title: Spotify

text: Spotify allows users to add local audio files for music not in its catalog into the user's library through Spotify's desktop application, and then allows users to synchronize those music files to Spotify's mobile apps or other computers over the same Wi-Fi network as the primary computer by creating a Spotify playlist, and adding those local audio files to the playlist. Audio files must either be in the .mp3, .mp4 (.mp4 files that have video streams are not supported), or .m4p media formats. This feature is available only for Premium subscribers.


title: Spotify

text: In April 2014, Spotify moved away from the peer-to-peer (P2P) system they had used to distribute music to users. Previously, a desktop user would listen to music from one of three sources: a cached file on the computer, one of Spotify's servers, or from other subscribers through the P2P system. P2P, a well-established Internet distribution system, served as an alternative that reduced Spotify's server resources and costs. However, Spotify ended the P2P setup in 2014, with Spotify's Alison Bonny telling TorrentFreak: "We're gradually phasing out the use of our desktop P2P technology which has helped our users enjoy their music both speedily and seamlessly. We're now at a stage where we can power music delivery through our growing number of servers and ensure our users continue to receive a best-in-class service."


title: Spotify

text: Originally Spotify had their own servers but in 2016 most of their infrastructure was migrated to Google cloud.


title: Spotify

text: Spotify first announced a voice-activated music-streaming gadget for cars in May 2019. Named the Car Thing, it represents the music-streaming service's first entry into hardware devices. In early 2020, as part of filings to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), submitted images of the device that make it seem much more like a miniature infotainment screen. In April 2021, Spotify rolled out its own voice assistant with the hands-free wake word: "Hey Spotify". Using this, users can perform various actions such as pulling playlists, launching radio stations, playing or pausing songs. This voice-based virtual assistant may be intended more towards Spotify's own hardware such as its "Car Thing".


title: Spotify

text: The company is incorporated in Luxembourg as Spotify Technology S.A., and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in 16 countries around the world. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spotify temporarily closed its office in Russia and suspended both premium and free services from the country until further notice. However, the support service continues to work for Russian users.


title: Spotify

text: In September 2010, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.


title: Spotify

text: Spotify has attracted significant criticism since its 2006 launch. The primary point of criticism centres around what artists, music creators, and the media have described as "unsustainable" compensation. Unlike physical sales or legal downloads (both of which were the main medium of listening to music at the time), which pay artists a fixed amount per song or album sold, Spotify pays royalties based on their "market share": the number of streams for their songs as a proportion of total songs streamed on the service. Spotify distributes approximately 70% of its total revenue to rights-holders, who will then pay artists based on their individual agreements. Worldwide, 30,000 musicians have joined the organization UnionOfMusicians (UMAW). UMAW organized protests in 31 cities in March 2021 and its campaign #JusticeAtSpotify is demanding more transparency and a compensation of one cent per stream.


title: Spotify

text: Spotify has been criticised by artists and producers including Thom Yorke and Taylor Swift, who have argued that Spotify does not fairly compensate musicians, and both withdrew their music from the service. Their catalogues returned to the service in 2017. While the streaming music industry in general faces the same critique about inadequate payments, Spotify, being the leading service, faces particular scrutiny due to its free service tier, allowing users to listen to music for free, though with advertisements between tracks. The free service tier has led to a variety of major album releases being delayed or withdrawn from the service. In response to the allegations about unfair compensation, Spotify claims that it is benefitting the industry by migrating users away from unauthorized copying and less monetized platforms to its free service tier, and then downgrades that service until they upgrade to paid accounts. A study has shown that record labels keep a high amount of the money earned from Spotify, and the CEO of Merlin Network, a representative body for over 10,000 independent labels, has also observed significant yearly growth rates in earnings from Spotify, while clarifying that Spotify pays labels, not artists. In 2017, as part of its efforts to renegotiate licence deals for an interest in going public, Spotify announced that artists would be able to make albums temporarily exclusive to paid subscribers if the albums are part of Universal Music Group or the Merlin Network.


title: Spotify

text: In May 2018, Spotify attracted criticism for its "Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy" that removed the music of R. Kelly and XXXTentacion from its editorial and algorithmic playlists because "When we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don't want to associate ourselves with." R. Kelly has faced accusations of sexual abuse, while XXXTentacion was on trial for domestic abuse in a case that did not reach a judgement before his death that June. This policy was revoked in June because the company deemed the original wording to be too "vague"; they stated that "Across all genres, our role is not to regulate artists. Therefore, we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct". However, artists such as Gary Glitter and Lostprophets are still hidden from Spotify's radio stations.


title: Spotify

text: According to some computer science and music experts, various music communities are often ignored or overlooked by music streaming services, such as Spotify. The most commonly perceived error is said to be caused by a lack of diverse scope within curation staff, including overlooking mainstay artists in large genres, potentially causing a categorical homogenization of musical styles; even impacting mainline artists like within hip hop with A Tribe Called Quest. This can potentially have a negative impact on heritage styles, amongst both popular and traditional genres of New Mexico music and folk music, and possibly hindering the growth of styles such as country rap and contemporary Christian music.


title: Spotify

text: In 2016, Spotify was criticized for allegedly making certain artists' music harder to find than others as these artists would release their music to the rival streaming service Apple Music before releasing it to Spotify.


title: Spotify

text: In March 2021, David Dayen argued in "The American Prospect" that musicians were in peril due to monopolies in streaming services like Spotify. Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of Spotify, discussed "what he called an artist-friendly streaming solution." He explained, "An extension of the internet radio craze of the early 2000s, Spotify would license content from record labels, and then support artists as people listened to their music." However, Dayen noted that such services draw revenue from advertisements, the promise of audience growth to investors, and data collection.


title: Spotify

text: In 2020, Spotify received criticism from anti-misinformation groups when conspiracy theorist Alex Jones appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience". Spotify's employees raised concerns about Jones' appearance on the show. In 2021, Spotify removed 42 episodes of Rogan's podcast.


title: Spotify

text: In January 2022, 270 scientists, physicians, professors, doctors, healthcare workers, veterinarians, a dentist, psychologists, physicians' assistants, medical students, an engineer and a podcast host wrote an open letter to Spotify expressing concern over "false and societally harmful assertions" on "The Joe Rogan Experience" and asked Spotify to "establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform". The 270 signatories objected to Rogan broadcasting COVID-19 misinformation, citing "a highly controversial" episode featuring guest Robert Malone (#1757). The episode has been criticized for "promoting baseless conspiracy theories", including "an unfounded theory that societal leaders have 'hypnotized' the public." The signatories assert: "Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who has compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust. These actions are not only objectionable and offensive, but also medically and culturally dangerous." The signatories also note that Malone was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19.


title: Spotify

text: On 26 January 2022, Neil Young removed his music from Spotify after they refused to remove the podcast. Joni Mitchell subsequently removed her music in support of Young. Other artists and podcasters, such as Nils Lofgren, Brené Brown and Crosby, Stills, & Nash, also announced a boycott of Spotify. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who signed a multi-year partnership with Spotify, said that since April 2021 they had been "expressing concerns" over COVID-19 misinformation on the platform.


title: Spotify

text: Amid the controversy, as of 28 January 2022 Spotify's stock had fallen 12% week-on-week, a loss of $4 billion in market capitalization. By 30 January 2022, this number had grown to a loss of $6.7 billion in market value, a fall of 17% week-on-week, and a fall of 26% year-to-date. Spotify's stock fell by 13% after the company reported fourth-quarter earnings on February 2, 2022. Although Ek addressed the Rogan controversy during the earnings call, the loss in value was attributed to the company's guidance on Q1 user growth, which did not meet analyst expectations.


title: Spotify

text: Spotify promised to add content advisories for anything containing discussions related to COVID-19 and posted additional rules. Rogan apologized for his role in the controversy, and defended his interviews with two controversial guests, Robert W. Malone and Peter A. McCullough, as "highly credentialed, very intelligent, very accomplished people, and they have an opinion that is different from the mainstream narrative". Rogan said he agreed with Spotify's plan to label episodes including COVID-19 discussions and would try to "have more experts with differing opinions, right after the controversial ones".


title: Spotify

text: In February 2022, Spotify removed about 70 more episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience", reportedly at Rogan's own request. Musician India Arie shared a compilation of clips in which Rogan used the "n word" on the podcast, and a clip in which Rogan appears to liken being around black people with the film "Planet of the Apes". Arie announced that she was also boycotting Spotify. Rogan posted an apology, saying it was "regretful and shameful", but said that the clips were "taken out of context". In a message to employees, Ek said: "While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more. And I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer."


title: Spotify

text: In July 2022, Crosby, Stills & Nash returned to the platform, although the group's songs with Neil Young were not brought back. The group stated that streaming profits from the newly returned songs will be donated to charities supporting those affected by COVID-19 for "at least a month".


title: Charles Manson

text: Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people, including the film actress Sharon Tate. The prosecution contended that, while Manson never directly ordered the murders, his ideology constituted an overt act of conspiracy.


