Shine On with Reese

- -

So fun. Whoo!

-Cheers. -Cheers.

Hi!

I'm doing a show highlighting powerful,

ambitious women in different fields.

Let's go back to the top of the frame.

Okay, how did I do?

And I would love to share with you

what makes these women so inspirational to me.

Love, Reese.

If I was to try to describe myself, if no one had ever seen me,

I would say outrageous,

gaudy, friendly,

uh, warm and likeable, but really weird-looking.

You know how, like, kids feel about Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse,

like they go to Disneyland and they think,

"Oh, my gosh, there's Minnie Mouse,"

and it's the most...

extraordinary person they could meet in their life.

That's how I, as a grown-up woman, feel about Dolly Parton.

-Hi. Get in here. -Oh, my goodness.

-Out of the snow! My goodness. -Oh, my gosh.

-It's so good to see you. -It's cold out there.

Who knew this was gonna be a snowy day.

Gosh, how exciting.

-Let me fix your hair. -Okay. Thank you.

-Well, you had your hat on. -Got to take care of my hair.

Yeah, you look good.

I'm making breakfast. Come on in here.

Oh, my gosh. I am so excited.

With a career spanning six decades,

this 47-time Grammy nominee and Country Music Hall of Famer

is one of the most honored female artists of our time.

She's one of the kindest, warmest and smartest woman I know.

You didn't get better than that.

I had this idea to do a show about women that I really...

just love, admire,

I love what they're doing in their own industry,

in their discipline, um,

their journey to become a strong woman within that industry.

And of course, one of the first people I thought of

-was Dolly. -Ah.

Because no one, you know, in country music

has gone through more different iterations of,

um, being a businesswoman.

And success isn't limited.

And I think sometimes people think,

"Okay, well, there's only a certain amount of success

and if she gets it, I won't." But I just don't think that's true.

No, I think it's very helpful.

In fact, I know that was true outside the business in my own life.

It was like that with my sisters and I,

and my aunts and my grandmas and my mom.

You know, we just had this whole world of women

that kind of stuck together.

The women in the church,

like when we were going through things,

we were stronger together,

and I think that has carried on with me through the years in my career.

I always think back on that strength of women.

I remember being little.

I mean, I remember, this is so vivid...

-You're still little. -...for me. Okay. Well, short.

I was in kindergarten, skipping rope.

And I always was kind of a loner

and I was always singing to myself and I had big dreams.

And my PE teacher said to me,

"Reese, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

And I said, "I'm gonna be Dolly Parton."

And I meant it.

I did not even blink, and she said, "You're gonna be Dolly Parton?"

and I said, "Mmm-hmm.

I'm gonna be famous like Miss Dolly Parton

and she's from Tennessee and if she can do it,

then I can do it."

Well, you certainly did it with or without me for sure.

I've been in this business for 60 years. I started singing when I was ten.

So, it's just really been a journey,

you know, being brought up poor and country.

I barely got through high school and never went to college,

but I had my dreams earlier on. I knew what I wanted to do.

I grew up way up in, we call it "up in the holler,"

in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.

We were really just poor country people.

We had a house full of kids. There was 12 of us in all.

We are in order, Willadeene, David,

Denver, Dolly, Bobby, Stella, Cassie, Randy, Larry, Floyd, Freida and Rachel.

And in my early days, we didn't even have running water

unless we'd run and get it.

We worked our own fields, grew our own food,

canned our own food and raised our own hogs.

It was hard.

And my daddy was strict.

Daddy didn't want me getting out in the world.

-Yeah. -He didn't even want me to go to school.

-You know, he was a pastor. -Really?

But that wasn't in a bad way,

he just was afraid something bad was gonna happen to his girls,

but Mom knew that I had a strength.

She knew I knew what I wanted and who I was.

-Yeah. -So, she'd fight for me a lot

when I would wanna go places Daddy didn't want me to go.

To sing, like to Nashville with my Uncle Bill.

We would sleep in the car and that was our room.

