Dolly Parton Book Reveals She ‘Came Close To Suicide’
on May 04, 2017 • Updated Mar 15, 2023
If you thought you knew everything there is to know about country legend Dolly Parton, you thought wrong. The bubbly blonde bombshell has secrets not even her biggest fans know about.
In a revealing new book titled Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, five decades worth of interviews gathered from several different publications, including interviews that have never been printed are put together by Randy L. Schmidt.
In a section titled “How I Came Close To Suicide” from Ladies’ Home Journal from journalist Cliff Jahr, she detailed how she contemplated taking her life, even getting as close as holding a gun in her hand.
“I was sitting upstairs in my bedroom one afternoon when I noticed in the nightstand drawer my gun that I keep for burglars. I looked at it a long time… Then, just as I picked it up, just to hold it and look at it for a moment, our little dog, Popeye, came running up the stairs,” she recalled, according to Daily Mail. “The tap-tap-tap of his paws jolted me back to reality I suddenly froze. I put the gun down. Then I prayed. I kinda believe Popeye was a spiritual messenger from God.”
“I don’t think I’d have done it, killed myself, but I can’t say for sure. Now that I’ve gone through that terrible moment, I can certainly understand the possibilities even for someone solid like me if the pain gets bad enough,” she recalled to Jahr.
When the interview originally printed in June 1986, Parton was a full-fledged country star. Since that interview she has only become a bigger star.
Safe to say, she will always thank Popeye for being her saving grace, and we will too.
