Fourteen-year-old Jory Thomas sprang into action when he saw a man being swept down a Montana river. Using the lasso he had spent years practicing with, the teen caught the man on his first try and later said he believes God put him in the right place to help.

Nineteen children were riding to school when a driver fleeing a deputy crashed head-on into their bus in Sumter County, Florida, authorities say. Then, deputies say, he got out and ran. Every child escaped without injury. But one frightened 10-year-old borrowed another student’s phone to call her father, and what she told him captures how terrifying that ride became. The collision is now drawing attention well beyond the intersection where it happened: A Florida driver is accused of fleeing a traffic stop, crashing into multiple vehicles and slamming head-on into a school bus carrying 19 children before running from the scene. pic.twitter.com/G8XbLWh7yB — PennLive.com (@PennLive) August 27, 2026 According to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, the incident began Tuesday, August 25, around 7:20 a.m., when a deputy spotted 23-year-old Qahiem Williams driving 17 mph over the limit in a school zone. The deputy was working near The Villages Intermediate Center on County Road 466, near Tatonka Terrace. Investigators say Williams accelerated when the deputy turned around and switched on his emergency lights. Williams allegedly sideswiped two vehicles at a traffic light, damaging his vehicle’s axle before it struck school bus 7818 head-on on County Road 103. Nineteen children were aboard the bus, and the sheriff’s office said all were safe and uninjured. Deputies say Williams abandoned the vehicle and ran toward a nearby Walmart. Officers quickly caught him, and he was medically cleared before being taken to jail. Watch the sheriff’s footage of the collision and the arrest: FOX 35 Orlando spoke with Justin Callaway, whose 10-year-old daughter, Lily, and 5-year-old son, Liam, were on the bus. He had dropped them at their stop that morning, only to hear from his daughter minutes later. Callaway said Lily borrowed another student’s phone and told him, “Daddy, I’m scared.” He described trying to keep his own fear under control so he could reassure her. Before the crash, Callaway had not planned to buy his daughter a cellphone anytime soon. Afterward, he bought her a flip phone so she would have a way to reach him in an emergency. The station reported Wednesday night that Lily remained shaken by what happened, even though neither child was injured. Callaway wants the driver held accountable for putting the children in danger. For this family, the crash changed a basic decision about how their daughter could reach them: A Sumter County father is taking extra precautions after his 10-year-old daughter’s school bus was hit by a fleeing driver earlier this week. https://t.co/Cvij7OPwTD — WOGX FOX 51 (@WOGXFOX51) August 27, 2026 And the danger was not confined to the school bus. WESH 2 interviewed Leeanna Feeley, who said her car was one of the vehicles struck before the bus collision. She said the impact sent her to the hospital and that it took a moment to process what had happened. Feeley had just dropped off her 2-year-old daughter before the crash. She told the station the vehicle was hit near the rear, where her daughter would otherwise have been riding. WESH reported that East County Road 466 and County Road 103 were shut down while crews responded. The station also confirmed that none of the children aboard the school bus was injured. Deputies initially announced charges including fleeing law enforcement, driving with a suspended license, marijuana possession and leaving the crash scene. They also said Williams already had two outstanding Sumter County warrants, for fleeing and eluding and driving with a suspended license. That attempted traffic stop became a criminal case involving multiple damaged vehicles and a bus carrying children: Driver accused of fleeing deputy, crashing into Florida school bus with 19 children aboardhttps://t.co/dMJzCAe3ix — WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) August 27, 2026 FOX 35 reported that Williams appeared in court Wednesday, August 26, and was ordered held without bond. He remained listed as in custody in the Sumter County jail’s public records Thursday. The charges are allegations, not convictions. The sheriff’s office said additional charges were possible. All 19 children made it through the collision without physical injuries, and that is an enormous relief. Their parents should never have had to get that phone call. This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post Wanted Florida Man CRASHES Into School Bus Carrying 19 Children, Then Flees: “Daddy, I’m Scared” (VIDEO) appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Peter Cullen, the actor whose voice brought Optimus Prime to life for generations of Transformers fans, has died at 85. His agent confirmed that Cullen died Wednesday, August 26, at his home in Los Angeles. A cause of death has not been announced. The news marks the loss of a voice familiar to children and parents alike: ️ "Transformers" voice actor Peter Cullen has died at 85. Read more: https://t.co/8JA3T0o5Rx pic.twitter.com/Gy8G4mLjMR — TMZ (@TMZ) August 27, 2026 The Hollywood Reporter received confirmation from Cullen’s agent, Kevin Motley, along with a statement from his family. His relatives said he died peacefully with family around him and asked those who loved his work to remember him through service to their communities and leadership grounded in compassion, integrity and loyalty. Cullen first voiced Optimus Prime in the animated series that began in 1984, giving the Autobots’ leader the calm authority that became his signature. When Michael Bay brought Transformers to live-action theaters in 2007, Cullen returned to the role that had made him part of so many childhoods. The inspiration for that voice was deeply personal: his older brother Larry, a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam. Cullen had described watching and listening to his brother after he came home, then drawing on that example when he finally had the chance to play a superhero. For anyone who remembers the original animated movie, Optimus Prime’s final scene still carries a sting. This clip from the 1986 film captures the performance fans are remembering today: This hurts…. RIP Peter Cullen He voiced one of the