title: Charles Manson

text: Before the murders, Manson had spent more than half of his life in correctional institutions. While gathering his cult following, Manson was a singer-songwriter on the fringe of the Los Angeles music industry, chiefly through a chance association with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys, who introduced Manson to record producer Terry Melcher. In 1968, the Beach Boys recorded Manson's song "Cease to Exist", renamed "Never Learn Not to Love" as a single B-side, but without a credit to Manson. Afterward, Manson attempted to secure a record contract through Melcher, but was unsuccessful.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson would often talk about the Beatles, including their eponymous 1968 album. According to Los Angeles County District Attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, Manson felt guided by his interpretation of the Beatles' lyrics and adopted the term "Helter Skelter" to describe an impending apocalyptic race war. During his trial, Bugliosi argued that Manson had intended to start a race war, although Manson and others disputed this. Contemporary interviews and trial witness testimony insisted that the Tate–LaBianca murders were copycat crimes intended to exonerate Manson's friend Bobby Beausoleil. Manson himself denied having instructed anyone to murder anyone.


title: Charles Manson

text: Charles Manson was born on November 12, 1934, to fifteen-year-old Kathleen Manson-Bower-Cavender, née Maddox (1919–1973), in the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was named Charles Milles Maddox.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson's biological father appears to have been Colonel Walker Henderson Scott Sr. (1910–1954) of Catlettsburg, Kentucky, against whom Kathleen Maddox filed a paternity suit that resulted in an agreed judgment in 1937. Scott worked intermittently in local mills, and had a local reputation as a con artist. He allowed Maddox to believe that he was an army colonel, although "Colonel" was merely his given name. When Maddox told Scott that she was pregnant, he told her he had been called away on army business; after several months she realized he had no intention of returning. Manson may never have known his biological father.


title: Charles Manson

text: In August 1934, before Manson's birth, Maddox married William Eugene Manson (1909–1961), a "laborer" at a dry cleaning business. Maddox often went on drinking sprees with her brother Luther, leaving Charles with multiple babysitters. They divorced on April 30, 1937, after William alleged "gross neglect of duty" by Maddox. Charles retained William's last name, Manson. On August 1, 1939, Luther and Kathleen Maddox were arrested for assault and robbery. Kathleen and Luther were sentenced to five and ten years of imprisonment, respectively.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson was placed in the home of an aunt and uncle in McMechen, West Virginia. His mother was paroled in 1942. Manson later characterized the first weeks after she returned from prison as the happiest time in his life. Weeks after Maddox's release, Manson's family moved to Charleston, West Virginia, where Manson continually played truant and his mother spent her evenings drinking. She was arrested for grand larceny, but not convicted. The family later moved to Indianapolis, where Maddox met an alcoholic with the last name "Lewis" through Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and married him in August 1943.


title: Charles Manson

text: In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Manson said that when he was nine, he set his school on fire. Manson also got in trouble for truancy and petty theft. Although there was a lack of foster home placements, in 1947, at the age of 13, Manson was placed in the Gibault School for Boys in Terre Haute, Indiana, a school for male delinquents run by Catholic priests. Gibault was a strict school, where punishment for even the smallest infraction included beatings with either a wooden paddle or a leather strap. Manson ran away from Gibault and slept in the woods, under bridges, and wherever else he could find shelter.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson fled home to his mother, and spent Christmas 1947 in McMechen, at his aunt and uncle's house. His mother returned him to Gibault. Ten months later, he ran away to Indianapolis. In 1948, in Indianapolis, Manson committed his first known crime by robbing a grocery store. At first the robbery was simply to find something to eat. However, Manson found a cigar box containing just over a hundred dollars, and he took the money. He used the money to rent a room on Indianapolis's Skid Row and to buy food.


title: Charles Manson

text: For a time, Manson had a job delivering messages for Western Union in an attempt to live a life free of crime. However, he quickly began to supplement his wages through petty theft. He was eventually caught, and in 1949 a sympathetic judge sent him to Boys Town, a juvenile facility in Omaha, Nebraska. After four days at Boys Town, he and fellow student Blackie Nielson obtained a gun and stole a car. They used it to commit two armed robberies on their way to the home of Nielson's uncle in Peoria, Illinois. Nielson's uncle was a professional thief, and when the boys arrived he allegedly took them on as apprentices. Manson was arrested two weeks later during a nighttime raid on a Peoria store. In the investigation that followed, he was linked to his two earlier armed robberies. He was sent to the Indiana Boys School, a strict reform school.


title: Charles Manson

text: At the school, other students allegedly raped Manson with the encouragement of a staff member, and he was repeatedly beaten. He ran away from the school eighteen times. While at the school, Manson developed a self-defense technique he later called the "insane game". When he was physically unable to defend himself, he would screech, grimace and wave his arms to convince aggressors that he was insane. After a number of failed attempts, he escaped with two other boys in February 1951. The three escapees were robbing filling stations while attempting to drive to California in stolen cars when they were arrested in Utah. For the federal crime of driving a stolen car across state lines, Manson was sent to Washington, D.C.'s National Training School for Boys. On arrival he was given aptitude tests which determined that he was illiterate, but had an above-average IQ of 109. His case worker deemed him aggressively antisocial.


title: Charles Manson

text: On a psychiatrist's recommendation, Manson was transferred in October 1951 to Natural Bridge Honor Camp, a minimum security institution. His aunt visited him and told administrators she would let him stay at her house and would help him find work. Manson had a parole hearing scheduled for February 1952. However, in January, he was caught raping a boy at knifepoint. Manson was transferred to the Federal Reformatory in Petersburg, Virginia. There he committed a further "eight serious disciplinary offenses, three involving homosexual acts". He was then moved to a maximum security reformatory at Chillicothe, Ohio, where he was expected to remain until his release on his 21st birthday in November 1955. Good behavior led to an early release in May 1954, to live with his aunt and uncle in McMechen.


title: Charles Manson

text: In January 1955, Manson married a hospital waitress named Rosalie Jean Willis. Around October, about three months after he and his pregnant wife arrived in Los Angeles in a car he had stolen in Ohio, Manson was again charged with a federal crime for taking the vehicle across state lines. After a psychiatric evaluation, he was given five years' probation. Manson's failure to appear at a Los Angeles hearing on an identical charge filed in Florida resulted in his March 1956 arrest in Indianapolis. His probation was revoked, and he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Terminal Island in Los Angeles.


title: Charles Manson

text: While Manson was in prison, Rosalie gave birth to their son, Charles Manson Jr. During his first year at Terminal Island, Manson received visits from Rosalie and his mother, who were now living together in Los Angeles. In March 1957, when the visits from his wife ceased, his mother informed him Rosalie was living with another man. Less than two weeks before a scheduled parole hearing, Manson tried to escape by stealing a car. He was given five years' probation and his parole was denied.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson received five years' parole in September 1958, the same year in which Rosalie received a decree of divorce. By November, he was pimping a 16-year-old girl and was receiving additional support from a girl with wealthy parents. In September 1959, he pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to cash a forged U.S. Treasury check, which he claimed to have stolen from a mailbox; the latter charge was later dropped. He received a 10-year suspended sentence and probation after a young woman named Leona, who had an arrest record for prostitution, made a "tearful plea" before the court that she and Manson were "deeply in love ... and would marry if Charlie were freed". Before the year's end, the woman did marry Manson, possibly so she would not be required to testify against him.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson took Leona and another woman to New Mexico for purposes of prostitution, resulting in him being held and questioned for violating the Mann Act. Though he was released, Manson correctly suspected that the investigation had not ended. When he disappeared in violation of his probation, a bench warrant was issued. An indictment for violation of the Mann Act followed in April 1960. Following the arrest of one of the women for prostitution, Manson was arrested in June in Laredo, Texas, and was returned to Los Angeles. For violating his probation on the check-cashing charge, he was ordered to serve his ten-year sentence.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson spent a year trying unsuccessfully to appeal the revocation of his probation. In July 1961, he was transferred from the Los Angeles County Jail to the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington. There, he took guitar lessons from Barker–Karpis gang leader Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, and obtained from another inmate a contact name of someone at Universal Studios in Hollywood, Phil Kaufman. Among his fellow prisoners during this time was Danny Trejo, who participated in several hypnosis sessions. According to Jeff Guinn's 2013 biography of Manson, his mother moved to Washington State to be closer to him during his McNeil Island incarceration, working nearby as a waitress.<ref name="Rule/Guinn"></ref>


title: Charles Manson

text: Although the Mann Act charge had been dropped, the attempt to cash the Treasury check was still a federal offense. Manson's September 1961 annual review noted he had a "tremendous drive to call attention to himself", an observation echoed in September 1964. In 1963, Leona was granted a divorce. During the process she alleged that she and Manson had a son, Charles Luther. According to a popular urban legend, Manson auditioned unsuccessfully for the Monkees in late 1965; this is refuted by the fact that Manson was still incarcerated at McNeil Island at that time.


title: Charles Manson

text: In June 1966, Manson was sent for the second time to Terminal Island in preparation for early release. By the time of his release day on March 21, 1967, he had spent more than half of his 32 years in prisons and other institutions. This was mainly because he had broken federal laws. Federal sentences were, and remain, much more severe than state sentences for many of the same offenses. Telling the authorities that prison had become his home, he requested permission to stay.


