Capturing the essence of Dolly Parton on stage

SussexWorld

Kelly O’Brien is country legend Dolly Parton in The Dolly Show as it hits the road with dates including Sussex and Hampshire.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. Now, this

00:06is the closest I'm ever going to get to Dolly Parton. Kelly, you are on the road with a

00:11tribute, a tribute to Dolly, and goodness, you were starting to talk in her voice just

00:16now and it was uncanny. How do you get that? How do you, how do you sound so much like

00:21her?

00:23Well, Phil, with lots of practice. So, when I first began in 2007, I think the voice was

00:32a bit more like that. Well, hi everybody, I'm Dolly. And actually, as I've got on in

00:42the years, I can just do it whenever I like. So, you know, you have to kind of go forward

00:46with the mouth and then everything has to be raised a little bit higher and then she

00:50kind of elongates the words. And so you just kind of get, like, I can say anything now

00:56with it. And in fact, I have people from all over the world saying, oh, can you record

01:01this for me? As long, it's always respectful to Dolly because she's my idol. But, you know,

01:06can you record this for me? Or, you know, businesses will say, can you just say something

01:11to a team, a meeting because they love her ethos on life? Or I get asked to do some great

01:17stuff. So it's like, not only do I tour and perform with her, there's a little side hustle

01:22going on, which I love.

01:23And you make that voice sound so easy, but I'm sure it can't be. It can't be to get it

01:29that close, can it?

01:30Well, I'm a natural alto and she is a soprano. So, yeah, it is easy now. But I have to admit,

01:41once I'm doing a show that's, you know, nearly two and a half hours, and then people are

01:45like, oh, do you want to come? Can we come backstage and meet you? That's the tough bit

01:50because I've been talking like her the whole time and then singing all the songs by myself.

01:56And then if I meet people, I have to keep it up. So I've got to keep talking like that

02:00and it's exhausting. So I don't tend to meet. Occasionally I do, but I don't tend to do

02:06meet and greets after the show. I wish I could, but I just wouldn't want to ruin the smoke

02:11and mirrors effect for them, you know, the facade. I wouldn't want to ruin it.

02:15Now, tell the tale. You are doing all this on the back of a huge confidence booster of

02:19actually speaking to Dolly and telling her that this is what you do. And she was encouraging.

02:26She was amazing. In 2011, we met backstage at the O2 and she was just gorgeous. We're

02:34both the same height, five foot. I was in yellow. She was in yellow. I think she said

02:39something like, oh my goodness, it's like looking into a mirror and which was so lovely.

02:47And then I said, look, I make my living being you. And she was like, that's amazing. And

02:52you know, now I know her publicists and I know her family and they all kind of give

02:56their blessing and endorse me and they think I'm great. So it's just so nice to have that

03:00encouragement because, you know, she's such an admirable human being.

03:04Well, you said just now the ethos. There's a philosophy of Dolly as well, is there?

03:09Oh, she's a philanthropist and a humanitarian with all the other bits that go along with

03:16being a businesswoman, a singer, a songwriter, actress, you know. So she, yeah, she does

03:22a huge amount of work. Some examples are the Imagination Library, which she launched in

03:281995. She's given over 250 million free books to children, which you can sign up to anytime

03:34from zero to five because her dad couldn't read or write.

03:38Right.

03:39Yeah. So, so she started that for him in his own, in his kind of honour. And then the people

03:46went, so she owns Dollywood instead of Hollywood, it's Dollywood. And she, basically, if you

03:51work at Dollywood and you want to further your career and you want to study, she pays

03:55for you to study. So she pays for you to go to college so that you can move up in the,

04:01in the Dollywood, you know, system, which is amazing. I think the dropout rate before

04:07Dollywood at high school was something like 60% and now it's at 12%. So she really, she

04:13puts money into the schools around there as well. So she's really, you know, she gave

04:17a million dollars to the Moderna vaccine. She just gave two million to, I think there

04:25was something down there in Tennessee, wasn't there, a natural disaster. She gave two million

04:31towards that, one from her company, you know, one million from her own pocket. So I think,

04:36you know, she probably makes a huge amount, but she gives so much back to people.

04:40A fabulous singer, but thoroughly decent person too.

04:45And I've met people that have worked with her, like Brian Connolly. We did a show together

04:50not long ago and he was playing the lead in 9 to 5. And he said that she was just amazing.

04:57She'd do these little announcements just before the show that she'd pre-record, you know,

05:02even when she was back in Nashville, just different ones every night. She hand wrote

05:06him a letter that was two pages long, just telling him how wonderful he was and how great

05:11it was to work with him. Like, I think just she has a very big, kind heart and she is

05:16as gorgeous on the outside as she is on the inside.

05:19And that's what you have to reflect on stage then?

05:22Yes, absolutely. You have to do justice to the woman because she's just so amazing.

05:29Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you. Great to hear that you're coming to our area with

05:33a number of dates, which I was specifying in the article. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you.

05:38Thank you so much, Bill.

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