Following in the footsteps of such legends as Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell and Neil Diamond, the ever-youthful Dolly Parton has given her fans the rarest of jewels: an album where production is pared back, and the beauty and expression of her voice is front and center.
Why did you decide to go back to your roots for your new stripped down album and tour, Pure &Simple?
I just wanted to do a plain and simple album. We decided early on that we were going to do a tour, so we really kind of stripped down the band and didn’t have that many people or a big production. We were calling our tour Pure & Simple and I thought “Well, we need an album.” I didn’t have time to do one but I thought “Well, we need one – what should it be about? Well, it should be pure and it should be simple.” It should be probably about love since this was my 50th anniversary this year and I thought “Well, I’ll just write a whole album of love songs.” It just seemed that since they were pure and simple in their nature, it seemed only natural to me to actually use instruments that were scaled down as well, that wasn’t overproduced with a big production so a lot of them sound like my early productions and a lot of people really seem to be liking that.
Why do you think you’ve remained such an icon within the LGBT community after all these years?
Oh! Well I’d like to think that they know I love them, they know I accept everybody for who they are. I have a lot of friends that I work with in the gay and lesbian community; I have a lot of gays and lesbians in my family. I have friends, I have people in all of my businesses. I just love people. I don’t even think about whether you’re straight or gay. I just love you because I love you; but I think people respond to that too. I don’t judge people. I think everybody should be allowed to be exactly who they are and be allowed to love exactly who they love and I just think that’s the way it should be. We’re all God’s children and we all have a right to our own happiness. I’ve always been loved for being accepting, I guess! I’ve always wanted people to accept me for who and what I am. I’ve always been persecuted for the way I look and all that. I just care about the soul and the heart of people.
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