Dolly Parton Reflects On Her ‘Lucky Numbers’ Birthday, Discusses New Music And Her Duncan Hines Partnership

You know her name, you certainly know her face and you better know the lifetime of music she has treated us all to over the years. Well today, Dolly Parton is also treating us to some of her favorite baking treats with her ongoing partnership with Duncan Hines, including her newly launched cornbread, biscuits and brownie mixes.

“We had to continue our southern line of cooking because we did such a good job, made such a sensation, when we put out our first stuff with my partnership with Duncan Hines,” Dolly tells me. “It seemed to be a match made in heaven, so then they thought ‘Well, we need to add more of that good southern stuff,’ so that’s when we came up with all the things you just talked about.”

Coming from such a celebrated background in music with her timeless hits like “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene,” her memorable acting performances in films like 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, as well as her many other project creations over the past several decades, I wondered what has excited Dolly most to continue bringing these specific baking products to kitchens everywhere today.

“Well, it’s just always fun to talk about cooking. I think everybody has to eat, so everybody has to cook something, whether you’re a good cook or not. Duncan Hines has always been famous for having great recipes on the back of the boxes, whatever the mix may be. So, if you’re not even a good cook – a guy like you or some young bride that doesn’t know how to cook, you can always do it on the back of all these things that you can buy off the shelves. Me myself, I’ve always been a good southern cook because I grew up in a big family with aunts and grandmas and my mom’s cooking, so I know how to do it without a box, but it’s always great and handy to have somebody do it for you.”

Today, Dolly celebrates another birthday, while remaining at the top of her game, and she does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. “I’ll be 77 this year and those are my lucky numbers and I’ve got a lot of great things going, this partnership with Duncan Hines being one of them. I’m also dropping a song that I’ve written, so it thought ‘Well, this would be a fun time to do that.’ So, I’m doing that and then I’m going to be getting back in the studio, working on a rock & roll album.”

Knowing everything going on in Dolly’s world today, I asked the trailblazing superstar how her outlook and her ways in business have perhaps evolved since the earlier years in her career.

“My life just gets better and better,” continues Dolly. “I get older and older but I don’t feel it and I don’t work it. I just try to still work like I did when I was young, but life has been good to me. I’ve been very blessed and I’ve always wondered what life would be if I was successful with my work and how people would see me in my later years – and now I’m here and it’s nice to know that I seem to be still important in the world and I can still do some things to try to help make life a little bit better, if I can. So, it’s been a great journey – it’s had its ups-and-downs but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I don’t know what else I’d do, if not this.”

Late last year, Dolly was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which fueled her interest in assembling an upcoming rock album titled “Rock Star” with fellow music artists Stevie Nicks, Cher, her goddaughter Miley Cyrus and many more. So, I wondered what Dolly is most looking forward to sharing with fans about this different type of sound coming from her on this new album.

“Well, I think that people are going to be really happy,” Dolly says. “We also have people like Paul McCartney and Elton John and Simon [Le Bon] from Duran Duran, who we went into the Hall of Fame together. Pat Benatar and Joan Jett and we’ve just got a whole bunch of great people on the album. Iconic songs, iconic singers and a lot of iconic musicians like Ringo Starr and Mick Fleetwood, so we’ve got great artists all around. I’ve just really put my whole heart and soul into it. I’ve never done a rock album and I’ll never do another one. It will be a double album, so I won’t need to do another one, so I wanted to give it everything I’ve got.”

Beyond the various business projects that Dolly chooses to take on today, she continues to give much of her time and energy to giving back to others with her many philanthropic priorities. In the spring of 2020, Dolly donated $1 million to Covid-19 research at Vanderbilt University that ultimately helped lead to the Moderna vaccine. Her beloved Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas. This year also marks 35 years since her Dollywood Foundation was first created, providing scholarships to high school seniors. So with all of the ways that Dolly makes a difference, I was curious what continues to inspire her to want to help other people all around the world.

“Well, I think we all should help one another,” Dolly continues. “Life has been good to me and God has been good to me, so the least I can do is try to give back in the ways that I can. I’ve been blessed and to whom much is given, much is required. So, I just kind of look at it like that’s my job – it’s something I’m supposed to do, need to do and want to do.”

With so much already on Dolly’s plate right now, I still wondered if there might be any areas of business or other industries that she still would like to have a hand in at some point in the coming years.

Dolly reveals, “Well, I’m actually hoping to start my own network and actually have movies and other programming on that, so that’s something that is coming up. I’m writing a cookbook with my sister Rachel, doing a movie based on the novel that I wrote with James Patterson called Run, Rose, Run. We’re doing that this summer, so there’s a whole lot of good things that I want to do, but I guess the network would be one of the things that I have not dabbled in of my own. I never know! I wake up with new dreams everyday.”

As I began to conclude my conversation with Dolly, I left her with one final question – Today in 2023, what brings Dolly Parton the most joy? What is it about your days or the things you are involved in that make you happiest about being alive right here and now?

Dolly says, “Well, that I can do what I do. That I’ve been blessed to still seem to be important in the world, musically and all the other things that we do. It makes me happy to bring some joy and shine some light on some of the things that where a lot of people are walking in darkness now. That’s kind of like the song that I’m going to be dropping tomorrow. It’s called ‘Don’t Make Me Have To Come Down There’ and it’s from God’s point of view, like a father saying ‘I’ve let you try my patience, as all good fathers do. You’re on my last nerve! I’ve had it up to here with you – don’t make me have to come down there.’ So, I just really kind of try to keep myself in a place where I can make people think, if nothing else, whether it be my songs or something I might say or some way that I might be.”