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Capturing the essence of Dolly Parton on stage
SussexWorld
Follow
04/01/2025
Kelly O’Brien is country legend Dolly Parton in The Dolly Show as it hits the road with dates including Sussex and Hampshire.
Category
🎵
Music
Transcript
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00:00
Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now, this
00:06
is the closest I'm ever going to get to Dolly Parton. Kelly, you are on the road with a
00:11
tribute, a tribute to Dolly, and goodness, you were starting to talk in her voice just
00:16
now and it was uncanny. How do you get that? How do you, how do you sound so much like
00:21
her?
00:23
Well, Phil, with lots of practice. So, when I first began in 2007, I think the voice was
00:32
a bit more like that. Well, hi everybody, I'm Dolly. And actually, as I've got on in
00:42
the years, I can just do it whenever I like. So, you know, you have to kind of go forward
00:46
with the mouth and then everything has to be raised a little bit higher and then she
00:50
kind of elongates the words. And so you just kind of get, like, I can say anything now
00:56
with it. And in fact, I have people from all over the world saying, oh, can you record
01:01
this for me? As long, it's always respectful to Dolly because she's my idol. But, you know,
01:06
can you record this for me? Or, you know, businesses will say, can you just say something
01:11
to a team, a meeting because they love her ethos on life? Or I get asked to do some great
01:17
stuff. So it's like, not only do I tour and perform with her, there's a little side hustle
01:22
going on, which I love.
01:23
And you make that voice sound so easy, but I'm sure it can't be. It can't be to get it
01:29
that close, can it?
01:30
Well, I'm a natural alto and she is a soprano. So, yeah, it is easy now. But I have to admit,
01:41
once I'm doing a show that's, you know, nearly two and a half hours, and then people are
01:45
like, oh, do you want to come? Can we come backstage and meet you? That's the tough bit
01:50
because I've been talking like her the whole time and then singing all the songs by myself.
01:56
And then if I meet people, I have to keep it up. So I've got to keep talking like that
02:00
and it's exhausting. So I don't tend to meet. Occasionally I do, but I don't tend to do
02:06
meet and greets after the show. I wish I could, but I just wouldn't want to ruin the smoke
02:11
and mirrors effect for them, you know, the facade. I wouldn't want to ruin it.
02:15
Now, tell the tale. You are doing all this on the back of a huge confidence booster of
02:19
actually speaking to Dolly and telling her that this is what you do. And she was encouraging.
02:26
She was amazing. In 2011, we met backstage at the O2 and she was just gorgeous. We're
02:34
both the same height, five foot. I was in yellow. She was in yellow. I think she said
02:39
something like, oh my goodness, it's like looking into a mirror and which was so lovely.
02:47
And then I said, look, I make my living being you. And she was like, that's amazing. And
02:52
you know, now I know her publicists and I know her family and they all kind of give
02:56
their blessing and endorse me and they think I'm great. So it's just so nice to have that
03:00
encouragement because, you know, she's such an admirable human being.
03:04
Well, you said just now the ethos. There's a philosophy of Dolly as well, is there?
03:09
Oh, she's a philanthropist and a humanitarian with all the other bits that go along with
03:16
being a businesswoman, a singer, a songwriter, actress, you know. So she, yeah, she does
03:22
a huge amount of work. Some examples are the Imagination Library, which she launched in
03:28
1995. She's given over 250 million free books to children, which you can sign up to anytime
03:34
from zero to five because her dad couldn't read or write.
03:38
Right.
03:39
Yeah. So, so she started that for him in his own, in his kind of honour. And then the people
03:46
went, so she owns Dollywood instead of Hollywood, it's Dollywood. And she, basically, if you
03:51
work at Dollywood and you want to further your career and you want to study, she pays
03:55
for you to study. So she pays for you to go to college so that you can move up in the,
04:01
in the Dollywood, you know, system, which is amazing. I think the dropout rate before
04:07
Dollywood at high school was something like 60% and now it's at 12%. So she really, she
04:13
puts money into the schools around there as well. So she's really, you know, she gave
04:17
a million dollars to the Moderna vaccine. She just gave two million to, I think there
04:25
was something down there in Tennessee, wasn't there, a natural disaster. She gave two million
04:31
towards that, one from her company, you know, one million from her own pocket. So I think,
04:36
you know, she probably makes a huge amount, but she gives so much back to people.
04:40
A fabulous singer, but thoroughly decent person too.
04:45
And I've met people that have worked with her, like Brian Connolly. We did a show together
04:50
not long ago and he was playing the lead in 9 to 5. And he said that she was just amazing.
04:57
She'd do these little announcements just before the show that she'd pre-record, you know,
05:02
even when she was back in Nashville, just different ones every night. She hand wrote
05:06
him a letter that was two pages long, just telling him how wonderful he was and how great
05:11
it was to work with him. Like, I think just she has a very big, kind heart and she is
05:16
as gorgeous on the outside as she is on the inside.
05:19
And that's what you have to reflect on stage then?
05:22
Yes, absolutely. You have to do justice to the woman because she's just so amazing.
05:29
Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you. Great to hear that you're coming to our area with
05:33
a number of dates, which I was specifying in the article. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.
05:38
Thank you so much, Bill.
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