Oct 10, 2026 · 17 min · 9 segments
The Dolly Parton Connection - Dean talks about his family's connection to the great Dolly Parton. He shares stories and insights into Dolly, her career and the way their paths crossed…
Dean MillerHost
They met on The Porter Wagoner Show in the late 1960s, and at the time that my dad did that show, he was a big worldwide, well-known, uh, singer at that time, but he had already been well-established in the Nashville music community.
So lots of people knew him, everybody knew him, and he was kind of a, a cool figure in the Nashville music community.
And he had moved off to California and was doing all kinds of cool things, um, but he came back to Nashville, uh, and he was here to do The Porter Wagoner Show.
And if you look on YouTube and around places, there are clips from this show, and it is absolutely amazing.
And, um, you can see her on the show, and a lot of times when my dad is doing his schtick, uh, you can see Dolly in the background just laughing uncontrollably.
And they sing together, and they do a bunch of different sketches and different things on the show.
He makes a lot of really, uh, wild jokes, uh, sometimes at Porter's expense, but it's really, it's really cool to watch if you wanna watch that episode.
Um, but that's where they met, and I think that they had a mutual respect for each other's songwriting.
Um, Dolly always, uh, discussed my dad's music and his songs and quoted his songs and quoted his lyrics, and she always mentioned him as being really, really cool.
And, um, years later, I did an interview with Dolly, and she talked all about that, but I'll talk about that later.
In fact, when I started writing songs, my dad told me I should go and study Dolly Parton's songs, and he told me in particular to study the songs that were not her hits, the ones that were album cuts, because he wanted me to study her cool words.
He thought she was a real wordsmith and came up with some amazing images and lyrics.
Um, and then if you are combing around on YouTube and you wanna see some more stuff about Dolly Parton and my dad, uh, they did a show with Burt Reynolds.
They met on The Porter Wagoner Show in the late 1960s, and at the time that my dad did that show, he was a big worldwide, well-known, uh, singer at that time, but he had already been well-established in the Nashville music community.
So lots of people knew him, everybody knew him, and he was kind of a, a cool figure in the Nashville music community.
And he had moved off to California and was doing all kinds of cool things, um, but he came back to Nashville, uh, and he was here to do The Porter Wagoner Show.
And if you look on YouTube and around places, there are clips from this show, and it is absolutely amazing.
And, um, you can see her on the show, and a lot of times when my dad is doing his schtick, uh, you can see Dolly in the background just laughing uncontrollably.
And they sing together, and they do a bunch of different sketches and different things on the show.
He makes a lot of really, uh, wild jokes, uh, sometimes at Porter's expense, but it's really, it's really cool to watch if you wanna watch that episode.
Um, but that's where they met, and I think that they had a mutual respect for each other's songwriting.
Um, Dolly always, uh, discussed my dad's music and his songs and quoted his songs and quoted his lyrics, and she always mentioned him as being really, really cool.
And, um, years later, I did an interview with Dolly, and she talked all about that, but I'll talk about that later.
In fact, when I started writing songs, my dad told me I should go and study Dolly Parton's songs, and he told me in particular to study the songs that were not her hits, the ones that were album cuts, because he wanted me to study her cool words.
He thought she was a real wordsmith and came up with some amazing images and lyrics.
Um, and then if you are combing around on YouTube and you wanna see some more stuff about Dolly Parton and my dad, uh, they did a show with Burt Reynolds.
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