On her latest concert tour, Parton said, “I am actually excited about it. We have done a few shows here and there over the last several years. Everything seems to be going really good right now. With the success of ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and with the success of our ‘Blue Smoke’ CD and our tour in Europe, it got a lot of attention here too. A lot of the promoters and a lot of the fans asked us to do a tour here, and I said ‘okay, if you want me to, I will.’ It seemed to be a good time to do it. We are going to be touring from June through the middle of December, and I am looking forward to it.”
A Country Music Hall of Famer, Parton revealed that her set-list will include the old favorites such as “Coat of Many Colors,” “Jolene,” “Two Doors Down,” “9 to 5,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Islands in the Stream,” “Here You Come Again,” as well as three or four songs from her upcoming Pure & Simple CD, which is made up of love songs. “I will be talking about home and we’ve got something of everything I believe,” she said.
Parton will be opening her set with the title track of her new album “Pure & Simple,” which she dubbed as one of her favorite songs from that collection. “I thought it would be the perfect little song to open the show with,” she said.
On June 25, Parton will be performing at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, New York. “We will be doing all the favorites, and we will have our corny jokes. I think we will have some fun things for everybody. As far as the band, it is just the four of us on stage, and we swap off different instruments, and it is scaled down, and it is pretty much just us,” she said with a sweet laugh.
She continued, “You always have to do the songs that the fans demand. We will do two or three songs from the new album. I think people expect a little bit of gospel songs in there as well. It’s really hard to know what to pick to get the dynamics that you need for the show, but I work real hard trying to give it my best.”
Regarding the secret of keeping young all these years, Parton said with a sweet laugh, “Good doctor, good lighting, good make-up and a good attitude.”
Most recently, Parton performed with pop superstar Katy Perry at the 2016 Academy of Country Music (ACM) awards. When asked if there will be any special guest musicians joining her on this tour, Parton said, “Well, not that I know of. If they should show up, I bet you I wouldn’t refuse them, since they have a lot of fans. I am very touched when those girls love me, and I really appreciate what they do.”
When asked if there is a difference when she sings in the studio vs. performing live, Parton said, “Oh yeah. In the studio, you are always having to think about making sure you get the right sound and making sure you have the right microphone, but when you are on stage, when you are performing live, then you really feel like it is all done now, and it has all been created. You can get out there and see how the people like it and you can actually perform it, so there’s a big difference.”
Parton paid tribute to the late Merle Haggard and praised him for being a “wonderful, dear friend.” While she never had the chance to sing a duet with him, they used to ride on each other’s buses, and she considers his death a major loss in the music industry. “His music, like Hank Williams’s, will live on forever,” Parton said.
Her bucket list would include someday seeing her life-story made into a Broadway musical, and she would like to have her own cosmetic line.
For more information on veteran country star Dolly Parton and her upcoming tour dates, check out her official website.