saddest moments of my childhood… pic.twitter.com/DaxaBQw0VR — Strictly 4 My X’ers (@Lizzs_Lockeroom) August 27, 2026 TheWrap spoke with producer Don Murphy, who recalled that people working on the 2007 movie pushed for Cullen’s return because his voice connected the new film to the original animated series. That connection let audiences hear the same Optimus Prime even as the franchise moved from television animation to a much larger live-action production. The outlet also heard from Transformers: War for Cybertron showrunner FJ DeSanto, who remembered Cullen’s understanding of what the role meant to fans across generations. He described an actor who took that responsibility seriously and committed himself fully to each performance. Cullen’s career stretched well beyond the Autobots, with roles including Eeyore, Monterey Jack in Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and Thaedus in Invincible. He also supplied vocal effects for Predator, an extraordinary contrast to the gentle, gloomy donkey so many children knew. In 2023, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honored him with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Children’s & Family Emmys. His work as Eeyore gave another generation a very different reason to recognize that voice: Peter Cullen has sadly passed away at the age of 85. The voice of Eeyore. pic.twitter.com/qrmPukt9eU — Cosmic Marvel (@cosmic_marvel) August 27, 2026 Few performers leave behind characters that parents can introduce to their children with the same affection they felt growing up. Cullen did that across decades. His family’s request offers a fitting way to remember him: “be strong enough to be gentle.” What are your thoughts? TAP HERE TO ADD YOUR VOTE This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post “Transformers” Star Dead At 85 appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

This was a really incredible moment! Yesterday, Glenn Beck interviewed President Trump for 20 minutes and the entire interview was great. I’ll post a link to the video below so you can watch it, and I recommend watching the whole thing. But there was one moment that really stood out to me. Glenn pulled an audible, admitting he hadn’t really prepared to bring this up, but he asked President Trump about the problems facing our cattle ranchers. The response by President Trump was something we rarely get to see publicly, but I believe happens dozens if not hundreds of times a day behind the scenes. Instead of just offering platitudes in response to Glenn’s question, President Trump immediately launched into problem solving mode, asking Glenn the real root of the problem. Very quickly, they both centered on regulation and the stranglehold the four main beef processing plants have over the entire industry. President Trump then asked Glenn if they removed the crippling regulations and allowed cattle ranchers to process the cattle right on their own properties if this would help and Glenn said that would be a game-changer. You could even hear President Trump speaking to the people around him DURING the interview, essentially telling them to get to work on this immediately. It was really incredible, watch here: FULL TRANSCRIPT: Glenn Beck: Mr. President, welcome. Last night, we found out that it does sound a little exhausting as you go over that list. Donald Trump: I’m getting exhausted. Glenn Beck: I said, I know. I don’t know how you do it. Last night we found out that Dolly Parton passed away, and you did something… I actually wrote this in my diary last night before I heard what you did. I said, I feel like she’s kind of, you know, like I feel about her the way I felt about Queen Elizabeth. She was just such class, and I felt like we should lower our flags. And for the first time in history, you said we should lower our flags, and you declared that our flag should be at half-staff. That’s never been done before. Why’d you do it for her? Donald Trump: Is that was never done for an entertainer before? Is that what you mean? Glenn Beck: Yeah, never. Donald Trump: We’ve done this, you know, lowering. But as I understand it—I’ve heard that from a couple of people—I’m a little surprised, but she was unique. I mean, she was amazing. And to lose her, it’s like you lose a member of the family. You know, we all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit. She wasn’t a very political person. She really liked me, I will tell you. But she also wanted to stay very, you know… she was of the opinion, you know, the 50% who needs to lose. I don’t think it’s 50%. I think it’s probably 20% of the fans, okay? Not 50%. But she was a great person, and she was just a nice person, you know. I liked her a lot, and I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags. Glenn Beck: Can we put something to rest here because the speculation is crazy? The CIA director, ours, is in Russia. Rumors are saying Putin is going to test NATO resolve, all the way to speculation that he’s going to strike England, all the way to this maybe being the US telling them about the Iranian sanctions, saying we’re serious about them. Can you tell me why our CIA director flew in the middle of the night to meet with the Russians? Donald Trump: Well, none of the above. He’s there on, you know, very sort of semi-inane… I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end. That’s a war that would have never started, Glenn, if I were president. That’s one of the negatives of not having it done that way. I think this way has actually turned out to be bigger in many ways. But you wouldn’t have had the war with Ukraine, and you wouldn’t have had 25 million people coming into our country like they did—just come in like we were a bunch of fools. It was so sad. But they, you know, 20… and I think the number is higher than 25, frankly. They came in from prisons, and they were drug dealers, and they were murderers, and everything else, and they poured into our country. You wouldn’t have had that. But you would not have had the war in Ukraine. John Ratcliffe is a fantastic guy. He’s the head of the CIA, and he is not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come out of it. We’re working very hard to get that war ended. And frankly, they both want to see it ended at this point. Glenn Beck: The Atlantic, of all places, is reporting—and this is starting to become commonplace—that the Ayatollah is dead. Is the Ayatollah dead? And is there