After more than five decades of stardom, it’s fair to say Dolly Parton knows a thing or two about the industry — but don’t call her “Dollyisms” advice.
“You can’t really give advice,” the country legend, 73, says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “Like I say, I have information, but it’s really not right to try to tell somebody else how to live their life.”
In the “Jolene” episode of her upcoming Netflix series, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, Parton plays the mentor to Julianne Hough’s character, who’s in the music business. In real life, Parton likes to give young stars information rather than advice because of her own experience starting out in the music industry.
“When I first came to Nashville wearing all my makeup and big hair and showing my big t—ts, my dear friend Chet Atkins said, ‘Now Dolly, you’re never going to be taken serious if you don’t dress down,’” she recalls. “I said, ‘It’s me. I have to be this way.’ Years later, I became a big star.”
“I was advised by a lot of people how I was doing things wrong when I came in,” she continues. “I thought, ‘How can I do things wrong when it’s about me? I will know it if it’s wrong. I will know it because I’m that in tune with myself and that in tune with God. It may not always turn out right from me, but I’m still safer in doing what feels right in my gut and in my heart.’ That’s why I say it’s not advice. There are things that I say, ‘You don’t need to ever do this.’ But we know what those are anyway. If someone just point blank asked me something, I’ll give them my take on it. But I still ain’t going to advise them.”
And when it comes to her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, Parton says, “Who am I to tell Miley what to do?”
“Lord, I’ve done everything, and what I ain’t done, I intend to,” Parton says. “She’s going to do that, too. But Miley’s smart; Miley knows what she’s doing. I know we think she doesn’t, and she might not every minute, but I still know that she’s got good stuff in her.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: Yahoo Entertainment