Dolly Parton Felt She Had to ‘Heal’ After Getting ‘Kicked Around’ While Working With Porter Wagoner
Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner worked together for years and formed a close relationship. People even believed they were married. According to Parton, they did have an intense relationship, one that saw them fighting often. She admitted that when they went their separate ways, she felt like she needed to take time to heal.
Dolly Parton felt she needed to recover from her Porter Wagoner collaboration
In 1974, Parton exited The Porter Wagoner Show in order to focus on her solo career. While she initially kept Wagoner on as her producer, she realized that would no longer work, either. She said the tumultuous end of their relationship left her reeling.
“I just felt at that time I had been probably kicked around some,” she told Rolling Stone in 1977. “Not by my husband — he is the best person that ever lived. But you know, me and Porter, we just kind of said things, hurt each other’s feelings and, you know, trampled around on territory that was real sensitive, cut each other about songs.”
She said she needed some time to collect herself in order to move forward.
“It’s just — I felt black and blue and I just wanted to heal back up and mend myself back together and get on with my life,” she said.
Unfortunately, the end of their working relationship did not bring much peace. Wagoner spoke negatively about her in the press and eventually sued her for $3 million. They ended up settling and Parton scraped together $1 million for him.
She admitted they fought constantly even years before they split
Even before they parted ways, Parton hinted at trouble in her relationship with Wagoner.
“Porter is a great person to work with,” she said, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “Of course it’s not always smooth sailing because we’re both so much alike and I have my own ideas about things and it’s just natural for him to think I don’t really know what’s going on and I feel like I do and sometimes we have conflict over that and get into heated arguments but that’s just part of it — at least I’m smart enough to now he’s the boss and he’s been at it longer than me, but I still have to present my ideas and if I have to I’ll argue about them.”
She ultimately left him because she didn’t think she had enough control over her own career.
Dolly Parton said it was hard to explain her relationship with Porter Wagoner
While Parton fought with Wagoner often, she said she still loved him. She understood that it was difficult for an outsider to understand their dynamic.
“[W]e were lovers of music, and I suppose we had one of the world’s most unique relationships,” she told Alanna Nash in the book Dolly: The Biography. “We were not lovers as you know lovers. But it really wouldn’t have mattered whether we were or whether we weren’t. Like I say, it was a strange kind of relationship, hard to explain to the public. It was a love of its kind.”
She admitted Wagoner could have been in love with her, but she never felt that way towards him.
