MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It is no secret that superstar Dolly Parton does it all. But in her long list of accomplishments, one mission stands out, and that is Dolly's commitment to promoting children's literacy around the world. Dolly also loves Christmas and her French bulldog named Billy the Kid. Inspired by both, Dolly now brings us "Dolly Parton's Billy The Kid Comes Home for Christmas." It's a new children's book in which her canine sidekick has to decide between fame or family this holiday season. And Dolly Parton is with us now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
DOLLY PARTON: Well, thank you, and a very early merry Christmas to you.
MARTIN: I appreciate that. So I read someplace that you put a Christmas tree in every room of your home in Tennessee. Is that true?
PARTON: It's true. They're not always big ones, but they're little ones, medium ones or whatever, but there's always some sort of little tree. Even in my bathrooms I have little trees and, you know, just cute little things. But I love Christmas, and I love all the Christmas decorations and I always have my house lit up inside and out every Christmas. I'm like a kid when it comes to Christmas.
MARTIN: What is it about the holiday that you love so much?
PARTON: Oh, I just love all the festivities. I turn on my Christmas lights the night of Thanksgiving. I just love family, friends, all the gatherings, and all the wonderful food that goes along with it as well. So what's not to love about Christmas? And I like the presents. I like to get them, and I like to give them.
MARTIN: Well, yes, exactly. So Billy the Kid is your real-life god-dog, I understand, who lives in Nashville and has a following on Instagram for people who know about that. So tell us about him. How did he come into your life?
PARTON: Well, he belongs actually to my manager, Danny Nozell. And since he was a tiny little baby, he just took to me, and I took to him. So I just claimed him. And I said, well, I'm just going to have to be his godmother. So that makes him my god-dog (laughter).
MARTIN: Exactly. Exactly.
PARTON: And he thinks of me, you know, as his Dolly mama. And so I just enjoy Billy, and I enjoy Christmas. So why not do a Christmas book on Billy the Kid?
MARTIN: How did the idea come to you, though? Was it when you were doing one of your kind of fun things together? I was just kind of wondering how the idea came to you.
PARTON: The books are based on either a song that I've written, children's songs, or this one is a song that I wrote called "I'm Comin' Home For Christmas." And so I thought, well, that would be perfect to talk about family and friends and wanting to be home during the holidays. And Billy's a star now. He became that in his first book. So it just seemed to be right for him to actually have to make a decision and whether he's going to go home for Christmas or stay on tour. Gets a big offer for the Barkefeller Center (ph) to perform there in the book. There's much story in between, but he eventually winds up getting to be home at Christmas after all.
MARTIN: There are lots of people who face that dilemma. And is there a moment when that was particularly painful for - or difficult for you?
PARTON: Oh, absolutely. Many times through the years, that little hum always wants me to go home for the holidays. And to my knowledge, I've never missed a Christmas. I try to set it up beforehand, no matter what kind of offers we get, whether I'm working in Vegas or - back in the day when I did do that - or even on tour. I always say, I'm not going to be working for Christmas. I want to be home for Christmas. And that's kind of what this was about. Billy was on tour, and we have to work in order to be able to buy somebody something for Christmas. So even Billy would understand that. But yes, I totally relate to that, and I try to incorporate in the books that we write parts of myself and my own feelings about things.
MARTIN: As I said earlier, that really stands out is your commitment to children's literacy. And I just wondered if you could remind us where that comes from.
PARTON: Well, I started the program called the Imagination Library about 30 years ago because of my dad, because he couldn't read and write, and he felt really embarrassed and bad about that, tried to kind of keep it a secret, so to speak. But Daddy was so smart, and I always wondered what all he might have been had he had an education. But I think he was what he wanted to be - our daddy, you know, married to my mama. You know, simple mountain country farmer.
But Daddy was really bright, and I used to always go to Daddy for information and for advice about things, even my own businesses I started to grow. Daddy always had great input. So I thought I'm going to do something great and I'm going to involve my daddy in it. I'm going to start this little program where children get a book from the time they're born once a month until they start kindergarten. That way, they can learn to read, can kind of - they get their little book with their little name on it. It gives them a great interest in that to think, oh, when they get big enough to know that that's theirs, they're going to get somebody to help them read.
So I thought, well, this would be a great little thing in our home area. But it went over a couple of counties, and before you know it, it was all over Tennessee. And now we've given away 250 million books since we started. So I'm very proud, and my dad got to live long enough to see it doing great, and I involved him in it, asked his advice and kind of - and he felt real good about that, and that made me feel real good.
MARTIN: Did he ever learn to read?
PARTON: I don't think so, not to any degree. But, you know, he can make out - I think he, you know, he would know our names on site and all that, but - - and he was a smart guy. So I think it's true, it's very crippling to people because then I think after they're grown, they believe that they can't learn it because it seems like it's too big of a deal somehow or they just don't have the time to go learn something. If you've got a family to feed, you got to do what you got to do. But we just knew it, like I say, early on. And I think Mama would say certain things - now, don't bother your daddy with that. You come to me with that. That sort of thing.
MARTIN: Wow, that's amazing. Well, thank you so much for talking with us. Before we let you go, what are you up to this Christmas? I know you said it's a priority you make it a point to be home for Christmas or with family and friends. Anything special happening this Christmas that you can share?
PARTON: It'll just be special that I'm going to get to be home with my family and friends. So I'll just be happy that I'm home and still have the chance to be home with my family, my husband and my brothers and sisters.
MARTIN: That is Dolly Parton. Her new children's book is "Dolly Parton's Billy The Kid Comes Home For Christmas." Dolly Parton, thank you so much for talking with us, and Merry Christmas to you.
PARTON: And Merry Christmas to you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMIN' HOME FOR CHRISTMAS")
PARTON: (Singing) I'm coming home for Christmas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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