a way to win this war? I mean, really win this war, and have them unconditionally surrender without the people rising up who don’t have any guns? So, is he dead, and where are we on the war? Donald Trump: I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body—the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead. And if he is, they’re putting on a pretty good show because they talk about, you know, going back to talk to him all the time to get a final blessing on things. But, you know, you make a deal with them, it’s not the most honorable group. I will tell you that. And, you know, we have the strait open. We took out 22 boats last night. We have people coming in the blockade. Our Navy has been unbelievable. Our military has been unbelievable. The combination… and our financial strength that we built up so much like you wouldn’t believe in a year and a half, our financial strength is unbelievable. And those things are going toward a very big victory. We had the victory in Venezuela, and we’re going to have a big victory here very soon. Glenn Beck: Can we… I mean, because these people are not… it’s not like you’re negotiating with Western-minded people. These people want chaos and death and everything else. Has there been any talk anywhere of anybody—I’m not saying us—supplying the people with the ability to fire back? Because you’ve got to get the 80% of the people to stand up. Do you foresee them being able to stand up in the future and finish this regime? Right… they say they’re so surprised that the people aren’t fighting back. Donald Trump: But Glenn, if you were in that position—and you’re a brave guy, I’ve watched your whole career, I’ve been a fan of yours for a long time, you’re a brave guy—but I don’t think you’d be standing out there when they have a machine gun nest. They have snipers at the tops of buildings, and people go out to protest and they get hit. They don’t have to hit many, but when you see five or six or ten people go down and you have 100,000 or 200,000 people, they leave. No, I don’t care who you are, they leave. Glenn Beck: Yeah. Donald Trump: And it’s very hard to protest when you have people that are willing to shoot you and kill you. And that’s why they’re not protesting. And there is a chance because they have become very much weakened. You know, their navy is, as you know, totally gone. Their air force is totally gone. Many of their soldiers aren’t being paid. They have, I think, 300% inflation, and their money is almost valueless now. I mean, they’re not doing very well. And, you know, I could have told you the same thing, not as strongly, but two months ago, three months ago, and I’d have to read The New York Times saying how well they’re doing. They’re not actually saying that anymore, which is hard to believe. I’m surprised they don’t continue to say it. But you know, there was so much fake news put out. Right from the beginning, from the B-2 bombers a little more than a year ago where we knocked out the nuclear, to the president, we have really dominated. Really, truly dominated. Glenn Beck: You know, people don’t even realize that they’re getting half the story online. If you only read one version of events, even from people you generally agree with, you’re still missing part of the picture. You’re not finding the truth, the whole truth; you’re finding their version of it. And that’s why I love FreeSpoke. FreeSpoke will let you compare how the left, right, and independent sources are all covering the same story so you can draw your own conclusion. The truth gets buried under bias and agenda, and FreeSpoke helps us dig it out. Even the searches, all of the searches, independent podcasts, so you can hear from people who are having conversation instead of reading from just the mainstream media. FreeSpoke doesn’t track your searches or build a profile on you. Everything remains private, and no algorithm is deciding the truth you’re allowed to see. With FreeSpoke Premium, you get a completely ad-free experience that keeps you focused on what matters. Download it for free at freespoke.com/beck. Use the promo code BECK to get 20% off. Think for yourself with FreeSpoke. We have so many enemies, I feel like, inside our own gates. We have the DSA, and we have Islam—the Red-Green Alliance, something I put up on the chalkboard when I was at Fox. I said this is going to happen, and everybody said that they’ll never work together, and that’s exactly what’s happening. Would you push for or sign a No Sharia Law Act for America? And when it comes to the Marxists, what advice do you have for the GOP to begin to relate to the people who feel like there is an affordability crisis in America, especially for the youth, and the Marxists are playing on that and exploiting all of that? Donald Trump: Yeah. Glenn Beck: What advice do you have? Donald Trump: Yeah, I would say two things. Number one, on Sharia law, I would absolutely say that’s not this country. There will be no Sharia law. And you do have pockets of it, as you know. I would say no. You go to London, you go to Paris, it’s almost like a second way of life. It’s ridiculous. And I would absolutely be on your side on that, on a lot of other people’s side, too. Because, you know, you and I have people that I think are more based on common sense than we are on ideology. Good politics is all about common sense anyway. But I would absolutely prohibit the Sharia law thing. It is happening in this country a little bit, and where we see it, we take it out. You have to take it out. We have one system. We have a great system. Sometimes it’s very frustrating, but it’s the best there is that I can see. As far as the affordability… so, affordability is interesting because the Democrats caused affordability. I took over and everything was high. We had the highest inflation in history. They say 48 years, so either one, but we had the highest inflation in the history of our country. Prices were at the highest. You look at the oil and gas, you look at groceries, you look at eggs… remember when I took it over, eggs were five times higher than they were four years before. And we’ve gotten them down very, very substantially. And prior to the war, prior to what we’re doing with Iran—which I think will be ending fairly soon—you could really say, because the strait is open… We take a lot of ships through the strait now. We’re taking them in. The mines are gone. You probably saw that we put it out