December 29, 2020 • 17 mins
It's beginning to look a lot like a "Cody Cast: Podcast Playback With Dolly."
If you are wondering when to take down your Christmas tree? Take a tip from the wise and wonderful Dolly Parton.
The global superstar calls in to join Cody Alan for a conversation to discuss her new Christmas album, how she is adding joy to the holiday season, and reveals her secret weapon when writing music.
PLUS: The country diva tells Cody why we should watch her in her new role in her Netflix movie, “Christmas On The Square,” and overshares on what it was like to sing with Jimmy Fallon.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Cody Ellen's podcast. This is Cody Cast. I
can't believe I get to talk to her. I've had
the chance to interview Dolly Parton probably about four times now.
I think this is my fifth time. Every time, I'm
blown away by just the magic that is Dolly. She
(00:22):
gave a million dollars to Vandy, the Vanderbilt University here
in Nashville, one of the places that was working on
the research for COVID nineteen hoping to find a cure.
And because of Dolly's mega donation and the donations of
so many people and the hard work of so many
scientists and researchers and medical professionals, now we're getting closer
(00:42):
and closer to that having that vaccine. So um that
aside from the incredible singer, songwriter, the legacy that she has,
Let's talk Dollywood. As a kid, I went to a
place called Silver Dollars City. It was later bought by
Dolly and turned into Dollywood, And then I went to
(01:03):
Dollywood a few years later, and I'm telling you it's incredible.
And she's got a brand new Christmas album. I want
to get the all that she's on the line right now, Ladies,
and gentlemen, Dolly parton the One and Only h Cody.
Hey Dolly, how are you? I'm good? How are you doing?
I'm doing great and so excited about the new Christmas album,
(01:25):
A Holly Dolly Christmas. Um, you've obviously done holiday projects
in the past. Um, why was now sort of the
right time to do another? Well, I mean it's a
right time to do anything this fun and uplifting, don't
you think? And I think people are not going to
get out and you know, do all the stuff that
normal are going to do or would do this Christmas.
(01:46):
So I thought, since I had some time on my
hands too kind of hold up at the house, I'd
be creative and inventive and uh, just write some new songs,
pick some old classics, and get some special people to
sing on it, and just make it a Holly Dolly Christmas.
So you're saying you're not much of the couch potatoes
during the quarantine, I guess no, I'm not. I can't. Uh,
(02:07):
you know, I didn't want to panic. I was called
it a panic gimmick instead of a pandemic. But I'm careful.
We were smart. We were not able to get in
there together. You know, doing all these things. So most
of the artists that were on it, they recorded their
parts from their studios. We converged back and forth, you know,
you know, you know, my phone and uh, Facebook and
(02:28):
and emailing and all that. So we got the job
done and we all had a fun time doing it.
Gave us all a little something special to do. And
you wrote six of the songs on the project included
a few classics obviously as well. It's really hard to
do a Christmas album, I think, because it's hard to
pick and choose which to do. There's so many songs.
So how did you sort of build the list? Well?
(02:51):
I did definitely want to do some special things, like
one I chose a Christmas classic called I Saw Mommy
Kissing Santa Claus. I chose that one cast of my
work with the Imagination Library and my connection with children,
so I definitely wanted to put something special, you know,
in there with them, which is a great little Christmas
song anyway, and then of course I did I always
(03:13):
liked the song Holly Jolly Christmas. I used to work
a lot with Burrel Eyes on different specials, and so
when I got ready to put this together, I was
going to record that song, and that's kind of where
I came up with the idea. When I was doing
Holly Jolly Christmas, I was thinking, it's the Holly Dolly Christmas,
so that kind of lended itself well to that. And uh,
(03:33):
and then like you said, I wrote several but hopefully
some of them might become classics. And so we're excited
about it and hopefully it's a good mixture of the
old and the new and uh, just some great duet stuff.
As you will know, it was done. Let's talk about
that for a secon because your goddaughter Miley Cyrus is
on there. Of course you've seen with her dad Billy Ray.
(03:54):
But I think the biggest surprise of all for me
when listening was Jimmy Fallon No. But you know what,
h me is the one that gave me the idea
to choose all these others. He was my very first
choice because years ago, a few years back, around the holidays,
I was on his show and he wanted me to
sing All I Want for Christmas as You, which is
(04:14):
one of his favorite songs. I guessed, and I didn't
know it well enough to do it, and I didn't
want to embarrass myself trying to sing am rad Carish song,
you know, when I didn't even know it. So I said,
I'm sorry, Jimmy, I don't know it well enough to
do it, and so that I always kind of bothered me.
So when I got ready to do my Christmas album,
I had learned it though, uh since then, and I
(04:35):
and it just like a light bulb went off in
my head. You know, I was going to record it,
and I thought, how pout? I asked, Jimmy's allen? Because
I loved his voice. He sings with everybody. He just
does it in a joking way. Par it isn't all
but I've noticed he has a good voice. So I
called him and I said, would you be willing to
sing on all I want for Christmas? To you? And
(04:56):
I told him the story and how why I learned it.