title: Charles Manson

text: Less than a month after his 1967 release from prison, Manson moved to Berkeley from Los Angeles, which could have been a probation violation. Instead, after calling the San Francisco probation office upon his arrival, he was transferred to the supervision of criminology doctoral researcher and federal probation officer Roger Smith. Until the spring of 1968, Smith worked at the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic (HAFMC), which Manson and his family frequented throughout their stay in the Haight. Roger Smith, as well as the HAFMC's founder David E. Smith, received funding from the National Institutes of Health, and reportedly the CIA to study the effects of drugs like LSD and methamphetamine on the counterculture movement in Haight–Ashbury. The patients at the clinic became subjects of their research, including Manson and his expanding group of (mostly) female followers, who came to see Roger Smith regularly.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson received permission from Roger Smith to move from Berkeley to the Haight-Ashbury District in San Francisco. He first took LSD and would use it frequently during his time there. David Smith, who had studied the effects of LSD and amphetamines in rodents, wrote that the change in Manson's personality during this time "was the most abrupt Roger Smith had observed in his entire professional career." Manson also read the book "Stranger in a Strange Land", a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Inspired by the burgeoning free love philosophy in Haight–Ashbury during the Summer of Love, Manson began preaching his own philosophy based on a mixture of "Stranger in a Strange Land", the Bible, Scientology, Dale Carnegie and the Beatles, which quickly earned him a following.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson had already gained his first follower at the UC Berkeley campus, librarian Mary Brunner. He talked her into letting him sleep at her house for a few nights, an arrangement that quickly became permanent. He then met Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a runaway teen, and convinced her to live with him and Brunner. Manson soon began to attract large crowds of listeners and some dedicated followers. He targeted individuals for manipulation who were emotionally insecure and social outcasts. In his book "Love Needs Care" about his time at the HAFMC, David Smith claims that Manson attempted to reprogram their minds to "submit totally to his will" through the use of "LSD and … unconventional sexual practices" that would turn his followers into "empty vessels that would accept anything he poured." Manson Family member Paul Watkins, testified that Manson would encourage group LSD trips and take lower doses himself to "keep his wits about him." Watkins said that "Charlie's trip was to program us all to submit." By the end of his stay in the Haight in April 1968, Manson had attracted 20 or so followers, all under the supervision of his parole officer Roger Smith and many of the staff at the HAFMC.


title: Charles Manson

text: The core members of Manson's following eventually included: Charles 'Tex' Watson, a musician and former actor; Bobby Beausoleil, a former musician and pornographic actor; Brunner; Susan Atkins; Patricia Krenwinkel; and Leslie Van Houten.


title: Charles Manson

text: Supervised by his parole officer Roger Smith, Manson grew his family through drug use and prostitution without interference from the authorities. Manson was arrested on July 31, 1967, for attempting to prevent the arrest of one of his followers, Ruth Ann Moorehouse. Instead of Manson being sent back to prison, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and Manson was given three additional years of probation. He avoided prosecution again in July 1968, when he and the family were arrested while moving from San Francisco to Los Angeles with the permission of Roger Smith, when his bus crashed into a ditch, where Manson and members of his family, including Brunner and Manson's newborn baby, were found sleeping naked by police. Afterwards, he was again arrested and released only a few days later, this time on a drug charge.


title: Charles Manson

text: The Manson Family developed into a doomsday cult when Manson became fixated on the idea of an imminent apocalyptic race war between America's Black population and the larger White population. A white supremacist, Manson told some of the Manson Family that Black people in America would rise up and kill all white people except for Manson and his "Family", but that they were not intelligent enough to survive on their own; they would need a white man to lead them, and so they would serve Manson as their "master". According to Vincent Bugliosi, in late 1968, Manson adopted the term "Helter Skelter", taken from a song on the Beatles' recently released "White Album", to refer to this upcoming war.


title: Charles Manson

text: In early August 1969, some Manson Family members committed murders in Los Angeles. The Manson Family gained national notoriety after the murder of actress Sharon Tate and four others in her home on August 8 and 9, 1969, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the next day. Tex Watson and three other members of the Family committed the Tate–LaBianca murders, allegedly under Manson's instructions. While it was later accepted at trial that Manson never expressly ordered the murders, his behavior was deemed to warrant a conviction of first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Evidence pointed to Manson's obsession with inciting a race war by killing those he thought were "pigs" and his belief that this would show the "nigger" how to do the same. Family members were also responsible for other assaults, thefts, crimes, and the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford in Sacramento by Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme.


title: Charles Manson

text: While it is often thought that Manson never murdered or attempted to murder anyone himself, true crime writer James Buddy Day, in his book "Hippie Cult Leader: The Last Words of Charles Manson", claimed that Manson shot drug dealer Bernard Crowe on July 1, 1969. Crowe survived.


title: Charles Manson

text: The State of California tried Manson for the Tate and LaBianca murders with co-defendants, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins, and Patricia Krenwinkel. Co-defendant Tex Watson was tried at a later date after being extradited from Texas. The trial began on July 15, 1970. Manson appeared wearing fringed buckskins, his typical clothing at Spahn Ranch.


title: Charles Manson

text: On July 24, 1970 – the first day of testimony – Manson appeared in court with an "X" carved into his forehead. His followers issued a statement from Manson saying "I have "X'd myself from your world". The following day, Manson's co-defendants, Van Houten, Atkins, and Krenwinkel, also appeared in court, with an "X" carved in their foreheads.


title: Charles Manson

text: Members of the Manson Family camped outside of the courthouse, and held a vigil on a street corner, because they were excluded from the courtroom for being disruptive. Other members of the Manson Family also carved crosses into their heads. One day some members of the Manson Family wore saffron robes to the trial, saying if Manson was convicted they would immolate themselves – a reference to monks and nuns in Vietnam who set fire to themselves to protest the Vietnam war.


title: Charles Manson

text: The State presented dozens of witnesses during the trial. However, its primary witness was Linda Kasabian, who was present during the Tate murders on August 8–9, 1969. Kasabian provided graphic testimony of the Tate murders, which she observed from outside the house. She was also in the car with Manson on the following evening, when, according to her testimony, he ordered the LaBianca killings. Kasabian spent days on the witness stand, being cross-examined by the defendants' lawyers. After testifying, Kasabian went into hiding for the next forty years.


title: Charles Manson

text: In early August 1970, President Richard Nixon told reporters that he believed that Manson was guilty of the murders, "either directly or indirectly". Manson obtained a copy of the newspaper and held up the headline to the jury. The defendants' attorneys then called for a mistrial, arguing that their clients had allegedly killed far fewer people than "Nixon's war machine in Vietnam". Judge Charles H. Older polled each member of the jury, to determine whether each juror saw the headline and whether it affected his or her ability to make an independent decision. All of the jurors affirmed that they could still decide independently. Shortly after, the female defendants – Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten – were removed from the room for chanting, "Nixon says we are guilty. So why go on?"


title: Charles Manson

text: On October 5, 1970, Manson attempted to attack Judge Older while the jury was present in the room. Manson first threatened Older, and then jumped over his lawyer's table with a sharpened pencil, in the direction of Older. Manson was restrained before reaching the judge. While being led out of the courtroom, Manson screamed at Older, "In the name of Christian justice, someone should cut your head off!" Meanwhile, the female defendants began chanting something in Latin. Judge Older began wearing a .38 caliber pistol to the trial afterwards.


title: Charles Manson

text: On November 16, 1970, the State of California rested its case after presenting twenty-two weeks worth of evidence. The defendants then stunned the courtroom by announcing that they had no witnesses to present, and rested their case.


title: Charles Manson

text: Immediately after defendants' counsel rested their case, the three female defendants shouted that they wanted to testify. Their attorneys advised the court, in chambers, that they opposed their clients testifying. Apparently, the female defendants wanted to testify that Manson had had nothing to do with the murders.


title: Charles Manson

text: The following day, Manson himself announced that he too wanted to testify. The judge allowed Manson to testify outside the presence of the jury. He stated as follows:


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson concluded, claiming that he too was a creation of a system that he viewed as fundamentally violent and unjust: After Manson finished speaking, Judge Older offered to let him testify before the jury. Manson replied that it was not necessary. Manson then told the female defendants that they no longer needed to testify.


title: Charles Manson

text: On November 30, 1970, Leslie Van Houten's attorney, Ronald Hughes, failed to appear for the closing arguments in the trial. He was later found dead in a California state park. His body was badly decomposed, and it was impossible to tell the cause of death. Hughes had disagreed with Manson during the trial, taking the position that his client, Van Houten, should not testify to claim that Manson had no involvement with the murders. Some have alleged that Hughes was murdered by the Manson Family.


title: Charles Manson

text: On January 25, 1971, the jury found Manson, Krenwinkel and Atkins guilty of first degree murder in all seven of the Tate and LaBianca killings. The jury found Van Houten guilty of murder in the first degree in the LaBianca killings.


title: Charles Manson

text: After the convictions, the court held a separate hearing before the same jury to determine if the defendants should receive the death sentence.


title: Charles Manson

text: Each of the three female defendants – Atkins, Van Houten, and Krenwinkel – took the stand. They provided graphic details of the murders and testified that Manson was not involved. According to the female defendants, they had committed the crimes in order to help fellow Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil get out of jail, where he was being held for the murder of Gary Hinman. The female defendants testified that the Tate-LaBianca murders were intended to be copycat crimes, similar to the Hinman killing. Atkins, Krenwinkel and Van Houten claimed they did this under the direction of the state's prime witness, Linda Kasabian. The defendants did not express remorse for the killings.


