Dolly Parton’s career has spanned well over half a century, but the legendary singer says she’s not ready to retire just yet.
The 77-year-old country icon appeared on “Greatest Hits Radio” July 13 and spoke to host Ken Bruce about her career, noting that she is just “not one to sit around doing nothing.”
“I would never retire. I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday, and hopefully one I’ve written. That’s how I hope to go,” she said. “Of course, we don’t have much of a choice in that.”
But, Parton said, there are a few things that could get her to retire after so many decades in the music industry.
“As long as I’m able to work, as long as my health is good, and my husband is good," she said. "I mean, the only way that I would ever slow down or stop would be for that reason.”
She added, “But in the meantime I’m gonna make hay while the sun shines.”
When asked about what else she’d like to explore in her career, Parton said that she has a host of “new dreams every day,” sharing a few of her future aspirations to the radio host.
“I want to have my own network TV show where I can actually do a lot of new things and produce,” she said. “I want to have my own story called ‘The Life of Many Colors,’ where I have a whole series of my life, stuff that people haven’t seen, or know, or heard about — and my people and where I come from, how I got to be, how and who I am.”
“But to really have the behind-the-scenes and the adventures of my life,” she added.
In addition to her own network television show, Parton said she’d like to host more TV shows as well as launch her own line of makeup, wigs, and clothes.
Parton previously opened up about retirement during a 2020 interview with “60 Minutes Australia,” and shared her desire to appear on the cover of a famous magazine again.
“Well, I don’t plan to retire. I just turned 74 and I plan to be on the cover of Playboy magazine again,” she said at the time. “See, I did Playboy magazine years ago. I thought it would be such a hoot if they would go for it — I don’t know if they will — if I could be on the cover again when I’m 75.”
Even outside of her forthcoming rock ‘n’ roll album, “Rockstar” and new book “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones” — both slated for a fall 2023 release — Parton has kept herself busy over the last couple of years.
In 2022, Parton hosted her own holiday special on NBC called “Dolly Parton’s Magic Christmas” and joined forces with her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, on New Year’s Eve to host “Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party.”
She also released a pet apparel collection and two different types of cake mixes and frostings with Duncan Hines.