Where I've Been - Dolly Parton

THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS COUNTRY SINGER SAYS SHE LOVES TO BE A TOURIST

“WHEN I’M ON TOUR, I LOOK AT IT LIKE a paid vacation. I plan all my time off beforehand. Sometimes my family or friends will come out and join me for a few days. When I have days off, we plan the areas of a city that we want to see, or that we’ve already been to but want to see again. I find that if you take someone else to show them a place you love for the first time, it’s almost like you’re getting to see it in a brand new way also. You feel the joy of their excitement.

“I go to all the museums and points of interest in whatever city and country I’m in. We ask the concierge at the hotel wherever I’m staying for advice on where to go. I love old churches, and in every country I’m in I search those out.

“In Scotland I go to the big cathedral in Edinburgh. In England, of course I’ve got to go see all the castles where the Queen lives, and I go to Piccadilly Circus and all those famous places. I love to go to Harrods to buy make- up. They have the best make-up department there. In Liverpool, I go to the places where The Beatles went. I do all of that tourist stuff, and I love it.

“I write songs everywhere. I write when we’re flying, I write when I’m on the bus, I write when I’m home. I have a tape recorder by the bathtub and one by my bed. That’s what you do when you’re a creative person – if you hear a good idea, or just think of a good title for a song, then you write a story for it.

“I’m very excited about playing shows in the UK again. I have a new CD out, Better Day, and so I’m doing a world tour. I’m playing a lot of new songs from the record and of course I will continue to always do the standards like I Will Always Love You, Jolene, 9 to 5, all those songs. The whole show is very uplifting. I like my songs to have a message. Because you know there’s all this doomsday stuff out there, the economy is bad, and it seems to me that we just get so caught up in worrying about all of that, we forget to live life in- between times.”