title: Charles Manson

text: On March 4, 1971, during the sentencing hearings, Manson trimmed his beard to a fork and shaved his head, telling the media, "I am the Devil, and the Devil always has a bald head!" However, the female defendants did not immediately shave their own heads. The state prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi, later speculated in his book, "Helter Skelter", that they refrained from doing so, in order to not appear to be completely controlled by Manson (as they had when they each carved an "X" in their foreheads, earlier in the trial).


title: Charles Manson

text: On March 29, 1971, the jury sentenced all four defendants to death. When the female defendants were led into the courtroom, each of them had shaved their heads, as had Manson. After hearing the sentence, Atkins shouted to the jury, "Better lock your doors and watch your kids."


title: Charles Manson

text: The Manson murder trial was the longest murder trial in American history when it occurred, lasting nine and a half months. The trial was among the most publicized American criminal cases of the twentieth century and was dubbed the "trial of the century". The jury had been sequestered for 225 days, longer than any jury before it. The trial transcript alone ran to 209 volumes or 31,716 pages.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson was admitted to state prison from Los Angeles County on April 22, 1971, for seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of Abigail Ann Folger, Wojciech Frykowski, Steven Earl Parent, Sharon Tate Polanski, Jay Sebring, and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. As the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1972, Manson was re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. His initial death sentence was modified to life on February 2, 1977.


title: Charles Manson

text: On December 13, 1971, Manson was convicted of first-degree murder in Los Angeles County Court for the July 25, 1969, death of musician Gary Hinman. He was also convicted of first-degree murder for the August 1969 death of Donald Jerome "Shorty" Shea. Following the 1972 decision of "California v. Anderson", California's death sentences were ruled unconstitutional and that "any prisoner now under a sentence of death ... may file a petition for writ of "habeas corpus" in the superior court inviting that court to modify its judgment to provide for the appropriate alternative punishment of life imprisonment or life imprisonment without possibility of parole specified by statute for the crime for which he was sentenced to death." Manson was thus eligible to apply for parole after seven years' incarceration. His first parole hearing took place on November 16, 1978, at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where his petition was rejected.


title: Charles Manson

text: In the 1980s, Manson gave four interviews to the mainstream media. The first, recorded at California Medical Facility and aired on June 13, 1981, was by Tom Snyder for NBC's "The Tomorrow Show". The second, recorded at San Quentin State Prison and aired on March 7, 1986, was by Charlie Rose for "CBS News Nightwatch", and it won the national news Emmy Award for Best Interview in 1987. The third, with Geraldo Rivera in 1988, was part of the journalist's prime-time special on Satanism. At least as early as the Snyder interview, Manson's forehead bore a swastika in the spot where the X carved during his trial had been.


title: Charles Manson

text: Nikolas Schreck conducted an interview with Manson for his documentary "Charles Manson Superstar" (1989). Schreck concluded that Manson was not insane but merely acting that way out of frustration.


title: Charles Manson

text: On September 25, 1984, Manson was imprisoned in the California Medical Facility at Vacaville when inmate Jan Holmstrom poured paint thinner on him and set him on fire, causing second and third degree burns on over 20 percent of his body. Holmstrom explained that Manson had objected to his Hare Krishna chants and verbally threatened him.


title: Charles Manson

text: After 1989, Manson was housed in the Protective Housing Unit at California State Prison, Corcoran, in Kings County. The unit housed inmates whose safety would be endangered by general-population housing. He had also been housed at San Quentin State Prison, California Medical Facility in Vacaville, Folsom State Prison and Pelican Bay State Prison.


title: Charles Manson

text: In June 1997, a prison disciplinary committee found that Manson had been trafficking drugs. He was moved from Corcoran State Prison to Pelican Bay State Prison a month later.


title: Charles Manson

text: On September 5, 2007, MSNBC aired "The Mind of Manson", a complete version of a 1987 interview at California's San Quentin State Prison. The footage of the "unshackled, unapologetic, and unruly" Manson had been considered "so unbelievable" that only seven minutes of it had originally been broadcast on "Today", for which it had been recorded.


title: Charles Manson

text: In March 2009, a photograph of Manson showing a receding hairline, grizzled gray beard and hair, and the swastika tattoo still prominent on his forehead was released to the public by California corrections officials.


title: Charles Manson

text: In 2010, the "Los Angeles Times" reported that Manson was caught with a cell phone in 2009 and had contacted people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia. A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections stated that it was not known if Manson had used the phone for criminal purposes. Manson also recorded an album of acoustic pop songs with additional production by Henry Rollins, titled "Completion". Only five copies were pressed: two belong to Rollins, while the other three are presumed to have been with Manson. The album remains unreleased.


title: Charles Manson

text: On January 1, 2017, Manson was being held at Corcoran Prison, when he was rushed to Mercy Hospital in downtown Bakersfield, because he had gastrointestinal bleeding. A source told the "Los Angeles Times" that Manson was very ill, and TMZ reported that his doctors considered him "too weak" for surgery that normally would be performed in cases such as his. He was returned to prison on January 6, and the nature of his treatment was not disclosed. On November 15, 2017, an unauthorized source said that Manson had returned to a hospital in Bakersfield, but the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not confirm this in conformity with state and federal medical privacy laws. He died from cardiac arrest resulting from respiratory failure, brought on by colon cancer, at the hospital on November 19.


title: Charles Manson

text: Three people stated their intention to claim Manson's estate and body. Manson's grandson Jason Freeman stated his intent to take possession of Manson's remains and personal effects. Manson's pen-pal Michael Channels claimed to have a Manson will dated February 14, 2002, which left Manson's entire estate and Manson's body to Channels. Manson's friend Ben Gurecki claimed to have a Manson will dated January 2017 which gives the estate and Manson's body to Matthew Roberts, another alleged son of Manson. In 2012, CNN ran a DNA match to see if Freeman and Roberts were related to each other and found that they were not. According to CNN, two prior attempts to DNA match Roberts with genetic material from Manson failed, but the results were reportedly contaminated. On March 12, 2018, the Kern County Superior Court in California decided in favor of Freeman in regard to Manson's body. Freeman had Manson cremated on March 20, 2018. As of February 7, 2020, Channels and Freeman still had petitions to California courts attempting to establish the heir of Manson's estate. At that time, Channels was attempting to force Freeman to submit DNA to the court for testing.


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson began studying Scientology while incarcerated with the help of fellow inmate Lanier Rayner, and


title: Charles Manson

text: in July 1961, Manson listed his religion as Scientology. A September 1961 prison report argues that Manson "appears to have developed a certain amount of insight into his problems through his study of this discipline". Upon his release in 1967, Manson traveled to Los Angeles where he reportedly "met local Scientologists and attended several parties for movie stars". Manson completed 150 hours of auditing. Manson's "right hand man", Bruce M. Davis, worked at the Church of Scientology headquarters in London from November 1968 to April 1969."


title: Charles Manson

text: In 2009, Los Angeles disc jockey Matthew Roberts released correspondence and other evidence indicating that he might be Manson's biological son. Roberts' biological mother claims that she was a member of the Manson Family who left in mid-1967 after being raped by Manson; she returned to her parents' home to complete the pregnancy, gave birth on March 22, 1968, and put Roberts up for adoption. CNN conducted a DNA test between Matthew Roberts and Manson's known biological grandson Jason Freeman in 2012, showing that Roberts and Freeman did not share DNA. Roberts subsequently attempted to establish that Manson was his father through a direct DNA test which proved definitively that Roberts and Manson were not related.


title: Charles Manson

text: In 2014, the imprisoned Manson became engaged to 26-year-old Afton Elaine Burton and obtained a marriage license on November 7. Manson gave Burton the nickname "Star". She had been visiting him in prison for at least nine years and maintained several websites that proclaimed his innocence. The wedding license expired on February 5, 2015, without a marriage ceremony taking place. Journalist Daniel Simone reported that the wedding was canceled after Manson discovered that Burton wanted to marry him only so that she and friend Craig Hammond could use his corpse as a tourist attraction after his death. According to Simone, Manson believed that he would never die and may simply have used the possibility of marriage as a way to encourage Burton and Hammond to continue visiting him and bringing him gifts. Burton said on her website that the reason that the marriage did not take place was merely logistical. Manson had an infection and had been in a prison medical facility for two months and could not receive visitors. She said that she still hoped that the marriage license would be renewed and the marriage would take place.


title: Charles Manson

text: On April 11, 2012, Manson was denied release at his 12th parole hearing, which he did not attend. After his March 27, 1997, parole hearing, Manson refused to attend any of his later hearings. The panel at that hearing noted that Manson had a "history of controlling behavior" and "mental health issues" including schizophrenia and paranoid delusional disorder, and was too great a danger to be released. The panel also noted that Manson had received 108 rules violation reports, had no indication of remorse, no insight into the causative factors of the crimes, lacked understanding of the magnitude of the crimes, had an exceptional, callous disregard for human suffering and had no parole plans. At the April 11, 2012, parole hearing, it was determined that Manson would not be reconsidered for parole for another 15 years, i.e. not before 2027, at which time he would have been 92 years old.


title: Charles Manson

text: In June 1970, "Rolling Stone" made Manson their cover story. Bernardine Dohrn of the Weather Underground reportedly said of the Tate murders: "Dig it, first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach. Wild!" Manson fanatic James Mason claimed to be acting on a suggestion from Charles Manson based on his interpretation of something Manson said in a televised interview, when Mason founded the Universal Order, a neo-Nazi group that has influenced other movements such as the terrorist group the Atomwaffen Division. Bugliosi quoted a BBC employee's assertion that a "neo-Manson cult" existed in Europe, represented by approximately 70 rock bands playing songs by Manson and "songs in support of him".