He said, oh Dolly, I'm not don't consider myself a
real singer. I said, well, I think you have a
great voice. I said, would you be willing to try it?
And he said, well yeah, if you a problems for me,
if it ain't good, you won't use it. I said, okay,
I promise you that, and so but he recorded I
think he killed it. I thought it was great, one
(05:16):
of my favorite things on the whole album mine too.
I thought, wow, that's Jimmy Fountain singing. It was really good.
What about working with Michael Boublet another duet with him
Cut Up and Cozy Down? Yeah, well that was you know,
I wrote that little song at the same thing. I
didn't know. I just when I wrote it, I had
recorded it. And then somebody said, you know he would
be great on this. I think it was Kent wells Uh,
(05:39):
the guy you know that produced the record, my bandleader,
And I said, well, I guess I didn't try to
see if he would. I said, I don't know if
those people like Pat would want to sing with me.
They're not very country. He said, I bet they would,
and so I called him and he said, absolutely, I'll
sing on it. I've loved you for here and my grandpa,
my grandpa loved do I used to watch you and
(06:01):
I a little boy. Of course that made me feel
about a hundred but anyway, he said, seriously, I'm a
big fan and I would love to sing. So he
did it. And then of course you mentioned Billy Ray
and Milly they're my They're my god family, and they're
just like family to me. So they both were on it.
Willie Nelson, as you know, I wrote my favorite, one
(06:21):
of my favorite classic Christmas songs of all times, pretty Paper.
So I asked him if he'd sing on it. He saild,
you know, damn well, I'll sing on it. So and
so I'll put my guest are too. So that was
a great joy doing that, you know, with him. And
so we just went down the line and I did
(06:42):
do it with my brother Randy, uh and my niece Heidi.
It's a song I wrote. My brother was our Christmas baby.
Randy was born around Christmas, so I thought that fit
and so we just had a lot of wonderful people
all over it. One of my favorite Christmas albums ever
was when you and Kenny Rogers saying Together. Of course,
we lost Kenny the past year. Um, tell me about
(07:04):
maybe one special memory of your friendship with him. Oh, well,
every membery I have of Kenny especial because we were
just like we were just a natural team. We were
like best friends. Uh, we were like brother's sister, but
we were like best buddies. But I remember one of
my greatest joys is when I recorded that album with
Kenny and we did a Christmas special of course that
(07:25):
year also, But one of my favorites is when we
recorded that. It was in July. That's back when we
could reach, you know, record in the real studio with
the real musicians, that everybody's singing and playing at the
same time, unlike this year when we kind of had
to sub it out to everybody from their own places
to put their parts on. But we decorated uh the
(07:46):
studio and Christmas tree, snow, holly and mistletoe, and we
had such fun. And every day we we worked, we'd
bring each other a little present wrapped up and it
made it really feel like Christmas. Would turn the air
conditioner down on Old QUI felt it was a cold
in the room. We wore our little jackets and stuff
sweaters in the studio. So but me and Ki made
(08:08):
a lot of a lot of precious memories. And when
he died, it was just like I lost her brother.
It really was. I mean, it's it's still heavy in
my heart. I still think about him. When I do
think about him, I just kind of, you know, just
kind of gasp and you know, tears or just that
feeling you know, still rushes over me, but that happens,
but he'll always be around for all of us in
(08:29):
his great music. One time Kenny told me that you
use a fax machine. Um, I'm got a printer now.
It makes so much fun of me. But I still
write my songs on a cousette player. I still write
my song's long hand on a legal pad. I'm just
still an old timer. And he used to always ragged
me out, you know I was. I said, Oh, Kenny,
(08:52):
he said, well, how am I going to do this?
You're go I can't fact, I said, old you don't
have any trouble finding me. Whohen you want something? So
don't give me that. I know. He's always said, yeah,
what about them carry you pigeons? I said, yeah, they're
stinking up my bus, but we're all right. So do
you have a iPhone or any modern technology? Yeah? I
have a smartphone. I'm not very high tech, but I
(09:15):
I'm totally surrounded in my company with with all of that,
So anything I want up, I'll get it out there.
But I don't want to be bothered with all that stuff.
I'm not that curious about other people and things. I'm
involved in my own work, I call out, I take
cold if I want to pick them up, or I'll
call back when I got time. But I'm not sure.
(09:36):
I'm not your big high tech girl. Uh, but I'm
getting it done. I'm out there all over the floor.
You are. Um. November sevent You're also releasing a book, Songteller,
My Life and Lyrics. So what would be one surprise
from the book? Maybe something we don't know about you? Well,
I think there's probably too little surprise. It's all around
a lot of these of course, everybody knows the songs.
(09:57):
But what what makes this book more interesting, I think,
is me talking about writing you know, why I wrote them,
where I was in my life and where I was
in my mind and my emotional stuff. You know at
the time where some of these songs were being written,
and what they were about, what I based them on.
