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Photo from Dolly Parton’s Instagram
How Dolly Parton Keeps Faith ‘First And Foremost’ In Her Life
By Movieguide® Contributor
Dolly Parton sat down with country singers Maddie & Tae, Jessie James Decker and Callie Twisselman in the YouTube video, “Dolly: God Family and Show Business.”
The group recently released a collaborative version of “Gonna Be You,” a song Parton had previously recorded with Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s and Blondie’s Debbie Harry.
In the video, Parton revealed how she relies on her faith to keep her “grounded” in the music business.
“To me, my faith is what keeps me strong, and I start my day with that,” she said. “I’m a very early riser, so the first thing I do when I get up is do my spiritual work, and I always say I live on creating spiritual energy. And so I feel like if I make that time for God and my spiritual self in the mornings, then I can draw on that all day long, and all night long, for that matter.”
The singer spoke of the scripture 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17 — “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.”
“I used to think that was the silliest thing I ever heard,” Parton laughed. “But that just means to keep that in your mind, just to where it’s planted in there, and then you can kind of always draw from there, all through the day. And so you apply that — or I do — to everything I do. I think it’s very important to keep that first and foremost, and then that keeps you strong and that keeps you grounded.”
Parton frequently talks about the importance of her faith, telling AllRecipes, “God, music and food were the three big things in our family.”
Recently, Parton made headlines for her substantial donation to aid in relief efforts following the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene on the Appalachian region.
“We all have seen the devastation,” she said at a press conference announcing her gift of $1 million. “I mean, who knew in our little part of the country here where I was born, raised just right down the road, that we would have this kind of devastation? And I look around, and I think these are my mountains, these are my valleys. These are my rivers flowing like a stream. These are my people, these mountain-colored rainbows. These are my people. And this is my home.”
Parton continued, “I know it’s easy for us to say, ‘Oh, things are going to get better’ when things are still really bad. All we can say is that we are with you. We love you. We hope that things get better real soon, and we’re going to do our part to try to make that possible. We love you, and we appreciate you. And we thank you. And I think that with God’s help and all the help of all these good people, we’ll make it.”
Movieguide® previously reported on a conversation about faith Parton had with musical collaborator Zach Williams:
About faith, Parton said, “I grew up in church. My grandfather was a preacher. So I was taught that through God, all things are possible, and I’ve always believed that, and I’ve applied that in everything I do…People say, ‘How in the world do you do everything you do?’ I say, well, I live on spiritual and creative energy, and when I can’t do it on my own, I just try to pull in that faith.”
Parton has often spoken about how her faith affects everything she does and that all things are possible through God. She told Fox last year that she thinks of her relationship with God as her “guiding light.”
“It’s hard to kind of walk by faith and not by sight, to…believe in something you can’t see but when people [have] faith though, you really feel like you really need that so you just create it,” Parton said. “You know, I just create those images of it in my own mind and really be in there and it really helps a lot. Faith is a mighty thing.”
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