08/28/2026
One of my favorite Dolly stories has almost nothing to do with one particular song.
In 2022, Dolly Parton was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and her first reaction was basically, “I don’t think I’ve earned that.”
Think about that for a second.
Dolly Parton. Decades into a career most people couldn’t duplicate with three lifetimes, looking at another huge honor and worrying that she hadn’t done enough to deserve it.
She even tried to withdraw her name from consideration because she didn’t consider herself a rock artist.
They kept her on the ballot. She got elected anyway.
And this is the part I love.
She didn’t just shrug and put another trophy on the shelf.
She decided if the world was going to call her a rock star, she better go make a damn rock album.
So at an age when nobody would have blamed her for coasting on everything she had already accomplished, she went back to work.
The result was Rockstar — 30 songs, including originals and rock classics, with people like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, Sting and plenty more.
And the thing went to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart.
There’s something incredibly human about that story to me.
Most of us will never have to worry about whether we belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But I think most of us know what it feels like to walk into a room, get an opportunity, start a new job, try something completely different or have somebody believe in us and quietly wonder:
“Am I actually good enough to be here?”
Dolly’s answer wasn’t a speech about believing in yourself.
It was to get to work.
Maybe that’s part of why so many people loved her. Underneath all the rhinestones, jokes and larger-than-life personality was somebody who apparently never decided she had done enough.
They called her a rock star.
So she went and became one.
