My Christmas with Dolly: A Love Story

I have never forgotten the gift of that moment I spent with the real Dolly Parton.

John Perry | September 2, 2026

When Dolly Parton arrived at the studio to record an interview for the Christmas special I was writing and co-producing, I figured it would be the most memorable day of my radio career. I was wrong. Dolly saved that for later.

Against long odds, my partners and I had convinced Columbia Records to loan us their biggest country star, along with a mix of her upcoming Christmas album. We would use those ingredients to produce an hour-long Christmas radio special and syndicate it around the world. In that pre-Internet era (1990), shows were pitched and placed on stations one at a time. For us it was an incredible business opportunity. But first we had to deliver the goods.

Production lead times being what they were, our session was on a roasting hot July day so the show could be finished and sold by December. It didn’t feel anything like Christmas. To add a little holiday cheer and whimsy, we decorated the studio with lights, snow globes, cotton balls, and Santa with his reindeer. We even had a little stack of wrapped presents to exchange. 

I was simultaneously confident and nervous. Creatively and technically, I was ready for anything imaginable. But Dolly was a superstar. What would she be like to work with? What was she expecting? Past experience taught me that some stars were wonderful on the job while others were a handful. For example, there was the Household Name arriving for a........

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