Parton has said that it was always her dream to perform at the Opry.
“To me, the Opry is like the song ‘New York, New York’: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” she said, according to her Opry Artist Biography.
At the age of 13 she got her chance. On the night of her performance, Johnny Cash introduced the young Parton and after singing George Jones’ song “You Gotta Be My Baby,” she received three encores, the Library of Congress reported.
Parton was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry 10 years later, in 1969, and in 2019, the TV special “Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry” aired on NBC, celebrating her first performance at the famed Opry House.
In a 2019 interview with Variety On the TV special, Parton reminisced about how informative those first days at the Opry were.
“I just have so many memories, even as a kid, I would look at the people backstage and just stand on that stage with all the amazing people standing there, thinking that maybe one day I could be a part of them,” Parton said.
“Now that I’ve had the good fortune and good fortune to see that dream become a reality, I wonder if a little kid could say, ‘I bet Dolly Parton once stood here’ or ‘I stand where Dolly Parton stood.'”
