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Dolly Parton couldn’t wait to graduate high school so she could move to Nashville and begin pursuing her dream of becoming a famous singer and songwriter. She knew breaking into the music industry would be difficult, but she hadn’t prepared herself for just how hard it actually was. When she wrote home to update her family with how she was doing, she made things seem rosier than they really were. 

Dolly Parton was homesick after she moved to Nashville

Parton had spent years of her life wishing she was in Nashville working to make her dreams come true. But when she finally got there, she missed her big, loud family. She even missed sleeping in the same bed as her 11 siblings.  

“I was hungry and homesick and disheartened,” the singer wrote in her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “I had never slept in a bed by myself before. I missed things like brother and sister toenails digging into my shins. Believe it or not, I even missed being peed on.”

Parton was having a hard time. 

“Some disappointment I was prepared for,” she wrote. “I was not prepared for the amount I was dealt. My money disappeared in no time.”

Dolly’s letter home

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Early into Parton’s time in Nashville, the “Jolene” singer wrote to her mother and father with an update. While she did admit that she was “just a little lonesome and a whole lot homesick,” Parton made her life in Nashville seem better than it was.   

“Don’t worry about trying to send me no money or anything because I’ve got a job on an early morning TV show and a couple of people that might record one of the songs I wrote, so I’ll be making some money,” she wrote. “So don’t worry about me being hungry or anything. Nashville is not exactly what I thought it would be, but I think I’m going to like it here once I get used to it. Don’t worry about me getting in trouble. I’ll be good, just like I promised.” 

The “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” singer told her family she didn’t want them to worry about her because she knew she’d be alright once she got settled. But in her heart, she wasn’t so sure.    

“I didn’t realize how much I loved you and them noisy kids until I left,” she wrote. “And I didn’t realize how hard it was to leave home until I started to leave and everybody started crying. I cried nearly all the way and, in a way, I wanted to turn around and come back, but you know how I’ve always wanted to move to Nashville and be a singer and I believe that someday if I try long and hard enough I’lI make it.”

Dolly lied so her parents wouldn’t worry 

Parton’s fib wasn’t ego-driven. She knew her parents were worried about their 18-year-old daughter out in Nashville all by herself. She wanted them to think she was OK, even if she wasn’t. 

“I knew I had painted the picture a little brighter than it actually was for Mama and Daddy’s sake,” she wrote. “But I didn’t realize how much I had lied-especially the part about not being hungry.”

Of course, Parton’s luck did eventually turn around. But not before some extremely difficult, hungry times.

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