title: Charles Manson

text: Manson was a struggling musician, seeking to make it big in Hollywood between 1967 and 1969. The Beach Boys did a cover of one of his songs. Other songs were publicly released only after the trial for the Tate murders started. On March 6, 1970, "", an album of Manson music, was released. This included "Cease to Exist", a Manson composition the Beach Boys had recorded with modified lyrics and the title "Never Learn Not to Love". Over the next couple of months only about 300 of the album's 2,000 copies sold.


title: Charles Manson

text: There have been several other releases of Manson recordings – both musical and spoken. One of these, "The Family Jams", includes two compact discs of Manson's songs recorded by the Family in 1970, after Manson and the others had been arrested. Guitar and lead vocals are supplied by Steve Grogan; additional vocals are supplied by Lynette Fromme, Sandra Good, Catherine Share, and others. "One Mind", an album of music, poetry, and spoken word, new at the time of its release, in April 2005, was put out under a Creative Commons license.


title: Charles Manson

text: American rock band Guns N' Roses recorded Manson's "Look at Your Game, Girl", included as an unlisted 13th track on their 1993 album ""The Spaghetti Incident?"" "My Monkey", which appears on "Portrait of an American Family" by the American rock band Marilyn Manson, includes the lyrics "I had a little monkey / I sent him to the country and I fed him on gingerbread / Along came a choo-choo / Knocked my monkey cuckoo / And now my monkey's dead." These lyrics are from Manson's "Mechanical Man", which is heard on "". Crispin Glover covered "Never Say 'Never' to Always" on his album "The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution=Let It Be" released in 1989.


title: Charles Manson

text: Musical performers such as Kasabian, Spahn Ranch, and Marilyn Manson derived their names from Manson and his lore.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album debut in 1967 with "Hello, I'm Dolly", which led to success during the remainder of the 1960s (both as a solo artist and with a series of duet albums with Porter Wagoner), before her sales and chart peak came during the 1970s and continued into the 1980s. Parton's albums in the 1990s did not sell as well, but she achieved commercial success again in the new millennium and has released albums on various independent labels since 2000, including her own label, Dolly Records. She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's music includes Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)-certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. She has had 25 singles reach no.1 on the "Billboard" country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire). She has 44 career Top10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. She has composed over 3,000 songs, including "I Will Always Love You" (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper, as well as an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), "Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", and "9to5". As an actress, she has starred in films such as "9to5" (1980) and "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982), for which she earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress, as well as "Rhinestone" (1984), "Steel Magnolias" (1989), "Straight Talk" (1992) and "Joyful Noise" (2012).


title: Dolly Parton

text: She has garnered 11 Grammy Awards and 50 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award; ten Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year and is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award; five Academy of Country Music Awards, also including Entertainer of the Year; four People's Choice Awards; and three American Music Awards. She is also in a select group to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. In 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2022, she was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she initially declined the nomination, but ultimately accepted it and was inducted.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Outside of her work in the music industry, she also co-owns The Dollywood Company, which manages a number of entertainment venues, including the Dollywood theme park, the Splash Country water park, and a number of dinner theatre venues including The Dolly Parton Stampede and Pirates Voyage. She has founded a number of charitable and philanthropic organizations, chief among which is the Dollywood Foundation, which manages a number of projects to bring education and poverty relief to East Tennessee where she grew up.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Dolly Rebecca Parton was born January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee.


title: Dolly Parton

text: She is the fourth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). Parton's middle name comes from her maternal great-great-grandmother Rebecca (Dunn) Whitted. Parton's father, known as "Lee", worked in the mountains of East Tennessee, first as a sharecropper and later tending his own small tobacco farm and acreage. He also worked construction jobs to supplement the farm's small income. Despite her father's illiteracy, Parton has often commented that he was one of the smartest people she had ever known in regards to business and making a profit.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's mother, Avie Lee, cared for their large family. Her 11 pregnancies (the tenth being twins) in 20 years made her a mother of 12 by age 35. Parton credits her musical abilities to her mother; often in poor health, she still managed to keep house and entertain her children with Smoky Mountain folklore and ancient ballads. Having Welsh ancestors, Avie Lee knew many old ballads that immigrants from the British Isles brought to southern Appalachia in the 18th and 19th century. Avie Lee's father, Jake Owens, was a Pentecostal preacher, and Parton and her siblings all attended church regularly. Parton has long credited her father for her business savvy, and her mother's family for her musical abilities. When Parton was a small girl, her family moved from the Pittman Center area to a farm up on nearby Locust Ridge. Most of her cherished memories of youth happened there. Today, a replica of the Locust Ridge cabin resides at Parton's namesake theme park Dollywood. The farm acreage and surrounding woodland inspired her to write the song "My Tennessee Mountain Home" in the 1970s. Years after the farm was sold, Parton bought it back in the late 1980s. Her brother Bobby helped with building restoration and new construction.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton has described her family as being "dirt poor". Parton's father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Parton would write a song about Dr. Thomas when she was grown. She also outlined her family's poverty in her early songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". For six or seven years, Parton and her family lived in their rustic, one-bedroom cabin on their small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge. This was a predominantly Pentecostal area located north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Music played an important role in her early life. She was brought up in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), in a congregation her grandfather, Jake Robert Owens, pastored. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six. At seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on "The Cas Walker Show" on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At 13, she was recording (the single "Puppy Love") on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, where she first met Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to follow her own instincts regarding her career.


title: Dolly Parton

text: After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville the next day. Her initial success came as a songwriter, having signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival; with her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles during this time, including two Top10 hits: Bill Phillips's "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" (1966) and Skeeter Davis's "Fuel to the Flame" (1967). Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr. She signed with Monument Records in 1965, at age 19; she initially was pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released a string of singles, but the only one that charted, "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby", did not crack the "Billboard" Hot 100. Although she expressed a desire to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unique, high soprano voice was not suited to the genre.


title: Dolly Parton

text: After her composition "Put It Off Until Tomorrow", as recorded by Bill Phillips (with Parton, uncredited, on harmony), went to number six on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country. Her first country single, "Dumb Blonde" (composed by Curly Putman, one of the few songs during this era that she recorded but did not write), reached number 24 on the country chart in 1967, followed by "Something Fishy", which went to number 17. The two songs appeared on her first full-length album, "Hello, I'm Dolly".


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 1967, musician and country music entertainer Porter Wagoner invited Parton to join his organization, offering her a regular spot on his weekly syndicated television program "The Porter Wagoner Show", and in his road show. As documented in her 1994 autobiography, initially, much of Wagoner's audience was unhappy that Norma Jean, the performer whom Parton had replaced, had left the show, and was reluctant to accept Parton (sometimes chanting loudly for Norma Jean from the audience). With Wagoner's assistance, however, Parton was eventually accepted. Wagoner convinced his label, RCA Victor, to sign her. RCA decided to protect their investment by releasing her first single as a duet with Wagoner. That song, a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind", released in late 1967, reached the country Top10 in January 1968, launching a six-year streak of virtually uninterrupted Top10 singles for the pair.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's first solo single for RCA Victor, "Just Because I'm a Woman", was released in the summer of 1968 and was a moderate chart hit, reaching number 17. For the next two years, none of her solo effortseven "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)", which later became a standardwere as successful as her duets with Wagoner. The duo was named Vocal Group of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association, but Parton's solo records were continually ignored. Wagoner had a significant financial stake in her future; as of 1969, he was her co-producer and owned nearly half of Owe-Par, the publishing company Parton had founded with Bill Owens.


title: Dolly Parton

text: By 1970, both Parton and Wagoner had grown frustrated by her lack of solo chart success. Wagoner persuaded Parton to record Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues", a gimmick that worked. The record shot to number three, followed closely, in February 1971, by her first number-one single, "Joshua". For the next two years, she had numerous solo hitsincluding her signature song "Coat of Many Colors" (number four, 1971)in addition to her duets. Top20 singles included "The Right Combination" and "Burning the Midnight Oil" (both duets with Wagoner, 1971); "Lost Forever in Your Kiss" (with Wagoner), "Touch Your Woman" (1972), "My Tennessee Mountain Home" and "Travelin' Man" (1973).


title: Dolly Parton

text: Although her solo singles and the Wagoner duets were successful, her biggest hit of this period was "Jolene". Released in late 1973, it topped the country chart in February 1974 and reached the lower regions of the Hot 100 (it eventually also charted in the U.K., reaching number seven in 1976, representing Parton's first U.K. success). Parton, who had always envisioned a solo career, made the decision to leave Wagoner's organization; the pair performed their last duet concert in April 1974, and she stopped appearing on his TV show in mid-1974, although they remained affiliated. He helped produce her records through 1975. The pair continued to release duet albums, their final release being 1975's "Say Forever You'll Be Mine".


