Dolly Parton Once Perfectly Explained the Quest for Fame in the Music Industry

Fame did not come easy for Dolly Parton. There were many nights spent sleeping in beat-up old cars and days spent scraping together enough money for food before she made it big. In her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, the “Jolene” singer wrote about the tricky business of trying to become famous in the music industry. 

In show business, all the nuts are at the top of the same tree

The “Don’t Make Me Have to Come Down There” singer writes a lot about networking in her 1994 book. Even more important than having talent, can be knowing the right people. 

“That’s the way being a show business squirrel works,” she wrote. “If you don’t know somebody, you try to know somebody who knows somebody. There’s that one tree with all the nuts at the top, and you just keep trying to jump one limb closer. That’s show business, all right. All the nuts are at the top.”

Keep dreaming

Parton goes on to say that “a healthy amount of dreaming” is necessary to make it in the music industry. There has to be a great deal of self-propelled hope to keep things light. 

“All of those doors have to be knocked on,” she wrote. “Some have to be slammed in your face. All of those tapes have to be sent in. Many will end up in the trash without ever having been heard. It’s all a part of the process. To an outsider the quest for stardom might seem too frustrating, too heartbreaking. The whole system might seem cruel.”

Everyone thinks they’re a four-leaf clover 

Pursuing a career in the music industry might seem impossible because it nearly is. There are specific roadblocks in place to weed out most people. 

“Front-office people might seem put there simply to keep you from getting anywhere,” wrote Parton. “The fact is, they are. Trying to weed out those few people with talent from all of that sea of dreamers is quite a job. It’s a lot like looking for four-leaf clovers, which would be easy to find if it weren’t for all of those three-leaf ones. The problem is, every one of those three-leaf clovers thinks he’s a four-leafer. He has to in order to keep going and pushing, always on the move so you can’t count his leaves. It’s the front-office person’s job to keep me out, and it’s my job to keep on trying. That’s the system, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” 

The “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” singer had a lot of doors closed in her face. She had a lot of her tapes thrown away. But something told her that she was a four-leaf clover, and if she just talked to enough people, the right people, she’d get to her pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.