Rest in eternal peace, Dolly 🦋
- Aug 26
- 2 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
August 26, 1978 — exactly 48 years ago today — my mom took me to see Dolly Parton perform at the Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I’d discovered Dolly’s music about a year before, after hearing her on her TV show singing “I Will Always Love You.” That song, that performance, stopped me dead in my tracks. At the time I was in high school and the lead singer of a rock ‘n’ roll band. After discovering Dolly, I was converted — so much so that I brought one of her albums to band practice and asked the guys to learn a song off it. I thought they’d share my enthusiasm. They didn’t. In fact, they said, “We think we need a new lead singer,” and that was that. They fired me on the spot. Not to mention that all of my friends were listening to Bachman Turner, overdrive Led Zeppelin, Kiki, D, etc., etc., rock ‘n’ roll bands and they thought I had lost my mind and maybe a little weird. I was 100% OK with that.
I think the rock band did me a favor. I went on to become a country and bluegrass songwriter. The first song I ever learned to play on guitar was Dolly’s “To Daddy.” A few songs later, I wrote one called “Pennsylvania Is My Home,” and it was nominated for state song of Pennsylvania — twice — under a Senate bill. It was country and bluegrass, through and through, and a lot of folks on the Philadelphia side of the state felt a rock ‘n’ roll song would suit them better. Pennsylvania never did adopt a state song until many years later— too much regional divide, imagine that. But the song came straight out of Dolly: her writing about her home state, her pride in it, her love of those majestic mountains. She gave me the inspiration, and more than that, she gave me permission — permission to write, permission to believe it was okay. That’s the kind of thing a young songwriter from a small town needs. I carried that with me my whole career. I don’t think she ever knew what she meant to me. But that’s okay — the people who know me know my story. My daughters sure do!
Driving back from the Gatlinburg Songwriter Festival, I was thinking about a photo I snapped of Dolly stepping off her tour bus the night of that concert, 48 years ago almost to the day. Cause after all, myself and some of my favorite songwriters and friends had just shared our songs and fellowship in her hometown. I looked down and saw a text from my daughter, Sara Jean, telling me Dolly had just passed. Then the messages from friends started coming in — checking on me, sharing their own memories. The synchronicity is not lost on me. Though it was a long and tear filled drive home.
I’m going to share the photo now. I’ll have more to say as the days go on. Thanks for reading.
Rest in eternal peace, Dolly 🦋
Comments