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 1974, her song, "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to number one on the country chart. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to record the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half of the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley. Parton refused. That decision has been credited with helping to make her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song over the years. Parton had three solo singles reach number one on the country chart in 1974 ("Jolene", "I Will Always Love You" and "Love Is Like a Butterfly"), as well as the duet with Porter Wagoner, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me". In a 2019 episode of the Sky Arts music series "Brian Johnson: A Life on the Road", Parton described finding old cassette tapes and realizing that she had composed both "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" in the same songwriting session, telling Johnson "Buddy, that was a good night." Parton again topped the singles chart in 1975 with "The Bargain Store".


title: Dolly Parton

text: Between 1974 and 1980 Parton had a series of country hits, with eight singles reaching number one. Her influence on pop culture is reflected by the many performers covering her songs, including mainstream and crossover artists such as Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton began to embark on a high-profile crossover campaign, attempting to aim her music in a more mainstream direction and increase her visibility outside of the confines of country music. In 1976, she began working closely with Sandy Gallin, who served as her personal manager for the next 25 years. With her 1976 album "All I Can Do", which she co-produced with Porter Wagoner, Parton began taking more of an active role in production, and began specifically aiming her music in a more mainstream, pop direction. Her first entirely self-produced effort, "New Harvest...First Gathering" (1977), highlighted her pop sensibilities, both in terms of choice of songs – the album contained covers of the pop and R&B classics "My Girl" and "Higher and Higher" – and production. Though the album was well received and topped the U.S. country albums chart, neither it nor its single "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" made much of an impression on the pop charts.


title: Dolly Parton

text: After "New Harvest" disappointing crossover performance, Parton turned to high-profile pop producer Gary Klein for her next album. The result, 1977's "Here You Come Again", became her first million-seller, topping the country album chart and reaching number 20 on the pop chart. The Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil-penned title track topped the country singles chart, and became Parton's first Top10 single on the pop chart (no.3). A second single, the double A-sided "Two Doors Down"/"It's All Wrong, But It's All Right" topped the country chart and crossed over to the pop Top20. For the remainder of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, many of her subsequent singles moved up on both charts simultaneously. Her albums during this period were developed specifically for pop-crossover success.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 1978, Parton won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her "Here You Come Again" album. She continued to have hits with "Heartbreaker" (1978), "Baby I'm Burning" (1979) and "You're the Only One" (1979)all of which charted in the pop Top 40 and topped the country chart. "Sweet Summer Lovin'" (1979) became the first Parton single in two years to not top the country chart (though it did reach the Top10). During this period, her visibility continued to increase, with multiple television appearances. A highly publicized candid interview on a "Barbara Walters Special" in 1977 (timed to coincide with "Here You Come Again" release) was followed by appearances in 1978 on Cher's ABC television special, and her own joint special with Carol Burnett on CBS, "Dolly & Carol in Nashville".


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton served as one of three co-hosts (along with Roy Clark and Glen Campbell) on the CBS special "Fifty Years of Country Music". In 1979, Parton hosted the NBC special "The Seventies: An Explosion of Country Music", performed live at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C., and whose audience included President Jimmy Carter.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Her commercial success grew in 1980, with three consecutive country chart number-one hits: the Donna Summer-written "Starting Over Again", "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You", and "9to5", which topped the country and pop charts in early 1981. She had another Top10 single that year with "Making Plans", a single released from a 1980 album with Porter Wagoner, released as part of a lawsuit settlement between the pair.


title: Dolly Parton

text: The theme song to the 1980 feature film "9to5", in which she starred along with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, not only reached number one on the country chartin February 1981 it reached number one on the pop and the adult-contemporary charts, giving her a triple number-one hit. Parton became one of the few female country singers to have a number-one single on the country and pop charts simultaneously. It also received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Her singles continued to appear consistently in the country Top10. Between 1981 and 1985, she had twelve Top10 hits; half of them hit number one. She continued to make inroads on the pop chart as well. A re-recorded version of "I Will Always Love You", from the feature film "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982) scraped the Top50 that year and her duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream" (written by the Bee Gees and produced by Barry Gibb), spent two weeks at number one in 1983.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In the mid-1980s, her record sales were still relatively strong, with "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Downtown", "Tennessee Homesick Blues" (1984), "Real Love" (another duet with Kenny Rogers), "Don't Call It Love" (1985) and "Think About Love" (1986) all reaching the country Top10 ("Tennessee Homesick Blues" and "Think About Love" reached number one; "Real Love" also reached number one on the country chart and became a modest crossover hit). However, RCA Records did not renew her contract after it expired in 1986, and she signed with Columbia Records in 1987.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Along with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, she released "Trio" (1987) to critical acclaim. The album revitalized Parton's music career, spending five weeks at number one on "Billboard's" Country Albums chart, and also reached the Top10 on "Billboard" Top200 Albums chart. It sold several million copies and produced four Top10 country hits, including Phil Spector's "To Know Him Is to Love Him", which went to number one. "Trio" won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. After a further attempt at pop success with "Rainbow" (1987), including the single "The River Unbroken", it ended up a commercial let-down, causing Parton to focus on recording country material. "White Limozeen" (1989) produced two number one hits in "Why'd You Come in Here Lookin' Like That" and "Yellow Roses". Although Parton's career appeared to be revived, it was actually just a brief revival before contemporary country music came in the early 1990s and moved most veteran artists off the charts.


title: Dolly Parton

text: A duet with Ricky Van Shelton, "Rockin' Years" (1991) reached number one, though Parton's greatest commercial fortune of the decade came when Whitney Houston recorded "I Will Always Love You" for the soundtrack of the feature film "The Bodyguard" (1992). Both the single and the album were massively successful. Parton's soundtrack album from the 1992 film, "Straight Talk", however, was less successful. But her 1993 album "Slow Dancing with the Moon" won critical acclaim and did well on the charts, reaching number four on the country albums chart, and number 16 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart. She recorded "The Day I Fall in Love" as a duet with James Ingram for the feature film "Beethoven's 2nd" (1993). The songwriters (Ingram, Carole Bayer Sager, and Clif Magness) were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Parton and Ingram performed the song at the awards telecast. Similar to her earlier collaborative album with Harris and Ronstadt, Parton released "Honky Tonk Angels" in the fall of 1993 with Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. It was certified as a gold album by the Recording Industry Association of America and helped revive both Wynette and Lynn's careers. Also in 1994, Parton contributed the song "You Gotta Be My Baby" to the AIDS benefit album "Red Hot + Country" produced by the Red Hot Organization. A live acoustic album, "", featuring stripped-down versions of some of her hits, as well as some traditional songs, was released in late 1994.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's recorded music during the mid-to-late-1990s remained steady and somewhat eclectic. Her 1995 re-recording of "I Will Always Love You" (performed as a duet with Vince Gill), from her album "Something Special" won the Country Music Association's Vocal Event of the Year Award. The following year, "Treasures", an album of covers of 1960s/70s hits was released, and featured a diverse collection of material, including songs by Mac Davis, Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, and Neil Young. Her recording of Stevens' "Peace Train" was later re-mixed and released as a dance single, reaching "Billboard's "dance singles chart. Her 1998 country-rock album "Hungry Again" was made up entirely of her own compositions. Although neither of the album's two singles, "(Why Don't More Women Sing) Honky Tonk Songs" and "Salt in my Tears", charted, videos for both songs received significant airplay on CMT. A second and more contemporary collaboration with Harris and Ronstadt, "Trio II", was released in early 1999. Its cover of Neil Young's song "After the Gold Rush" won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Parton also was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton recorded a series of bluegrass-inspired albums, beginning with "The Grass Is Blue" (1999), winning a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album; and "Little Sparrow" (2001), with its cover of Collective Soul's "Shine" winning a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The third, "Halos & Horns" (2002) included a bluegrass version of the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven". In 2005, she released "Those Were The Days" consisting of her interpretations of hits from the folk-rock era of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including "Imagine", "Where Do the Children Play?", "Crimson and Clover", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton earned her second Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Travelin' Thru", which she wrote specifically for the feature film "Transamerica". (2005) Due to the song's (and film's) acceptance of a transgender woman, Parton received death threats. She returned to number one on the country chart later in 2005 by lending her distinctive harmonies to the Brad Paisley ballad, "When I Get Where I'm Going". In September 2007, Parton released her first single from her own record company, Dolly Records, titled, "Better Get to Livin'", which eventually peaked at number 48 on "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. It was followed by the studio album "Backwoods Barbie", which was released on February 26, 2008, and reached number two on the country chart. The album's debut at number 17 on the all-genre "Billboard" 200 albums chart was the highest in her career. "Backwoods Barbie" produced four additional singles, including the title track, written as part of her score for "9to5: The Musical", an adaptation of her feature film. After the death of Michael Jackson, whom Parton knew personally, she released a video in which she somberly told of her feelings on Jackson and his death.