yesterday, all the mines. We got rid of the mines. But the strait, it’s functioning. It’s a functioning strait. Yes, every once in a while there’ll be a drone or a rocket or something shot, but it is a very functioning strait. A lot of oil is pouring out—10 million barrels yesterday. But as far as affordability, when I was just prior to saying we have to go down, we have to do this… I met with my people. We just had a record stock market, and I said, “You know, we’re going to have to do a detour. We cannot let—it’s very simple to me—we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” That’s what it’s all about. That’s 99.9%. We cannot let them, because they are crazy and they will use it. We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon. And we stopped it. I stopped it twice. I stopped it then, and I stopped it with the JCPOA—that’s the Obama deal where he gave everything. One of the worst deals, one of the most dangerous deals ever signed. He gave them a road, a path to a nuclear weapon. That was a path. That wasn’t a stoppage; that was a path to a nuclear weapon. And I terminated that. As you know, it was a big deal when I did it. And they tried to say like it was a disaster. They would have had a nuclear weapon five years ago if I didn’t. I did. I terminated it in my first term. And so I saved it. Then they would have had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it, and Israel would have been totally knocked out. There would be—I will say this—if Donald Trump wasn’t president, there would be no Israel right now. That’s a guarantee. There would not be an Israel, because they would have had nuclear weapons and they would have used them immediately. But as far as pricing, the prices are coming down. You know, they came up with that word, “affordability.” So, I inherit the worst inflation in history, and I have my first news conference the day after I win. And the press is screaming at me about prices, especially going, “What about eggs? What about this? What…?” I said, “I’m only here for one day. Give me a chance.” I didn’t even know. They’re talking about eggs! They’re screaming at me about eggs. I said, “I just won yesterday.” I mean, the whole thing was just absolutely crazy. Actually, it was the first day in, it was on January 21st. I’m having a news conference, I’m there for one day, and they’re screaming at me about prices. I inherited a mess in so many ways. The border, which I solved very quickly. I inherited so many different problems. And this was a bad administration. This was an incompetent administration. But I inherited high prices, and then from the first day they started using the word “affordability.” They looked at me: “affordability.” It was a new word. Nobody ever heard the word! It was a new word that they devised because they’re quite good at that. They’re not good at running a country, but they’re good at, I guess, politics. They have some awfully bad policy for people—like men and women, sports, etc. But I inherited affordability. I inherited high prices, to put it a different way. And we’ve really gotten them down. Now, we have a little bit of an oil issue… don’t forget, when I did this, people thought the oil would go to $10 a gallon. You know that. But we had to do it. We had to stop them from having a nuclear weapon, and we did. And the prices are coming down very rapidly. Now beef is starting to come down. The meats, the beef is starting to come down. But prices have come down very substantially. Glenn Beck: I have to tell you, Mr. President—I didn’t plan on talking about this and we can get into it at a later date—but please, please, when it comes to beef, please look at the cartel that is the meat processing cartel. I run a ranch, so I know what it’s like. And I’m telling you, it is the processing plants. There’s four of them, and I think two of them are not even American. It’s bad. And I believe they’re colluding with each other, and the farmers haven’t done it because they’re smart as hell. Donald Trump: I’m surprised, because that’s been going on a long time, Glenn. Long before I got here. Glenn Beck: Help us! Help us! We can’t butcher with all of the federal regulations. It is really hard. Donald Trump: You know, if there’s something you can do to help… Glenn, is that just a question of regulation, do you think? Glenn Beck: A lot of it is. Yeah, a lot of it is. The inspections are insane. Donald Trump: So they make the regulations so tough that… so, could you do it if you didn’t have those regulations? Could you do it on your ranch? Glenn Beck: Yes. Donald Trump: And is that the way to do it, or do you think you need some pretty strong regulations? Glenn Beck: Break the back of those processing plants, though. There are people that want to build processing plants everywhere. The regulations are killing us—just killing us. Donald Trump: So you’re saying with less regulation, you think that the ranchers and farmers would do a very good job of processing the beef? Glenn Beck: Yes! Wow, yes! Donald Trump: Look at that today. I’ve been hearing about this problem for 20 years. I’ve been hearing about this problem. Glenn Beck: Free your people! Let our people go! Let your people go! Donald Trump: You know what? This could be a very good call for ranchers and farmers. Glenn Beck: No, for the country! That would be good. Donald Trump: No, I’ve been hearing only bad about it. It’s four places, and it’s a monopoly. Glenn Beck: It is. And who’s controlling those regulations? Department of Agriculture. Donald Trump: Yes. Glenn Beck: And FDA… or is it USDA? I can’t remember which one, but it’s USDA. It’s all the inspections. It’s all the inspections. Mr. President, I got to get to one more question: Canada. Donald Trump: Well, this is a very big thing you just told me, though, because you just gave me a very good idea. Okay, good. Very good. I love the call. I love this call. Glenn Beck: Can you tell me quickly about Canada there? I mean, it seems to me they had a really good deal, but this is all about the elections and throwing our elections. What is happening? Is there a way to end this? Donald Trump: Look, I don’t know how you feel about Canada. They are one of the worst countries in the world to deal with. And this has gone on for many years. Glenn Beck: Wait, wait, wait. Can we say this? I love Canadians and Canada. I do not like their administration. Donald Trump: Okay. Well, the administration… and the