Dolly Parton Did the ‘Dumbest Thing Possible’ With Her Career, Said a Music Exec
In the 1970s, Dolly Parton began to face some backlash in Nashville for the direction in which she was taking her career. Parton, who wanted success on the pop charts, became less of a fixture in the country music scene. She skipped one event, which a music executive said was a catastrophic mistake.
Dolly Parton made a major career mistake in the eyes of a music executive
In 1977, Parton was on tour at the same time that the Country Music Association was hosting Fan Fair. The event allowed fans to see live music, visit exhibit booths, and potentially meet artists. Parton wasn’t there, but fans believed she was after an announcement rang out saying she would be giving autographs at the RCA booth. While this wasn’t her fault, people grew frustrated with her.
“She had deserted her country music fans,” a Music Row executive said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She has to realize that she’s starting all over again with the pop fans, and they’re nowhere as loyal as the country music people.”
The executive believed Parton could have won people back over if she had attended Fan Fair. In their eyes, it had been a mistake to skip it.
“That was the dumbest thing possible not to come to Fan Fair,” they said.
Dolly Parton worried some of her crossover music could hurt her career
While Parton wanted to expand her reach as an artist, she did have concerns about alienating her original audience. When she released the song “Here You Come Again” in 1977, she worried putting it out as a single would turn away her country fans. Her manager, Sandy Gallin, pushed her to do it anyway.
“I resisted it, saying, ‘I don’t want to scare my audience to death,’” she wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “I wanted to put out ‘Two Doors Down’ first. Sandy said, ‘We’ll do it later. This is your first song. It’s going to be a giant hit. You’ve got to trust me sooner or later.’ I trusted him.”
Luckily, the song was a hit.
“I am very glad. He was right about all of it,” she wrote. “‘Here You Come Again’ was a huge hit, my first million seller. I will always be indebted to Sandy for his vision as well as to Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for such a great song. Gary Klein did a first-class job of producing the record, and the Scotti brothers did an equally top-notch job promoting it. I had a big hit.”
She disappointed people when she didn’t go to Dolly Parton Day
In 1976, Parton disappointed people in her hometown when she was unable to make it to the annual Dolly Parton Day celebration. The following year, she attended the festivities, but it wasn’t the same as it had been in years past. Parton used to spend hours chatting with the attendees. This time, though, she rushed out shortly after her performance.
“She came in on the bus and they kept her there until a few minutes before rehearsal, when the boys herded her down the hall, ran through a rehearsal, and then got her back on the bus,” Parton’s former principal, Jack McMahan, said. Of course, I realize that more people wanted to see her than she would have time to talk to, but even her mother only got to see her a few minutes. Mrs. Parton said, ‘Well, I gave her to the public three or four years ago, and that’s the way it’s been ever since. I hardly ever get a chance to really see or talk to her.’”
While people were proud of her success, they wished she had the flexibility of a smaller artist.