title: Dolly Parton

text: On October 27, 2009, Parton released a four-CD box set, "Dolly", which featured 99 songs and spanned most of her career. She released her second live DVD and album, "Live From London" in October 2009, which was filmed during her sold-out 2008 concerts at London's The O2 Arena. On August 10, 2010, with longtime friend Billy Ray Cyrus, Parton released the album "Brother Clyde". Parton is featured on "The Right Time", which she co-wrote with Cyrus and Morris Joseph Tancredi. On January 6, 2011, Parton announced that her new album would be titled "Better Day". In February 2011, she announced that she would embark on the Better Day World Tour on July 17, 2011, with shows in northern Europe and the U.S. The album's lead-off single, "Together You and I", was released on May 23, 2011, and "Better Day" was released on June 28, 2011. In 2011, Parton voiced the character Dolly Gnome in the animated film "Gnomeo & Juliet". On February 11, 2012, after the sudden death of Whitney Houston, Parton stated, "Mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song, and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 2013 Parton joined Lulu Roman for a re-recording of "I Will Always Love You" for Roman's album, "At Last". In 2013, Parton and Kenny Rogers reunited for the title song of his album "You Can't Make Old Friends". For their performance, they were nominated at the 2014 Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. In 2014, Parton embarked on the Blue Smoke World Tour in support of her 42nd studio album, "Blue Smoke". The album was first released in Australia and New Zealand on January 31 to coincide with tour dates there in February, and reached the Top10 in both countries. It was released in the United States on May 13, and debuted at number six on the "Billboard" 200 chart, making it her first Top10 album and her highest-charting solo album ever; it also reached the number two on the U.S. country chart. The album was released in Europe on June 9, and reached number two on the UK album chart. On June 29, 2014, Parton performed for the first time at the UK Glastonbury Festival performing songs such as "Jolene", "9to5" and "Coat of Many Colors" to a crowd of more than 180,000. On March 6, 2016, Parton announced that she would be embarking on a tour in support of her new album, "Pure & Simple". The tour was one of Parton's biggest tours within the United States in more than 25 years. Sixty-four dates were planned in the United States and Canada, visiting the most requested markets missed on previous tours.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In the fall of 2016 she released "Jolene" as a single with the "a cappella" group Pentatonix and performed on "" with Pentatonix and Miley Cyrus in November 2016. Also in 2016, Parton was one of thirty artists to perform on "Forever Country", a mash-up of the songs, "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "On the Road Again" and her own "I Will Always Love You". The song celebrates fifty years of the CMA Awards. At the ceremony itself, Parton was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Lily Tomlin and preceded by a tribute featuring Jennifer Nettles, Pentatonix, Reba McEntire, Kacey Musgraves, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride. In 2017, Parton appeared on "Rainbow", the third studio album by Kesha performing a duet of "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You". The track had been co-written by Kesha's mother Pebe Sebert. It was previously a hit for Parton and was included on her 1980 album "Dolly, Dolly, Dolly". She also co-wrote and provided featuring vocals on the song "Rainbowland" on "Younger Now", the sixth album by her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.


title: Dolly Parton

text: On June 25, 2019, "The New York Times Magazine" listed Parton as one of the hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. In July 2019, Parton made an unannounced appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island, and performed several songs accompanied by the Highwomen and Linda Perry. In 2020, Parton received worldwide attention after posting four pictures in which she showed how she would present herself on the social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The original post on Instagram went viral after celebrities posted their own versions of the so-called Dolly Parton challenge on social media. On April 10, 2020, Parton re-released 93 songs from six of her classic albums. Little Sparrow, Halos & Horns, For God and Country, Better Day, Those Were The Days, and Live and Well are all available for online listening. On May 27, 2020, Parton released a brand new song called "When Life Is Good Again". This song was released to help keep the spirits up of those affected by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Parton also released a music video for "When Life Is Good Again" which premiered on "Time" 100 talks on May 28, 2020.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In August 2020 Parton announced plans to release her first holiday album in 30 years, "A Holly Dolly Christmas", in October 2020. On December 6, CBS aired a Christmas special, "A Holly Dolly Christmas", where Parton performed songs from her album.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In October 2022 Parton stated in an interview that she would no longer tour, but would continue to play live shows occasionally.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton had turned down several offers to pose nude for "Playboy" magazine, but did appear on the cover of the October 1978 issue wearing a Playboy bunny outfit, complete with ears (the issue featured Lawrence Grobel's extensive and candid interview with Parton, representing one of her earliest high-profile interviews with the mainstream press). The association of breasts with Parton's public image is illustrated in the naming of Dolly the sheep after her, since the sheep was cloned from a cell taken from an adult ewe's mammary gland. In Mobile, Alabama, the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge is commonly called "the Dolly Parton Bridge" due to its arches resembling her bust. The thickened appearance of the turret frontal armor of the T-72A main battle tank led to the unofficial Army nickname "Dolly Parton" - and later the T-72BI's got the "Super Dolly Parton" nickname


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton is known for having undergone considerable plastic surgery. On a 2003 episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Winfrey asked what kind of cosmetic surgery Parton had undergone. Parton replied that cosmetic surgery was imperative in keeping with her famous image.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton has repeatedly joked about her physical image and surgeries, saying, "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap." Her breasts have garnered her mentions in several songs, including "Dolly Parton's Hits" by Bobby Braddock, "Marty Feldman Eyes" by Bruce Baum (a parody of "Bette Davis Eyes"), "No Show Jones" by George Jones and Merle Haggard, and "Make Me Proud" by Drake, featuring Nicki Minaj. When asked about future plastic surgeries, she famously said, "If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging, I'll get it nipped, tucked or sucked." Parton's feminine escapism is acknowledged in her words, "Womanhood was a difficult thing to get a grip on in those hills, unless you were a man."


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton, though influenced by big name stars, often credits much of her inspiration to her family and community. On her own mother Parton, in her 2020 book "Songteller: My Life in Lyrics", wrote "So it was just natural for my mom to always be singing. My mother had that old-timey voice, and she used to sing all these songs that were brought over from the Old World. They were English, Irish, Welsh, folk songs where people tell stories." Parton calls her mother's voice "haunting". "Lord you would feel it", she wrote. Her biggest influence however was her Aunt Dorothy Jo: "People often ask me who my influences were, they think I'm going to say some big names, and there were a few 'stars' I was impressed with. But my hero was my aunt Dorothy Jo. Mama's baby sister. She was not only an evangelist, she played banjo, she played guitar, and she wrote some great songs." Of course, fellow singers also had an impact on Parton, describing George Jones as her "all time favorite singer", and recognizing her love for other artists such as Kitty Wells, Roy Acuff, and Rose Maddox.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Though unable to read sheet music, Parton can play many instruments, including: the dulcimer, autoharp, banjo, guitar, electric guitar, fiddle, piano, recorder, and the saxophone. Reflecting on her multi-instrumental abilities, Parton said, "I play some of everything. I ain't that good at none of it, but I try to sell it. I really try to lay into it." Parton has also used her fingernails as an instrument, most evident on her 1980 song "9 to 5", which she derived the beat for from clacking her nails together while backstage on the set of the film of the same name.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 1998, "Nashville Business" ranked her the wealthiest country music star. , her net worth is estimated at $500million.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton is a prolific songwriter, having begun by writing country music songs with strong elements of folk music, based on her upbringing in humble mountain surroundings and reflecting her family's Christian background. Her songs "Coat of Many Colors", "I Will Always Love You", and "Jolene", among others, have become classics. On November 4, 2003, Parton was honored as a BMI Icon at the 2003 BMI Country Awards.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton has earned over 35 BMI Pop and Country Awards. In 2001, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In a 2009 interview on CNN's "Larry King Live", she said she had written "at least 3,000" songs, having written seriously since the age of seven. Parton also said she writes something every day, be it a song or an idea.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's songwriting has been featured prominently in several films. In addition to the title song for "9to5", she also recorded a second version of "I Will Always Love You" for "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982). The second version was a number one country hit and also reached number 53 on the pop charts.


title: Dolly Parton

text: "I Will Always Love You" has been covered by many country artists, including Ronstadt on "Prisoner In Disguise" (1975), Kenny Rogers on "Vote for Love" (1996), and LeAnn Rimes on "" (1997). Whitney Houston performed it on "The Bodyguard" soundtrack and her version became the best-selling hit both written and performed by a female vocalist, with worldwide sales of over twelve million copies. In addition, the song has been translated into Italian and performed by the Welsh opera singer Katherine Jenkins.


title: Dolly Parton

text: As a songwriter, Parton has twice been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for "9 to 5" and "Travelin' Thru" (2005) from the film "Transamerica". "Travelin' Thru" won Best Original Song at the 2005 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards. It was also nominated for both the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and the 2005 Broadcast Film Critics Association Award (also known as the Critics' Choice Awards) for Best Song. A cover of "Love Is Like A Butterfly" by Clare Torry was used as the theme music for the British TV show "Butterflies".


