Dolly Parton graced the January/February cover of Southern Living in honor of celebrating nearly 40 years since the opening of her theme park Dollywood in 1986 in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
“I was dreaming of a place called Dollywood for a long, long time,” she said in a clip aired on TODAY. “I’m just so proud that after 40 years that it’s just been great for family. I’m proud of every bit of it — I love the shows, I love the food, and of course, we love the resorts now that we have.”
In addition to sharing her favorite parts of the park, Parton, 78, opened up about the legacy of the park in Southern Living, and revealed what food she always has to have when she visits.
“The funnel cakes we’re famous for, so I never go there … even if I’m in my bus or if I’m in my suite, The Dolly Suite, I say, ‘Run and get me some funnel cakes. I can’t leave here without funnel cakes,’” she said. “I have to say, we have some of the best foods ever at Dollywood.”
Dollywood opened in 1986, and now boasts more than 50 rides and attractions across 165 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains, according to the park’s website.
Nearly 40 years ago, Parton spoke on TODAY about what the opening had been like for her theme park in the Smoky Mountains.
“All week I’ve felt sorta like Alice in Wonderland — there’s a little area up here where I used to live, called Boogertown, so I guess I sorta feel like Alice in Boogertown,” she said with a grin.
In her interview with Southern Living, the country icon also shared more of the backstory of her hit song “Jolene,” which Beyoncé recently covered and performed at the “Beyoncé Bowl,” the Christmas Day halftime performance during the NFL game between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens.
Parton described going to the bank with her new husband Carl Thomas Dean as he asked for a loan, and the red-headed clerk seemed more than friendly to her.
“I told him, ‘I don’t believe this long-legged, beautiful girl is who you ought to be talking to about asphalt,’” she said.
Parton recorded her hit track in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1973, and the single has since been certified platinum — three times — by the RIAA.
“If it happened,” Parton said, “I wrote a song about it.”
But she did explain that she changed the name of the clerk, and borrowed the name Jolene from a performer she once saw.
“I changed the names to protect the guilty,” she said.
