As Dolly Parton celebrates her 80th birthday Monday, she’s doing exactly what you’d expect of someone who’s a beloved icon the world over: instead of accepting gifts, she’s focused on giving one.
“When I first started thinking about something special to do for my 80th birthday, I thought, ‘Well Lord, please give me a song or something to make the birthday special and to be a gift from me to other people for my birthday,”” she says.
The answer to Dolly’s request came as she worked on her Life of Many Colors Museum, which is set to open with her new SongTeller Hotel this summer in Nashville.
“One day I was listening to the songs that we were doing for my museum,” she recalls. “All of a sudden, ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’ came on and I went, ‘Uh! Whoop! That’s it! That’s it!’ It was like a light bulb went off in my head and the whole room kind of lit up. And I thought, ‘“Light Of a Clear Blue Morning,” that’s the one that I need to be doing.””
Lainey Wilson, Reba McEntire, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah, David Foster and the Christ Church Choir all came together to help Dolly distill the message she wanted to send.
“I am hoping that people take away from this song hope and a good look at a future that we can still have and not worry so much about what’s going on at the moment,” she explains. “I thought this was a perfect song for this day and time.”
One more gift? Dolly’s giving the proceeds from the song to pediatric cancer research at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville.
Ahead, Dolly’s self-penned musical about her life is set to open on Broadway sometime in 2026.
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