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton wrote the score (and Patricia Resnick the book) for "", a musical-theater adaptation of Parton's feature film "9 to 5" (1980). The musical ran at the Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles in late 2008. It opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in New York City, on April 30, 2009, to mixed reviews.


title: Dolly Parton

text: The title track of her 2008 album "Backwoods Barbie" was written for the musical's character Doralee. Although her score (as well as the musical debut of actress Allison Janney) was praised, the show struggled, closing on September 6, 2009, after 24 previews and 148 performances. Parton received nominations for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, as well as a nomination for Tony Award for Best Original Score.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Developing the musical was not a quick process. According to the public-radio program "Studio 360" (October 29, 2005), in October 2005 Parton was in the midst of composing the songs for a Broadway musical theater adaptation of the film. In late June 2007, "9 to 5: The Musical" was read for industry presentations. The readings starred Megan Hilty, Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block, Bebe Neuwirth, and Marc Kudisch. Ambassador Theatre Group announced a 2012 UK tour for "Dolly Parton's 9to5: The Musical", commencing at Manchester Opera House, on October 12, 2012.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton invested much of her earnings into business ventures in her native East Tennessee, notably Pigeon Forge. She is a co-owner of The Dollywood Company, which operates the theme park Dollywood (a former Silver Dollar City), a dinner theater, Dolly Parton's Stampede, the waterpark Dollywood's Splash Country, and the Dream More Resort and Spa, all in Pigeon Forge. Dollywood is the 24th-most-popular theme park in the United States, with three million visitors per year.


title: Dolly Parton

text: The Dolly Parton's Stampede business has venues in Branson, Missouri, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A former location in Orlando, Florida, closed in January 2008 after the land and building were sold to a developer. Starting in June 2011, the Myrtle Beach location became Pirates Voyage Fun, Feast and Adventure; Parton appeared for the opening, and the South Carolina General Assembly declared June 3, 2011, as Dolly Parton Day.


title: Dolly Parton

text: On January 19, 2012, Parton's 66th birthday, Gaylord Opryland and Dollywood announced plans to open a $50million water and snow park, a family-friendly destination in Nashville that is open all year. On September 29, 2012, Parton officially withdrew her support for the Nashville park due to the restructuring of Gaylord Entertainment Company after its merger with Marriott International.


title: Dolly Parton

text: On June 12, 2015, it was announced that the Dollywood Company had purchased the Lumberjack Feud Dinner Show in Pigeon Forge. The show, which opened in June 2011, was owned and operated by Rob Scheer until the close of the 2015 season. The new, renovated show by the Dollywood Company opened in 2016.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton was a co-owner of Sandollar Productions, with Sandy Gallin, her former manager. A film and television production company, it produced the documentary "" (1989), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature); the television series "Babes" (1990–91) and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1997–2003); and the feature films "Father of the Bride" (1991), "Father of the Bride: Part II" (1995) "Straight Talk" (1992) (in which Parton starred), and "Sabrina" (1995), among other shows. In a 2009 interview, singer Connie Francis revealed that Dolly had been contacting her for years in an attempt to film the singer's life story. Francis turned down Parton's offers, as she was already in negotiations with singer Gloria Estefan to produce the film, a collaboration now ended. After the retirement of her partner, Sandy Gallin, Parton briefly operated Dolly Parton's Southern Light Productions and in 2015 she announced her new production company would be called Dixie Pixie Productions and produce the movies-of-week in development with NBC Television and Magnolia Hill Productions.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In addition to her performing appearances on "The Porter Wagoner Show" in the 1960s and into the 1970s, her two self-titled television variety shows in the 1970s and 1980s, and on "American Idol" in 2008 and other guest appearances, Parton has had television roles. In 1979, she received an Emmy award nomination as "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Variety Program" for her guest appearance in a Cher special. During the mid-1970s, Parton wanted to expand her audience base. Although her first attempt, the television variety show "Dolly!" (1976–77), had high ratings, it lasted only one season, with Parton requesting to be released from her contract because of the stress it was causing on her vocal cords (she later tried a second television variety show, also titled "Dolly" (1987–88); it too lasted only one season).


title: Dolly Parton

text: In her first feature film, Parton portrayed a secretary in a leading role with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the comedy film "9to5" (1980). The movie highlights discrimination against women in the workplace and created awareness of the National Association of Working Women (9–5). She received nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress. Parton wrote and recorded the film's title song. It received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Song and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. Released as a single, the song won both the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and the Grammy Award for Best Country Song. It also reached no.1 on the Hot 100 chart and it was no.78 on the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs" list released by the American Film Institute in 2004. "9 to 5" became a major box office success, grossing over $3.9million its opening weekend, and over $103million worldwide. Parton was named Top Female Box Office Star by the "Motion Picture Herald" in both 1981 and 1982 due to the film's success.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In late 1981, Parton began filming her second film, the musical film "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" (1982). The film earned her a second nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best ActressMotion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was greeted with positive critical reviews and became a commercial success, earning over $69million worldwide. After a two-year hiatus from films, Parton was teamed with Sylvester Stallone for "Rhinestone" (1984). A comedy film about a country music star's efforts to mould an unknown into a music sensation, the film was a critical and financial failure, making just over $21million on a $28million budget.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In 1989, Parton returned to film acting in "Steel Magnolias" (1989), based on the play of the same name by Robert Harling. The film was popular with critics and audiences, grossing over $95million inside the U.S. She starred in the television movies "A Smoky Mountain Christmas" (1986); "Wild Texas Wind" (1991); "Unlikely Angel" (1996), portraying an angel sent back to earth following a deadly car crash; and "Blue Valley Songbird" (1999), where her character lives through her music. Parton starred along with James Woods in "Straight Talk" (1992), which received mixed reviews, and grossed a mild $21million at the box office.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton's 1987 variety show "Dolly" lasted only one season. She made a cameo appearance as herself in "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1993), an adaptation of the long-running TV sitcom of the same name (1962–71). Parton has done voice work for animation for television series, playing herself in "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (episode "Urban Chipmunk", 1983) and the character Katrina Eloise "Murph" Murphy (Ms. Frizzle's first cousin) in "The Magic School Bus" (episode "The Family Holiday Special", 1994). She also has guest-starred in several sitcoms, including a 1990 episode of "Designing Women" (episode "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century") as herself, the guardian movie star of Charlene's baby. She made a guest appearance on "Reba" (episode "Reba's Rules of Real Estate") portraying a real-estate agency owner and on "The Simpsons" (episode "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday", 1999). She appeared as herself in 2000 on the Halloween episode of Bette Midler's short-lived sitcom "Bette", and on episode 14 of "Babes" (produced by Sandollar Productions, Parton and Sandy Gallin's joint production company). She made cameo appearances on the Disney Channel as "Aunt Dolly", visiting Hannah and her family in fellow Tennessean and real-life goddaughter Miley Cyrus's series "Hannah Montana" (episodes "Good Golly, Miss Dolly", 2006, "I Will Always Loathe You", 2007, and "Kiss It All Goodbye", 2010). She was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton appeared as an overprotective mother in the comedy "Frank McKlusky, C.I.". (2002) She made a cameo appearance in the comedy film "", starring Sandra Bullock. She was featured in "The Book Lady" (2008), a documentary about her campaign for children's literacy. Parton expected to reprise her television role as Hannah's godmother in the musical comedy film "" (2009), but the character was omitted from the screenplay. She had a voice role in the comedy family film "Gnomeo & Juliet" (2011), a computer-animated film with garden gnomes about William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton co-starred with Queen Latifah in the musical film "Joyful Noise" (2012), playing a choir director's widow who joins forces with Latifah's character, a mother of two teens, to save a small Georgia town's gospel choir.


title: Dolly Parton

text: "Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors", a made-for-TV film based on Parton's song of the same name, and featuring narration by Parton, aired on NBC in December 2015, with child actress Alyvia Alyn Lind portraying the young Parton. Parton also had a cameo in , which aired in November 2016.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In June 2018, Parton announced an eight-part Netflix series, featuring her music career. She is its executive producer and co-star. The series, called "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings", aired in November 2019.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton is the subject of the NPR podcast "Dolly Parton's America". It is hosted by Jad Abumrad, who also hosts Radiolab.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In December 2019, the biographical documentary "" was added to the catalog of the Netflix streaming service. The documentary, a co-production of Netflix and the BBC, takes its name from Parton's 1971 song.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In November 2020, Parton produced and starred in the Netflix musical film "Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square", which won her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In November 2021, Parton was confirmed to be appearing in the final season of "Grace and Frankie" in a guest-starring role, reuniting with her "9 to 5" co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.


title: Dolly Parton

text: In July 2022, Parton appeared as a simulation of herself on sci-fi show "The Orville" in the episode "Midnight Blue".


title: Dolly Parton

text: In December 2022, Parton appeared in an NBC special titled "Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas."


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton is the fourth of 12 children. Her siblings are: Willadeene, David Wilburn, Coy Denver, Robert Lee, Stella Mae, Cassie Nan, Randel Huston (deceased), Larry Gerald (deceased), twins Floyd Estel (deceased) and Frieda Estelle, and Rachel Ann.


title: Dolly Parton

text: On May 30, 1966, Parton and Carl Thomas Dean (born July 20, 1942, in Nashville, Tennessee), were married in Ringgold, Georgia. Although Parton does not use Dean's surname professionally, she has stated that her passport reads "Dolly Parton Dean" and that she sometimes uses Dean when signing contracts.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Dean, who is retired from running an asphalt road-paving business in Nashville, has always shunned publicity and rarely accompanies his wife to any events. Parton has jokingly said he has only seen her perform once. She also has said in interviews that, although it appears they spend little time together, it is simply that nobody sees him publicly. She has commented on Dean's romantic side, saying that he does spontaneous things to surprise her and sometimes even writes poems for her. In 2011 Parton said, "We're really very proud of our marriage. It's the first for both of us. And the last."


title: Dolly Parton

text: On May 6, 2016, Parton announced that she and her husband would renew their vows in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary later in the month.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Parton and Dean helped raise several of Parton's younger siblings in Nashville, leading her nieces and nephews to refer to them as "Uncle Peepaw" and "Aunt Granny"; the latter a moniker that later lent its name to one of Parton's Dollywood restaurants. Parton is the godmother of singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus.


title: Dolly Parton

text: Since the mid-1980s, Parton has supported many charitable efforts, particularly in the area of literacy, primarily through her Dollywood Foundation.