previous administration, too, is terrible. Glenn Beck: Yes, yes, yes. Donald Trump: But they have taken advantage of the United States for many decades, actually. They charge tariffs that are unbelievable, like on milk—400%. And I just said we’re taking them on. I took them on at the beginning, but we had so many other things to do because the country was a mess. But I said we’re going to take them on, we’re going to stop it. And you saw Lake Ontario… you know, people thought I was kidding, but maybe I wasn’t, because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico… Gulf of America. Glenn Beck: I know, I know. Donald Trump: But now we have a Gulf and we have a Lake, okay? You know, it’s very simple. But look, I don’t want to go into great detail because it’s maybe boring to people, but to me it’s not boring. They charge tariffs. They take advantage of us as though they were a state, and they’re not a state. And they’ve taken our car industry, and they’ve taken our agriculture industry. You know, the farmers can’t sell anything in there because the tariffs are so enormous. And yet they want to sell to us without any tax. So I had a deal that was a pretty good deal, you know, quite good. And because they’re afraid that I won’t do any… in other words, we won’t trade. They don’t have anything that we have to have, okay? We can get by. I mean, there are a couple of things that would make it a little inconvenient, but we can get them elsewhere. And it’s time to teach Canada you can’t do this anymore. We lose $60 billion—and really more than that, $60 billion a year—with Canada. Glenn Beck: Mr. President, I can’t believe I have to say this to you, but I have a network break. You could hold on, but I know you’re busy. I so appreciate your time, sir. I am sorry that we’re on a network. Donald Trump: You are terrific. And thank you for the painting, that was so beautiful. The picture, that was so… You are fantastic. Thank you very much, and I’ll talk to you soon. Glenn Beck: You bet. Thanks, Donald. You bet. Bye-bye. Today we got full reaction to the interview, including cattle ranchers calling in to give their opinions on the proposed solution. You can watch that here: Great work Glenn! Great interview! This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here. The post WATCH: President Trump and Glenn Beck Solve Huge Problem LIVE On The Air! appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Dolly Parton didn’t talk to just anyone, and her schedule was famously and rigorously observed. But in 2014, as she geared up to release her Blue Smoke album and embark on a world tour, she spoke with Classic Rock's Nashville correspondent Bill DeMain and gave us one of the funniest and most poignant interviews you’ll ever read. This feature has not previously appeared online. One day in 1975, Dolly Parton got the phone call that all songwriters back then dreamed about. Elvis Presley was making a new album and he wanted to record her song I Will Always Love You. A No.1 country smash for Dolly the year before, it was written about what she calls “the painfully heartwrenching time” spent with her singing partner Porter Wagoner. Significantly, it was also the first song Dolly penned for her own publishing company. So the prospect of The King unleashing his gusty vibrato on that towering “I-eee-I…” chorus was doubly thrilling – it was sure to be a crossover hit that would put the royal in royalties. This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock Presents Country #2, published in January 2014 (Image credit: Future)But there was a catch. “Elvis loved the song,” Dolly says. “So [RCA producer] Felton Jarvis notified me and I was so excited. Though I’d had a few chances to meet Elvis, I never had. I think I just wanted him to always be the way he was in my mind. He was so spiritual and out there anyway, I didn’t want nothing to blow the image. But they were inviting me to the studio to hear him doing my song. "Then Felton said: ‘But Elvis has to have half the publishing on the song. Everything he records, unless it’s already a standard, he gets half the publishing.’ I said: ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t give my publishing to nobody. Not half, not 10 per cent, not any of it. If he loves the song and the song is that good, then he’ll record it anyway. And if he don’t, well, just say that I’m flattered with the thought.’” This song credit-sharing gambit had been going on since 1956, when Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, realised that the serious dough was in music publishing. Sadly, some writers sold out. Dolly didn’t. She recalls: “Everybody told me I was crazy. ‘You’re saying no to Elvis Presley?!’ To be honest, it wasn’t Elvis. It was the Colonel. And thank God I said no, because that song made me more money than all of the others I’d written put together. If I’d given up half the publishing, then I would’ve made half the money, but much more than that, I would’ve lost half the pride in it. The fact that I wrote and published the song by myself just made the whole thing more special.”Dolly Parton in 1975, before a concert at the Minnesota State Fair grandstand in Falcon Heights, MN (Image credit: Pete Hohn/Star Tribune via Getty Images)It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last that someone tried to take advantage of Dolly Parton. Maybe they were misled by the blonde wigs, the impossible curves, the girlish giggle. She may refer to herself as a “Backwoods Barbie,” but as she made clear in one of her early hits, “this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.” Her remarkable 50-plus year ride through the music business is like a slalom through an obstacle course that she’s navigated with integrity, keen intelligence and a drive to constantly expand her creative horizons and reinvent herself. While most of her contemporaries are either retired or recycling hit medleys for tourists, Dolly is still moving forward, revealing new aspects of herself, from writing a Broadway musical to founding a childhood literacy programme in Tennessee to keeping in constant touch with three million followers on Twitter. Her new album, Blue Smoke, mixes the stripped-down immediacy of the acclaimed bluegrass records she’s made over the past decade with what Dolly calls “some more modern, rockin’ things.” And whether she’s pouring her still-supple mountain tremolo voice over her own new songs, or covers of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right and Bon Jovi’s Lay Your Hands On Me, she still sounds like she means every word. “I don’t want to rest on my laurels,” Dolly says. “I don’t want to sit around and count my money. I’d rather count my blessings, and count the songs I can write every day, and all the good things I could do for somebody else. I have no desire to retire. Even working at Dollywood [her theme park] at one of the theatres would be like semi-retirement, like something I settled for. "I like getting out there with the big dogs. I like to run. I don’t feel my age. And I’m going to always look the same. I’m a cartoon. They never age anyway. It’s like, ‘She could be 12 or she could be 112.’ But I have a youthful energy, and I think that comes from staying in the mainstream and loving what I do. I feel as young as I did when I first left the Smokies in 1964 to live in Nashville.” That move to Nashville is even more remarkable when you consider Parton’s hardscrabble beginnings. Dolly Rebecca Parton entered this world on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children born to poor sharecropper parents. While Dolly grew up without electricity, a telephone or indoor plumbing, she was surrounded by a loving family who instilled in her common sense and a passion for music. The young Dolly Parton (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)After singing for “my brothers and sisters and chickens and dogs with a tin can as a make-believe microphone,” Dolly got her first break at 10 years old when she landed a job singing on a programme called Farm And Home Hour, broadcast from Knoxville. “I was on TV before we owned one,” she says. This led to her first recording at 14, a rockabilly number called Puppy Love, an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry, where she brought the house down, and a brief songwriting deal with Tree Publishing. In between, she found time to attend high school classes. Some weekends, she snuck away to Nashville with her Uncle Bill, also a tunesmith. The two of them lived in “an old junked-up car,” writing songs, washing in gas station restrooms and being what Dolly laughingly calls “show business squirrels.” On the day after she graduated high school in 1964, Dolly grabbed a suitcase full of clothes, boarded a bus and headed for Nashville. In short order, she was signed to a publishing deal at Combine Music and a record deal with Monument. While Kitty, Minnie and Loretta were already raising the flag for country girl power, young Dolly was aware she was wading right into a chauvinistic, male-dominated business. “But I didn’t think about it in those terms,” she says. “I knew I was a woman. I always say I patterned my look from the local town tramp, which is the honest truth. But that was a country girl’s idea of glamour, with the peroxide, the big hair, the tight clothes. I did look a certain way, so a lot of men thought I might be easy. I was easy to be around, easy to like. "But I was also very serious about my work, my business, and if I needed to use my femininity and my look for a weapon and a tool, I did that. But I didn’t do it intentionally. I was just secure in who I was. I made the deals just like if I’d been a man. I always say: ‘I’ll always look like a woman, but I’ve always been able to think like a man.’ Meaning I can think in a man’s world, because I had all those brothers, my dad, my uncles. It served me well being a woman at that time.” It also served her well in her songwriting. Dolly is a singer who has always refused to play the victim, and her strength and twinkling intellect shine through in songs like the early feminist anthem Just Because I’m A Woman.It was after my husband and I had been married for a year, he asked me if I’d ever been with anybody else – I didn’t feel like lying, and I had been,” she says, explaining the roots of the song. “But he’d never asked me before, so I certainly wasn’t gonna volunteer any information [laughs]. So I said yes, and he was really hurt, he was crushed, and he was in a terrible mood for two or three months over that. And I just felt terrible, so I wrote that song from a very personal place. Not just about women in general or how they’re treated. "It was just about that relationship, that moment in time – like, ‘My mistakes are no worse than yours just because I’m a woman.’ That all cleared up later, and that was all fine after I’d said enough times: ‘You can kiss my ass. I did it, and I can’t say I’m sorry I did it because that was part of my growing up and part of my life. I’m just sorry that you’re acting like this about it, because I could’ve lied to you and then done it too.’ If I had to do it over, I would, so I just said: ‘My mistakes are no worse than yours.’”While she was comfortable with her gender, it took Dolly a year of experimentation to find her direction as an artist. Early Monument recordings like Busy Signal and Don’t Drop Out, cut with producer Fred Foster, are more Dusty Springfield than down-home country. “Fred didn’t quite know how to market me,” Dolly says. “I was a very country girl. Just really raw, and not refined at all. We felt around and Fred saw that I could do that big dramatic pop style, but that I was best to do more country-flavoured music, until I grew into my own self.” One of Dolly’s early songs that she demoed with producer Ray Stevens (later known for novelty tunes like The Streak) was titled Everything Is Beautiful In Its Own Way. So it was more than a little suspicious when Stevens had a Grammy-winning hit of the same name a few years later. “That gives some idea of what a young girl trying to break into the music business at that time could expect,” Dolly wrote in 1994 in her autobiography. Today, she takes the high road. “I don’t believe that Ray Stevens, who was successful and is so talented in his own right, would have the need to steal somebody’s song. It’s a good title, so what happens, happens. "I have no resentment about it. I wouldn’t let my publisher sue him, though I could have got half of his song because we were both working at Monument and he was producing me, and the songs had a few similar lines, ‘the snow covered mountains’ and different little things. But still, I’d like to think it was the kind of accident that happens with songwriters.”Dolly Parton in Nashville, 1965 (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)What ultimately helped Dolly dial in her