Dolly Parton’s Guitarist Thought It Was ‘Dumb’ for Her to Tour With Willie Nelson
Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson have been friends since her early days in Nashville. The pair have collaborated over the years on music and television. They even toured Texas together in the 1970s. While Parton never had a problem with Nelson himself, the tour was not her best. Members of her band recalled the difficulty of the tour, and her guitarist said it was “dumb” to have even gone on it.
Dolly Parton’s band said her tour with Willie Nelson was a mistake
In the 1970s, Parton, who was trying to expand her reach as a solo artist, joined Nelson on a tour of his native Texas. The crowds they performed to were largely there to see Nelson. They talked, drank, and shouted for Nelson as Parton tried to perform. It was a challenge both for her and her band.
“The Texas tour wasn’t one of the highlights when I was with her,” backup singer Mary Fielder said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash.
Guitarist Don Roth agreed. He said their first night opening for Nelson had been a nightmare.
“It got better because we started demanding sound crew,” Roth said. “The sound got to where it was mediocre — all the way up to mediocre. But that first night, it was absurd. But the rest of the tour went about the same, as far as the crowd. We did only twenty or thirty minutes in front of Willie. We took our money and ran.”
Roth believed Parton’s record label, RCA, saw the tour as a training ground for Parton and her new band. The problem was, the sound systems were consistently terrible and some crowds didn’t care about their music.
“I don’t know why we were there. Oh, yes I do. RCA wanted a throwaway tour for Dolly to polish up the new band,” he said. “They didn’t know the new band was all professionals and didn’t need polishing. RCA thought, ‘Give ’em a chance to get out and work with a big sound system’ that we’d never had. Eight cities in two weeks. That was a dumb thing to put her and Willie together.”
Dolly Parton said the first night on her tour with Willie Nelson was the worst
Parton spoke more fondly of the tour than Fielder and Roth. While she acknowledged that she hadn’t enjoyed the first show — people began chanting Nelson’s name as she performed — the other dates were not nearly as bad in her eyes.
“We had some problems with a few things — not with each other — but, like the night you were in Waco we had some sound problems and all that,” Parton told Nash, who attended the first show. “And the crowd was different. Different for me even than they were for Willie, but they accepted us both very well.”
She said she was sorry Nash had been there to witness the first night.
“I mean, Texas people just love music. But I’m glad I did it. The first night was the worst night we had. They’d just built a new sound system, and we had some problems,” she said. “But the first night was the only night like that. I’m just sorry that had to be the one you saw.”
Her band still sounded noticeably better than they had before
Though Roth believed the tour had been a mistake plagued by sound issues, he still said the band played better than they had in the past. Parton had been touring with her family band and had recently hired an entirely new group. With the help of band leader Gregg Perry, Parton’s band sounded more polished and professional.
“Well, as I understand it, the first show was real country bumpkin,” Roth said. “They would just sort of walk out on stage and everybody started tuning up, and then Dolly’d come out, and then they’d stop and tune between songs. But then they got Gregg [Perry, Dolly’s band leader and piano player], and with his experience on the road, he said, ‘If you want to tune your guitar, you tune it offstage. You walk out, the show starts, and that’s it.’”
Parton and Perry continued to work closely together for several years.
