Brenda Lee Said Dolly Parton’s Old Friends Were a ‘Threat’ to Her

Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee became friends. Lee shared why people may think that Parton had changed because of fame.

When Dolly Parton’s fame grew in the 1970s, fellow musician Brenda Lee gave insight into the way her life would change. Parton idolized Lee throughout her childhood, and they became friendly as Parton’s career grew more successful. With Parton’s success came complaints from those who knew her about the way fame changed her. Lee shared why Parton might be more distant with her old friends.

Brenda Lee shared the way Dolly Parton’s life changed after fame

When Parton hired a management team from Los Angeles to take control of her career, many people in Nashville were aghast. They felt she was turning her back on country music and the community that uplifted her. Lee, who understood the position Parton was in, offered insight as to why she may be more distant.

“Maybe old friends are a threat to Dolly inasmuch as she’s trying to live a life that’s in accordance with what she’s doing,” Lee said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She’s leading a jet-set life now. Let’s face it. That’s how you live when you’re in those circles. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of great people in that circle. But I think maybe she’s afraid to relate to the sort of semi-stardom and fans that she had before. She doesn’t want to lose what she’s gained. She’s worked hard for it.”

Lee said she could completely understand what Parton was going through, but she hoped she wouldn’t change too much.

“There are all different things that go on,” she said. “I know she’s definitely trying to do a lot. And that must take a tremendous amount of time. It’s a hard grind. Especially to stay up in the pop field. But I hope everything good happens for her, because I think she’s a good person. Let’s just hope she keeps her perspective and remembers all those things she’s said — that she’s not ashamed of her heritage, that she’s not ashamed of having been poor. Because the values of the heart and soul should not change.”

People who knew her complained that she was less ‘accessible’

Many of the people who worked with Parton in her early days in Nashville had problems with the way she behaved after fame. She didn’t treat anyone poorly, she just wasn’t as accessible as she had once been.

“I don’t feel like I know Dolly anymore,” a woman who worked with Parton said. “She’s excluded everybody I know in Nashville. Nobody hears from her anymore. You can’t get in touch with her. There definitely has been a change. Whether it’s that she’s busy, or what, I don’t know. But she used to go shopping, and stop and talk with men, women, children — whatever. Now it’s like she’s disappeared from the earth. All this just happened when she went to the West Coast.”

A photographer who frequently worked with Parton agreed.

“Yeah, it’s a shame the way Dolly’s gotten away,” he said. “She used to be real accessible, but she’s not any longer. To get to her at all, you have to go through three agents. You just can’t talk to her at all.”

Dolly Parton was a longtime fan of Brenda Lee

Lee was able to comment on the changes in Parton’s life because she knew the singer well. Parton had grown up idolizing Lee, and they eventually met.

“It turned out that Brenda’s husband and mine went to Central High School together and were friends,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly Parton, Songteller. “And that gave us something to talk about. In my early days in Nashville, we visited together as couples — Ronnie Shacklett and Carl Dean, the high-school buddies, and Brenda and me. We’d go to each other’s houses to eat or play cards or do whatever.”

She said that she formed a strong, loving relationship with Lee.

“Brenda and I have always loved each other,” she wrote. “We both love music, and we are both very short. We’d joke about that. I’d say, ‘Hell, anybody is bigger than me.’ But she’d say, ‘No, you are taller than me.’ So I’d say, ‘Well then, you’re the only person I know who I’m bigger than.’ So we’ve always had that ‘little’ kidding thing going on.”