My bedroom was the backseat and his was the front seat.

I'd wash my hair in the filling station bathrooms

and put makeup on in the side mirror of the car

-and that was just how you did it. -Wow.

So you learned to do all your hair and makeup and all that stuff by yourself?

-Oh, yeah. -How'd you learned to do all that

when they didn't have YouTube and tutorials and all that?

Oh, you don't need to learn a lot to know how to...

learn how to tease hair.

And early on, I wanted my hair bleached.

-Mmm-hmm. -And I remember one time

when I first bleached my hair, I was reading on the bottle and it said,

"Be careful." It said,

"Do not get in eyes.

-To do so may cause blindness." -Uh-huh.

So anyway, I was... We put the bleach on, and so,

we was at the well, my sister was rinsing it out.

And she was pouring water over my head

and it was getting in my eyes...

-Oh, no. -...and I just remember, I said,

"How do I get this out of my eyes? To do so may cause blindness."

And I was trying to get it out. I was just picturing it.

I may look pretty,

but I won't be able to see it 'cause I'll be blind.

And so, I was like,

"I didn't wanna be blind, I wanna be blonde."

Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Did record companies ever try to get you

-to change your looks or-- -Yes.

I was 18 when I came here.

-And so-- - Wait, wait, hold on.

You were 18 when you came to Nashville?

When I moved here for good.

I graduated from high school on a Friday night,

came here on a Saturday morning.

-Wow. -And, uh,

started working with Fred Foster

who owned Monument Records and Combine Music.

I was young and I was country

and so they were trying to classy me up a little.

They thought, well, maybe they could make me into a teenage star.

So they got a hairstylist and makeup artist and clothes.

Lord, I felt so uncomfortable and I wasn't even pretty.

I did not like the way I looked and my hair was flat and my...

I wanted more makeup.

I hate when my hair is flat, Dolly.

-Oh, I hate it. -I just can't stand it.

I just hated that look.

And I did a few records, teenybop kind of songs.

-Yeah. -And they didn't do anything.

I thought, "Oh, I don't wanna be this, I don't wanna be this,

I don't wanna be this. You gotta let me sing country."

Well, I think it's wonderful to have ambition.

You gotta get out and work, too.

I mean, a lot of women can kind of hide

behind a lot of stuff and just use the excuse

that "I didn't make it because I was a girl."

Well, you can make it if you'll get out

and be willing to sacrifice and work for it.

Ain't no man gonna stop you if you've got the talent.

You might have to work a little harder in your area,

but it can be done.

And I am a prime example.

I was 20 years old when I started with The Porter Wagoner Show.

Porter had the number one country syndicated television show at that time.

I mean, I was making no money

and he said, "Well, I can pay you $60,000 a year."

And I thought that was more money that I had ever heard of.

But the unfortunate thing is, it never changed.

Even after I got to be a star on the show,

'cause I was writing songs and so the more popular I got,

the more popular the show got and we got, and we--

-But then, your salary didn't change. -We fought a lot,

but I kept saying, "You know, don't you think I need a raise?"

Was it hard to get the courage to say that...

-Oh, yeah. It was hard. -...to your boss at that time?

I cried a lot and he was very strong-willed.

But I pretended like I was talking to one of my uncles

or one of my brothers and saying, "You're not pushing me around."

-Right. Yeah. -I'm a songwriter.

And I ain't your girl singer forever.

-I was out to be a solo artist. -Yeah.

And I was still wanting to have my own band.

I wanna have my own show, I wanna have my own life.

I don't wanna just be the girl singer in somebody else's group.

And that's when I wrote "I Will Always Love You."

So I went back the next morning and I said,

"Sit down. I have something I wanna play for you."

So I sang "I Will Always Love You," and Porter was crying

and he said, "That's the best song you ever wrote.

Okay, you can go.

But I have to produce the song..."

Oh, my goodness.

And so it was a couple of years later, but it was all right.

Because that's how you learn to maneuver.