We really do not deserve her… Yesterday, Dolly Parton turned 80 years young, and it of course has me reflecting on some of her most timeless music and how important her story and songs are to the world. Her song “Coat Of Many Colors” has always been one of my favorites, and in a newly-published interview with Rolling Stone, Dolly explained that her timeless song is still very special to her, and the full story behind it is equally as powerful as he brilliant lyrics and storytelling in the words. She’s told this story many times over the years, but Dolly’s mom famously sewed the coat together with rags people gave Dolly’s family, and as she worked, her mother told her children the story of Joseph in the Bible, as he had his own Coat of Many Colors which was given to him by his father Jacob and a very significant part of his story. I think most people know Dolly’s story, that she grew up very poor in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, living her early years in a one-bedroom cabin with her parents and many siblings. She moved to Nashville in 1964 the day after graduating high school, and famously met her late husband Carl Dean that very next day. She explained that staying true to herself, though, was always very important to her: “I was always trying to progress and try to do more, try to grow, and try to express myself musically as much as I could in every album that we did, but still stay true to myself. I always take myself more seriously as a songwriter than I even do as a singer.” “We didn’t have anything. Mama used to sew all of our quilts and curtains for the windows, remake our clothes, and make clothes out of feed sacks or scraps. I went to school thinking I looked like Joseph. I was upset with my mom, and I was crying because I felt she had told me a fib. Mama said, ‘I don’t want to ever hear you say that we’re poor. We are rich in kindness and love and understanding.” Some of the wisest words I’ve ever heard, and they carried Dolly through decades of life and I would say have kept her very grounded as she has experienced massive success and become one of the most iconic musicians of all-time. The fact that she has remained as humble as she has is truly something to admire. Dolly always remembered that story and pivotal moment of her childhood, and it taught Dolly to be proud of and thankful for what she had, even if it meant nothing to anyone else, which is a lesson that has carried her through life in so many ways: “And oh, I couldn’t understand itFor I felt I was richAnd I told ’em of the loveMy momma sewed in every stitchAnd I told ’em all the storyMomma told me while she sewedAnd how my coat of many colorsWas worth more than all their clothes” A solo write by Dolly, “Coat of Many Colors” was released in September 1971 as the second single and title track to her Coat of Many Colors album. It peaked at #4 on the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart later that year. She actually initially penned the track in 1969 while traveling with Porter Wagoner on a tour bus, but ironically, she had to write it on the back of a dry cleaning receipt from one of his famous one-of-a-kind coats because she had no other paper on the bus. She explained to Rolling Stone: “I just grabbed the tag … and I started writing ‘Coat of Many Colors’ on it. I finished the song pretty much on that. Those kind of songs are like a tribute to my Tennessee mountain home. I wanted to get that old world sound with it.” Once the song became a huge hit, he of course had that receipt framed, as she explained in her 1994 memoir, My Life and Other Unfinished Business. I always love reflecting on how it came to be, because one of the things I love most about Dolly is how much she values the toughness of her life as a child and how she’s remained that same salt of the earth country girl even through success beyond her wildest dreams. She is a global icon and one of the most beloved musicians of all-time, but she’s still that girl from east Tennessee… who can afford any coat she could ever want and then some now. Dolly explained that she thinks part of the reason it’s still so popular is that her fans are nostalgic and enjoy looking back on “I think people just loved the song, and then there’s a lot of fun, good little songs in the album. And it’s my early days. A lot of my newfound fans like to go back and see who I am, who I was. And that little coat, people relate to it for many different reasons.” Long live the queen… here’s to 80 more years of the inimitable Dolly Parton. “Coat of Many Colors” The post “We’re Rich In Love”: A Heartbreaking Conversation With Her Mother Inspired This Dolly Parton Classic first appeared on Whiskey Riff.