signature mountain girl style was what came most naturally – songwriting as storytelling. “That’s my favourite style of writing,” she says. “That’s more natural for me than trying to just do a few words in a simple song. Honestly, I can sit down and write a big long story song much easier than I can the more commercial, typical songs.” And some of those story songs, such as Down From Dover and Jeannie’s Afraid Of The Dark, tackled heavy subjects like teen pregnancy, suicide and madness, striking a pitch black tone that might surprise her more casual fans today. “It’s taken people all these years to realise that I am all of that he says. “I am a girl of many colours. I am dark and I am light and I am grey and I am in between. I’m very yellow, I’m very blue, I’m very red. I’m all those colours. You have to be all that to be a real person, and you certainly have to feel all that to be a good songwriter. But everything I ever wrote, I’m proud of. I was that girl in Down From Dover. I didn’t get pregnant. It wasn’t a true story about me, as many of my songs are. "But I had numerous nieces and relatives that had gotten pregnant and their daddies wanted to kill the boy that done it. I was just trying to find a way to make it as sad and pitiful as I could. People may see me as this ray of sunshine, but it’s not against my nature at all to go to these dark places. When I hurt, I hurt all over and I’ve been through some major sad things in my life.” While Dolly sometimes embraced the dark side in her songs, she avoided its allure in the hard-drinking, pilled-up world of 1960s Nashville. “I never wanted to do anything that was gonna mess with my mind,” she says. “I knew that taking drugs would do that. And I’ve never been a big drinker. There’s always been a lot of problems in my family on both sides with drinking, so I was always leery about it. Plus, I didn’t have time for that kind of recreation. Not to say that I’m a prude, or I don’t know everything that’s going on. I’ve been around it. "But I had enough problems just trying to make it in the business and doing the things you’ve got to do without creating problems for myself. I’ve never been a smoker either. All of that stuff affects your voice. Now that I’m older, I think that all of those decisions helped keep my singing voice in good shape.”In 1967, Dolly’s career kicked into high gear when was hired by Opry star Porter Wagoner to replace Norma Jean as the new girl singer on his popular syndicated television show. It was the beginning of a successful but stormy seven-year run that mixed highs such as CMA awards for Vocal Duets and Top 40 classics like Just Someone I Used To Know, Yours Love and Please Don’t Stop Loving Me with the lows of knock-down, drag-out backstage fights. To watch early archival clips of them together is to see the seeds of what Dolly calls their “duelling dreams.” There’s Porter, the Nudie-suited good ol’ boy introducing his “purty little lady,” a hint of chauvinism and condescension in his voice. And here’s Dolly, flashing 1000-watt charisma, giving it her all, whether singing a novelty tune like Something Fishy or a commercial jingle for Black Draught laxative (“Smile from the inside out”). As the years pass, Dolly grows more confident, her songwriting talent blossoming with fantastic new tunes like Coat of Many Colours and Just Because I’m A Woman. Porter’s perpetual grin can’t hide his jealousy as his ingenue starts to steal the show. By 1974, Parton was ready to fly solo. “I had a vision of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do all along,” Dolly recalls. “I had agreed that I would stay with Porter for five years, and wound up staying for seven. I’ll always appreciate all he did for me. But I helped him some too. In fact, Porter never wrote a song in his life until I helped him try to become a songwriter. And he was writing some good and serious songs while I was still with him. "I would try to tell Porter what my vision was. I would’ve stayed with the show if he would’ve allowed me to bring in some producers, to have management of my own, to build my career the way I wanted to. But his ego and pride couldn’t handle that. He was not willing to change. So I wasn’t going to stay there and grow old. I had to do what I felt God was leading me to do. I didn’t want to just be a girl singer in somebody else’s group. I wanted to be an independent star.” Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner circa 1968 in Nashville, Tennessee (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Wagoner didn’t let go easily, even resorting to scare tactics. Dolly recalls: “Porter told me that RCA was not interested in me, that they were going to drop me from the label when I left his show. I thought, ‘I just don’t know if that’s true or not.’ The only way to know is to get on a plane, go to New York City and ask them. So I went up there on my own to meet the heads of RCA, and found out that they never said they were going to drop me. "I said: ‘Are you interested in going with me where I plan to go? I’m going to find new management, new producers, and I’m going to try to build a new career of my own.’ And they said: ‘We’re with you!’ Then I got on another plane and flew to LA to meet with Sandy Gallin, and said the same things. Sandy was managing my friend Mac Davis at the time. As soon as I met Sandy, he got who I was and what I wanted to do, and we worked together for 20-some years.” The two decades that transformed Dolly into one of the most recognised pop culture icons of our time began with a controversial hit single. Penned by former Brill Building tunesmiths Mann & Weil, Here You Come Again threw down a shiny pop gauntlet that confused and angered Nashville. Dolly reflects: “The break with Porter was so public [in 1979, he filed a $3 million breach of contract suit], and everybody was thinking I was going to fail. Some people were hoping I would. When I didn’t, everybody said: ‘She’s leaving country music.’ My answer was: ‘I’m not leaving country, I’m taking it with me.’ How could anybody think I wouldn’t be country no matter where I am? Look at me. Even after all these years, I’m so country it’s sickening. "But I knew I would always be the goodwill ambassador for country music and the Grand Ole Opry. I love the Opry. I’ve been a member since 1969. I don’t get to play there very often, but it’s sacred to me. I love country music, and I like to think that I’ve contributed a lot to it, and still do. Wherever I go, I’m promoting Nashville and the Opry and country music. But I also like knowing I can do movies, other styles of music.” And in the 1980s, Dolly’s southern charm lit up Hollywood. Her debut, 9 To 5, was a huge hit, as was the No.1 title song (written on set to the accompaniment of Dolly rhythmically clicking her long red nails). More movies followed, along with a TV variety show series and countless guest spots on everything from The Tonight Show to the Bob Hope Christmas specials. And, of course, more hits climbed the charts, including Islands In The Stream (the first of many duets with Kenny Rogers), Heartbreak Express, Tennessee Homesick Blues and Think About Love. But as the decade wore on, Dolly’s blonde ambition began to catch up to her."I’d been going so fast that I met myself coming back,” she says with a smile. “I was having trouble with my weight and having some personal emotional things, and eating like a pig and getting fat. If you don’t feel like you look good, you don’t feel good. You’re depressed. I guess God just had to smack me down back then to really get my attention. I went through a couple of years of depression. I’d never slowed down enough to reflect before. "It was a time for me to say: ‘Okay, get off your fat ass and do something about it. Get your thing going, or blow your head off and get out of other people’s misery.’ We all come to those places. I’m not ashamed of it. I think it’s helpful for people to know that everybody goes through that. I’ve had a lot of hard times. I feel everything to the nth degree. You can’t be a loving, caring, sensitive person otherwise. I can’t harden my heart or become cynical. I have to keep myself open to be a songwriter and the kind of artist I want to be. Some things you’ve just got to suffer for. That’s how I feel. I’ll suffer. I’ll pay my dues. It’s been a good, rich life. Painful at times. But it’s been worth it.” As the 90s dawned, Dolly wasn’t the only country star of a certain vintage to be feeling the pain of finding themselves stranded in Nashville’s version of Logan’s Run. It’s a harsh reality that persists today. Once you hit 30, you’re pretty much banished from the airwaves, farmed out to casino and state fair gigs and expected to disappear quietly. Always open to change, Dolly tried to stay current. On albums like White Limozeen and Slow Dancing With The Moon, she gamely flirted with the boot-scootin’ achey-breaky pop sounds of the moment, but with diminishing returns. Then at the turn of the new century, she found a smarter solution. On a trio of albums, The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow and Halos & Horns, she reinvented herself – or more accurately, rediscovered herself – in all her mountain girl glory. Dolly says: “It was unexpected, that people would really take to my music again, that I would luck upon a good time for bluegrass and American folk music again, which is what I do best and love doing. The new album Blue Smoke has a lot of that same mountain spirit. As a singer and performer, it’s been a wonderful feeling to see that the fans really still want to see me. It just does my heart good. I get real emotional sometimes. I get back on the bus and nearly cry. It’s like, ‘Wow, they still love me, they still want to see me.’”And the world does still love her. Not only for her music, but because she’s a born show-woman whose openness and warmth make her seem like part of everyone’s family. “I feel a responsibility to live up to the image that I’ve created, for the sake of the fans,” she says of the Dolly Parton character we’ve got to know so well. “Although that’s who I am, it’s just that people don’t want to hear all the sad, sappy shit. They do love to hear the gossip and the scandal and all the bizarre, sensational stories of how ‘she was scarred for life in laser surgery’. Or how ‘her husband’s leaving her because she has all these lovers’. I wish I had as much fun as they said I did [laughs]! I try to be strong enough to tolerate all the different versions that people have of me. I think you have to have a great inner strength. I think you have to know who you are. "Being Dolly Parton, I have to be strong to live up to that image that I have created and that other people have created of me, whatever their interpretation or their image of me is, and what I’ve allowed them to believe. It brings me up to certain standards, too. I need to live up to that. If that’s who I say I am, then that’s who I am, because I’m not going to lie about it. "But by the same token, I’ll sit right here and tell you how vulnerable I am and how tender-hearted, and how this and that. But just being true to myself, being true to Dolly Parton, and she is all those things. I’ve been guilty of most of the stuff that’s been said about me to some degree. And if I ain’t done it, I probably will [laughs]. Or I’m sorry I missed the chance.” As Dolly reflects further on her longevity in the business, does she have any survival tactics for country’s younger performers? “A lot of it has to do with personality, with character, your background, timing. There are so many elements. But I would say that, certainly in my case, I’ve been around a long time because I’ve never let my business slip. I’ve never lost motivation. Even at times when they weren’t playing me on the radio because I was an older country artist, I thought, ‘Well, I’ve won every award anybody could hope to win, I’ve had all these songs, I’ve had this wonderful career, so I’m grateful for that. But I’m not done!’ "I never stopped writing songs, even when nobody was listening. I knew that I was going to sing, even if I just recorded stuff and sold it out of the trunk of my car. I’ve often joked about that, but it’s basically what I’ve been doing with my last few albums. I paid for them myself then leased them to labels. I own the masters. I’m responsible for everything. I thought, ‘You can’t give up, you can’t lose momentum.’ Even though somebody stops on you, you can’t stop yourself. You’ve got to do quality work and you can’t get down on yourself. "If you’ve got a gift, you’re gonna always have that gift. So just find new ways to place it, new ways to market it. You have to always be dreaming and thinking and working.” This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock Presents Country #2, published in January 2014.

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