Dolly Parton’s Band Shared Why She Was ‘the Best’ to Tour With
In the 1970s, Dolly Parton and her band toured for weeks at a time. The schedule was grueling and had everyone living out of a bus. While it wasn’t easy, members of Parton’s band said they couldn’t have been traveling with a better person. Her former guitarist shared what it was like to tour with Parton.
Dolly Parton’s band said touring with her was very enjoyable
Parton worked with her Traveling Family Band for a time, hiring siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles to join her on the road. Not every member of her band was related to her, though. Guitarist Tom Rutledge, who was not a member of the Parton family, said he never felt like an outsider.
“[B]eing the kind of person she is, in an effort to keep those of us who weren’t family members from feeling like we were second-class citizens, she may have treated us better in some instances,” Rutledge said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And that in turn could create hard feelings with the family. But we had an awful lot of fun, too.”
While it was hard work, Rutledge said he enjoyed touring with Parton. She made the experience pleasant for everyone.
“We’d listen to a lot of music, and we’d have picnics … pull off and party for a few hours,” he said. “Then we’d jump back on the bus and sleep, especially on the cross-country journeys, where you’ve got a lot of time. Made it a lot more tolerable. Life on the road with Dolly was the best.”
Tom Rutledge said Dolly Parton treated her band better than most artists would
Rutledge said that when they traveled to Europe for the first time, Parton made sure the trip felt like a vacation.
“When we were in England the first time, a lot of us hadn’t been to Europe before,” he said. “We got up one morning and called down to the desk. There was a message from Dolly that she’d rented a tour bus and guide to take us around London, just to show us around. And she got the bill.”
He didn’t think that most musicians would treat their band like this.
“Now what artist would do that?” he asked, adding, “She was always doing things like that. She’s said the way to have the finest musicians and the way to have moral support is to take care of them. She’s got that total support.”
Some musicians were less satisfied with her
While Rutledge felt very satisfied with his time with Parton, other musicians were not as happy. When she signed with a new management team, some band members felt her behavior changed. It didn’t help that she let people go with relative frequency.
“First of all, everybody’s afraid they’re gonna get fired; there’s no stability,” guitarist Don Roth said. “Because if she doesn’t like you, and chances are she won’t, she will fire you. If she doesn’t like your attitude, if she doesn’t get ‘good vibes,’ as esoteric as that is, from you on or off the stage, she doesn’t care if you’re the best player in the world. She’s not going to keep you in the group.”
Because of this, many of the former band members harbored ill will toward her.
“A number of other people got fired and, of course, all the people that got fired say, ‘Oh, that [expletive] Dolly!’” Roth said. “‘She promised this and that —,’ and some people are very bitter.”
