Dolly Parton wasn't just travelin' thru

I'm out here on my journey, trying to make the most of it

I'm a puzzle, I must figure out where all my pieces fit.

- Travelin' Thru, Dolly Parton


As I read these lyrics in the week of Parton's passing, it feels like they were written for her obituary. Not only do they perfectly represent life in general - hers and ours - but they're also an example of her genius and empathy.

Parton wrote and sang 'Travelin' Thru' for the 2005 film Transamerica, in which Felicity Huffman played a transgender woman on a road trip with her son. Through lines that could apply to just about anyone, she drove home the truth that those we perceive as The Other are no different from each of us.

Country music does not have a mass following in India. So if you want a Beginner's Guide to Dolly, I suggest starting with 'Jolene,' 'I Will Always Love You,' 'Coat of Many Colors,' the feminist anthem '9 to 5' - from the pathbreaking blockbuster of the same name in which she also starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin - 'Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That' and 'Islands In the Stream,' her duet with Kenny Rogers.

The Tennessee-born Parton is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, a much-feted actor, producer, and multi-millionaire businessperson. I loved her music. But more importantly, I was inspired by her pizzazz, philanthropy, progressive views, and the stories behind some of her songs.

Parton was born into poverty, and never forgot her roots. 'Coat of Many Colors,' for instance, was a poignant ode to her mother sewing a multi-coloured coat for her from 'a box of rags that someone gave us'. In the 1990s, her Dollywood Foundation launched an education initiative called The Imagination Library, 'because my father could not read and write and I saw how crippling that could be'. Every child enrolled in the programme is gifted a book every month until they turn 5. It started in her home county in of Sevier County, Tennessee, expanded US-wide, and now operates in some other countries too.

Parton opposed homophobia and publicly supported marriage equality long before it was cool to do so, saying with characteristic humour in a 2014 interview, 'I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. They should suffer just like us heterosexuals.'

One of my favourite Dolly Parton stories is the one about Elvis Presley in the 1970s showing interest in recording her superhit, 'I Will Always Love You'. Forbes notes that the King of Rock 'N' Roll wanted half the publishing rights, which would have guaranteed him a 50% cut of royalties for as long as he owned the rights. Parton said no.

She told the magazine W in 2021, 'I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart - I cried all night. But I had to keep that copyright in my pocket. You have to take care of your business! Everybody's going to use you if they can.' The decision proved tremendously profitable since Whitney Houston's cover of the song in the 1992 film Bodyguard became an international rage, making millions for the original copyright owner.

But Parton wore her brilliance lightly, wrapping it in a distinctive package of giant blonde wigs, talons for fingernails, rhinestone-studded flashy outfits, and overtly heavy makeup.

Gifted artists sometimes burden us with the dilemma of having to figure out whether the only way to love their work is to separate the art from the artist. Parton leaves us with no such burden. Her artistic output was supremely entertaining and routinely - often unobtrusively - political. But her politics was not confined to her art. She walked the talk through her charitable works and advocacy for the marginalised, leaving no room for doubt that in her case, the art was the artist.