I love Dolly Parton

I was in the car today, on the way to visit my mother, and I flipped on NPR by mistake, trying to find that Cat Power CD. It was a Weekend Edition interview about her “9to5″ play launching in LA and then onto Broadway. She talked about being a child, and seeing “the town tramp”, and just loving the way she dressed and wore her hair. From that point on, she wanted to pattern herself after “the town tramp”. I just love her unabashed honesty.

But one key line stuck with me, when the interviewer guy asked her about what it was like to now be able to “do her own music”. The implication was that, for most of her career she’d simply bitten the bullet and done what was commercially viable. Maybe that’s true; I’m not to say. But her response was great; she said, “Finally, I realized that I was rich enough to act like I was poor again”.

Of course, everyone wants to do their unique calling when they’re 22 or 28 or whatever, but sometimes, (even though it gets slammed by the Conventional Wisdom), it’s good to pay your bills, and build your nest, so that you have the financial freedom to do what you want, later in life.

The link to the interview is above. Her joy is infectious.