Dolly Parton has opened up about her complicated relationship with her early mentor, country star Porter Wagoner.
The music icon was just 21 when she joined Wagoner’s variety television series The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967, and the pair released a series of duets as well as touring together until 1974. Wagoner died from lung cancer in 2007.
Writing in her new book Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, Parton recalls her excitement at being offered the opportunity to replace Wagoner’s previous duet partner, Norma Jean.
“He offered me $60,000 a year – but that was like $1 million to me!” she writes. “That was a lot of money back then.”
However, as Parton’s career exploded and her name became more established, she began to feel that she was not being fairly compensated for her contribution to their tours with Wagoner’s band, The Wagonmasters.
“Porter made a lot of money as our stars rose, and he shared some of the wealth,” recalls Parton. “The Wagonmasters all got bonus checks now and again, and Porter showered me with gifts. He gave me necklaces, rings, and a Cadillac, and those presents got a lot of attention in the media.”
She adds: “But my paycheck never changed through all of that. I kept asking for a raise and never got one. He would buy me all these things and say, ‘Consider that your raise.’ I said, ‘I don’t want the gifts. I want to buy my own gifts. I want the money.’”
While there may have been tension behind the scenes, on stage, Parton says the pair had such natural chemistry that many fans assumed they were in a relationship. Parton was married to the reclusive Carl Dean from 1966 until his death earlier this year. Wagoner was married to Ruth Olive Williams from 1946 to 1986.
“Fans would sometimes ask if we were married, and I’d usually tell them, ‘Yes, but not to each other!’” writes Parton in her new book. “I did love Porter in my own way, and since it seemed we were always together and Carl didn’t appear often in public, my husband was almost like a ghost to the fans. Their fascination with Porter and me was bound to keep tongues wagging, and it did.”
However, Parton explains that friction between the pair continued to grow, especially when he tried to dictate which songs she could perform on stage.
“Little things like that caused us to start having a lot of problems,” she writes. “I was making my way as an artist, and he was already an established one. It was his show, but I was trying to grow in the business and grow as an artist myself.
“But trying to grow within somebody else’s show when he takes everything as a threat or gets mad if you’re getting more attention than him — what ends up growing is tension. You have to know your own place, so to speak, and my place was anywhere I felt I needed to be. I thought, You ain’t my director. God is.”
Star of the Show: My Life on Stage is published by Ten Speed Press in the United States today, and by Ebury Press in the United Kingdom on 13 November.
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