People magazine. “We were always so attached, musically and emotionally.”

  When Dolly Parton left Porter Wagoner in 1977, she was ready to put wings on her dreams. She was poised to go where no country star had gone before. She hired a Los Angeles manager and staged an all-out assault on mainstream show business.

  “I’m not leaving country,” she replied to her narrow-minded Nashville critics. “I’m taking it with me.”

  Musically, she began aiming at the pop hit parade. In 1977, the jaunty “Here You Come Again” topped both pop and country charts and earned her a Grammy Award. “Heartbreaker,” “You’re the Only One,” and “Starting Over Again” were all glossy ballads that were played in both formats as well. The propulsive “9 to 5” of 1980 was another pop and country chart-topper. It earned Dolly two Grammy Awards and was nominated for an Oscar as the theme song from the film of the same title.

  9 to 5, costarring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, became Dolly’s big-screen debut and a career triumph. She followed it with 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, opposite Burt Reynolds; 1984’s Rhinestone, opposite Sylvester Stallone; and the 1986 hit TV movie A Smokey Mountain Christmas, opposite Lee Majors and John Ritter. Wild Texas Wind (1991), Unlikely Angel (1996), and Blue Valley Songbird (1999) have been among her other made-for-TV starring vehicles.

  In 1989, Dolly held her own amid an Oscar-caliber cast including Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts, and Daryl Hannah in Steel Magnolias. In 1992, Straight Talk costarred her opposite James Woods.

  With her wit and glitz, she became a huge favorite on the TV talk-show circuit. Dolly’s over-the-top beauty, business savvy, quotable interview skills, and musical talent landed her in the pages of such mainstream publications as People, Time, Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone. She posed in a bunny outfit on the cover of Playboy in 1978, which drew a rebuke from Porter.

  As she promised, she took country music to places it had never been accepted before. She teamed up with fellow pop-country crossover star Kenny Rogers for the international smash duet hit “Islands in the Stream” in 1983. She reclaimed her Appalachian heritage with her acclaimed Trio album with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris in 1987. It won another Grammy. So did a track from their second get-together, Trio II, in 1999.

  Dolly was also showered with awards at home. The CMA named her its Female Vocalist of the Year in 1975 and 1976. She was named CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1978. Trio won a CMA Award in 1988. Her recording of “I Will Always Love You” as a duet with Vince Gill won a CMA Award in 1995, as did her 2006 collaboration with Brad Paisley “When I Get Where I’m Going.” She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986 and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

  Dolly Parton’s last solo chart-topping country hit to date occurred in 1991. Ironically, it was after that when she achieved some of her greatest commercial and artistic successes. In 1992, actor Kevin Costner suggested to his Bodyguard film costar Whitney Houston that she should record “I Will Always Love You.” The resulting single from the movie’s soundtrack became a gigantic smash, remaining at number one on the national pop charts for fourteen weeks. Dolly reportedly earned $6 million in royalties from that disc. In 1986, she’d opened Dollywood, and in the 1990s, the East Tennessee theme park became one of the most visited and profitable vacation destinations in the United States.

  Musically, she teamed up with fellow country queens Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette for the 1993 album Honky Tonk Angels. She scored a disco hit with her 1997 single of “Peace Train” and an adult-contemporary hit in 2004 with “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” a duet with Rod Stewart. The return-to-her-roots CDs Hungry Again (1998), The Grass Is Blue (1999), Little Sparrow (2000), and Halos and Horns (2002) were hailed as masterpieces. The Grass Is Blue won Dolly her sixth Grammy Award. “Shine,” a track from Little Sparrow, earned her a seventh.

  And this is where the reclusive Carl Dean reemerges from the shadows. Carl is a rock-music fan, and his taste in music has occasionally influenced his famous wife in recent years. On her 1996 Treasures CD is her version of the Katrina & The Waves pop hit “Walking on Sunshine.” The Grass Is Blue contains a bluegrass version of the Blackfoot rock song “Train, Train.” Dolly’s Grammy-winning version of “Shine” was a 1994 pop hit for Collective Soul. Halos and Horns contained an acoustic arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Her 2008 CD Backwoods Barbie contains her version of the Fine Young Cannibals classic “She Drives Me Crazy.” She learned all of these because of Carl’s listening preferences.

  “He’ll always be a rock and roller at heart,” says Dolly. “I get a lot of good ideas by listening to his music, like ‘Shine.’ I’m always hearing him playing his music, and I get all these great ideas. So it works out for us.

  “Carl is funny. He loves so many odd types of music. He’ll go from Frank Sinatra to loving a certain song of Merle Haggard’s. He’ll be listening to Bob Wills, then he’ll listen to acid rock.

  “He loves a lot of those old Broadway musicals. Every now and then, I’ll hear him singing songs from State Fair or Oklahoma! So I asked him, ‘Would you like to hear a couple of the things that I’m writing for the 9 to 5 Broadway musical?’ He said, ‘Well, yeah.’ Man, was he floored. He couldn’t believe it. He was just in tears. He said, ‘Now I may not know much about stuff, but that’s damn good. For you to have never done this before or to even know that world, this is as good as anything.’ So that really built my confidence and made me feel like I was on the right track. And it made me want to write more and more.

  “After a while, he said, ‘Do you got any more of that stuff from 9 to 5, the musical?’ He’s never been as involved in anything I’ve done like he has been with this 9 to 5 stuff. I was surprised, but he really encouraged me. Because I know he knows that world, that helped me a lot.

  “One of the things that has kept us together is our good sense of humor, and the fact that we make each other laugh, and that we’re just naturally funny. He just kills me. He’s a character of the world. That’s one of the things that made me fall in love with him to start with is his off-the-wall, crazy sense of humor.

  “And he still makes me laugh. It’s like we get funnier and better at that as the years go by. We both have the kind of humor that really gets to the other one. It’s like he thinks I’m the funniest person, and I know he is.

  “He loves his alone time, as I do. He’s very much a loner, and he doesn’t really like to be around anybody but me. And he don’t even want me under his feet all the time. So we’re very safe and secure in our relationship. It just works out the way that it does.

  “He does not want me to schedule anything around him. He wants me to do exactly what I please. And I want the same for him.

  �
�It’s just that when we are together, we have a great time. We have a lot to catch up on. We have a lot to talk about, because sometimes so much time has gone by. I still don’t like being away from Carl more than two weeks. I usually ain’t, if I’m in the States. The only time we’re really apart for more than two weeks at a time is if I’m on tour, like last year when we went to Europe for four weeks. That’s pretty hard. That’s when I’ll start calling twice or three times a week, as opposed to our usual Sundays when I’m gone. I miss him. I miss mostly that he makes me feel good and safe and secure. I sleep better in the house when I’m with Carl than I do anywhere else, because I know I’m safe and I’m home.”

  Dolly reports that she and Carl seldom have confrontations or strong disagreements. She believes his upbringing is partly the reason why.

  “Carl was the oldest in a family of three children. His father was in the war when Carl was born, so he was always much closer to his mom. I think he and his dad bickered a lot, because when he came home, his dad thought he was going to raise his son. But Carl was already four years old and already kind of set in his ways. So I think they had that love-hate relationship where they bickered back and forth a lot.

  “He still lived with his mom and dad when we got married. I really think that Carl was so glad to get the heck out of that house. He and his dad were in business together, too. They had the asphalt-paving company. So he loved his dad, of course. But they did argue.

  “I learned years ago, during our first days, don’t argue with Carl Dean, because you are not going to win. ’Cause he’s stubborn as a mule, and so am I. So we just never did get into that arguing thing.

 

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