Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks co-hosted the 2023 Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM). During the show, Dolly strayed from her country music roots and performed what is being described as her first-ever rock single. It turns out that the song is about politicians, also a turn for the performer who has prided herself on staying out of politics. Prior to hosting the event, Parton launched a pop-up shop, “Dolly! All Access,” for fans in Frisco, Texas. She spoke with fans there.
Dolly is a successful businesswoman with lines of merchandise and a strong connection to her fans.
Parton’s pop-up shop attracted super fans from all over to possibly get a chance to see the country music star in person. Included at the pop-up is merchandise available for purchase, such as her perfume line and memorabilia on display from throughout her career.
“We hope that everyone will enjoy having this pop-up shop and all the merchandise,” Parton said. “People love to look at that and of course I’m always involved in a little bit of everything. As I mentioned before, I have a wonderful group of people that work really hard, and I get a lot of credit for a lot of stuff that other people do. I’m very proud of how the store is put up. Those are my things, my costumes, and we packed them up and sent them out of Nashville to here. My team did a really great job.”
Throughout her career, Dolly has remained apolitical. It’s been a balancing act in recent years as the country got so divided along political lines. She has explained in the past that her mother was a Democrat and her father a Republican. She said that she has fans from both sides of the aisle and doesn’t want to upset anyone with political opinions. That’s admirable in this day and age when celebrities and public figures are eager to virtue-signal along political lines. Now, however, it looks like Dolly is making a bit of a shift. She is, though, making it a bipartisan, equal opportunity type of smack to politicians. She’s had it will all of them. She performed “World on Fire” for the first time during the ACM awards show.
Straying away from her country roots and debuting her first ever rock single, Parton sings “Don’t get me started on politics / Now how are we to live in a world like this/ Greedy politicians present and past / They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ‘em in the a–.”
When asked what politicians she was referencing, Parton flatly stated “All of ’em. Any of ‘em.”
“I don’t think any of ‘em are trying hard enough. I’m sure we’re all trying, but I just really think – I think often that they worry more about their party than they do about the people,” she elaborated in an interview on “Today.”
“If we just do what we felt was the right thing, rather than who’s going to lose, or who’s going to win this, or who’s going to look better if they do this. None of them are working from the heart.”
She speaks for a lot of people. It’s a common complaint to hear that people are just fed up with all politicians. Trust is gone and it looks like they are just out for whatever is in their best interests. It’s a big reason the populist movement and Trump rose in 2015. He attacked Republicans as well as Democrats.
Though the song discusses politics, she doesn’t want to be seen as political. That ship has probably sailed. She was doing pretty good at remaining above the fray as she explained in the past about turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom honor from former President Trump, twice, and how she had rejected the same honor from President Biden. None of her reasons were political. The reasons were due to her husband’s health problems and also the pandemic. She’s known for philanthropy, especially in literacy programs for children and adults and for contributing millions to Vanderbilt University toward the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
She explains why she wrote the song on her website.
“This is a song I felt very inspired to write. I think it speaks about everything and to everyone this day and time. I hope it is something that will touch you and maybe touch enough people to want to make a change for the better,” she wrote.
Her rock and roll album “Rockstar” is scheduled to be released in November.
