Porter Wagoner Was an ‘Anchor’ on Dolly Parton, Said 1 Record Executive
Dolly Parton’s career reached new heights when she began to appear on The Porter Wagoner Show. She was a rising star in Nashville, but Wagoner was a much-loved figure in country music. Her years on the show helped make her a bigger name, but she eventually outgrew the job. One record executive said the show began to do more damage than good.
A record executive said Dolly Parton needed to move on from Porter Wagoner
After seven years on The Porter Wagoner Show, Parton decided it was time to move on. They had been incredibly successful as a duo, but Parton wanted to make a name for herself as a solo artist. Other in the industry believed this was the right move.
“The team was a winner. I don’t know if they’re winners separately or not,” country music comedian Minnie Pearl said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I’m not sure about him, but she definitely is. She’s a star. A superstar. And she was ready to separate, to split and go out on her own. She would never have been satisfied to have been attached to anything or anybody in the business. It was time to move, and she did.”
Fred Foster, who signed Parton when she first moved to Nashville, believed her involvement with Wagoner had begun to do more harm than good. His audience was too niche for someone trying to achieve more universal appeal.
“I didn’t think she needed The Porter Wagoner Show to do what she wanted to do, and I still don’t think she did,” Foster said. “I’m not here to attack Porter Wagoner, either. While I’m sure his show did her good in many areas, I think it also confined her terribly. I think it did her some real damage. She could have made it to where she is right now much sooner without that TV show around. It was more like an anchor.”
Porter Wagoner said he was more trapped than Dolly Parton was
Wagoner heartily disagreed with Foster. He didn’t think Parton should have felt trapped as their partnership brought her new attention and success. He thought that he was the one who should have felt trapped.
“I feel like that trap was pretty nice to her,” he said. “There were no complaints during the beginning of the show. I didn’t set the trap to catch her, y’know. It was set in a very humble manner of ‘Would you help me get my career started, because I’m a country girl from East Tennessee who’s trying to get a career started in the country music business as a writer and a singer.’ So if anyone was trapped, it might have been me. Because to me that’s pretty good bait there. That’ll catch a purdy big pigeon in your trap.”
He believed she should have given him more credit for the boost he gave her career.
Their working relationship did not end on a good note
Given their differing opinions on the nature of their working relationship, it’s hardly surprising that Parton and Wagoner had a rough breakup. After Parton left the show in 1974, Wagoner sued her for breach of contract.
“Porter Wagoner filed suit against me for approximately three million dollars, claiming he had made me a star and was entitled to a percentage of my career for life,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “I could have probably won the case in court, but to spare Carl and my family the heartache a long bitter court fight would have caused, I agreed to settle out of court for around one million dollars.”
Parton said she struggled to pay him, but she managed to do it. This left a terrible bitterness between them for years. At the end of Wagoner’s life, though, Parton forgave him.