So uh. And there's a lot of most people have
seen most of all the pictures through the years, because
(10:20):
I've been around a long time. But there's a lot
of pictures that you know that a lot of the
fans have not seen yet, and a lot of little
stories that they haven't heard yet. Christmas on the Square,
as we go back to the new album is one
of the songs and also a title of the Netflix
movie that you're doing. So i'm what can you tell
us about the movie. Well, I'm very excited about this movie.
(10:42):
I think that it's released if I'm not mistaken on
the date. I think it's the twenty two of November.
I believe that's right when it debuts. It's called Christmas
on the Square. Like you said, I did a bluegrass
version of it, Country Bluegrass on my holid Christmas. But
the Netflix is a full blown musical. I wrote all
the music. There's fourteen original songs in it. Dabbie Allen
(11:04):
choreographed and directed it. And now Christine Barinsky uh As
stars in the movie, and uh and and Treat Williams.
So we've got a great cast. I'll play an angel,
a five see angel, trying to teach her some good lessons.
So I come back as different things. I'm a bad lady,
you know in the early part, and then you know,
I just kind of come in and out doing doing
(11:26):
my special things, trying to change her heart and mind
about saving this, you know, little community, because she's she's
a rich woman and she's selling the town and to
build a Walmart hup thing, and so the people are
trying to save their community, and so it's really a
wonderful story. And so I enjoyed writing the music and
I think people are gonna live. Got a lot of
(11:47):
dancing and singing, and uh, it's really a full blown
kind of like a Broadway top you know show going
back to your first acting job, Nine to five. I,
as a kid loved that movie. My mom and dad
should have known that I wasn't like the other boys
because I love that movie so much with these like
incredible female heroines. And I had the original motion picture
(12:11):
soundtrack album. We just dug it up the other day
in an old closet at my mom's old house, and
I still I wore that thing out well good, well
that you can you believe that that's been forty years.
We're celebrating the fourtieth anniversary this year of nine to
five from when that movie came out, And of course,
(12:31):
you know, I wrote the Broadway musical of nine to
five and then it's been all over the world on stage,
and I think they're even going to bring it back
to the stage to the States as a stage traveling
stage musical. So Anyway, We've been around a long time
with all sorts of great things. As we wrap here
a couple of Christmas memories. First, your favorite holiday meal
(12:53):
to cook? What do you love to make on Christmas? Well,
we do all the traditional stuff like everybody else, Uh,
you know, the turkey and dress, and sometimes we just
make big fat chickens instead of turkeys. But but we
do all the hams and the and the stuff in
the mashed potatoes, and and the pumpkin and sweet potato
pies and all that kind of stuff. And we and
(13:14):
I make a big pot of chicken dumplins every year.
My family loves that. Mama used to make dumplings at Christmas,
so I still do that in addition to all the
other stuff. So we just loved to laugh, sing and
and eat like everybody else. When it comes to the
Christmas tree going up in all the decorations, a lot
of people debate when it's appropriate. Is it after Halloween
(13:37):
or maybe Thanksgiving or December? Or when do you put
up the tree? I put up my Christmas declarations the
day after Thanksgiving when they take down all my Fall
declarations and celebrate the you know, Thanksgiving, and then we
go right up put every Christmas thing because I love
Christmas and all my houses, even the out outdoor houses
(13:57):
here like the little poodle house for the little playhouses
for the kids here on my farm. And so we decorate,
and I celebrate Christmas from Thanksgiving until my birthday on
the nineteenth of January. Always make them leave my declarations
up until aft for my birthday because I'm still celebrating.
And do you have a favorite ornament you put on
the tree that's maybe specialty in your heart? Not really,
(14:20):
We always, you know, we have all kinds of ornaments,
and there are certain things that we kept over from
from our childhood that Mamma used to make up rag
bows and little stuff when before we got even electriciana,
before we had the money to buy real ornaments, we
made a lot of you know, our own ornaments and
decorate our own tree. Mama was always great with the
ribbons and rags and cloth. So we still all of
(14:43):
us have something of mama's from the old days, and
so we always put those up. But now they're all
all special and we have, you know, we're just kind
of playing all of it. You are super smart and
quick with it still even as you age. How do
to stay so um tuned in and so articulate? Or
(15:03):
do you read a lot? Is it just a matter
staying busy? How do you stay so on top of things?
It's all of that. I do love to read. I'm
able to. Uh I don't watch a lot of television,
and so I when I do relax, I like to
just read a good book. I just read whatever is
out there on the on the you know, some of
the old classics or something. With friends, we passed books
(15:25):
back and forth. But I just I try to stay
in tune. Always my favorite saying about myself, and it's
the truth. I'm so old as yesterday, but I'm as
new as tomorrow. I'm looking enough to have all these
nieces and nephews that are young and smart, and they
still love me. They love, you know, being a part
of my life. And they get all excited when they
(15:46):
find stuff, you know, all about me, you know, on
online or out there on you know, you know, all
that cyber world. So they share that with me. And
so I just stay in tune with uh. Just I
just go with the flow. I don't I don't stress
myself out about any of it. I just I just
stay me and just put out there what I feel
(16:06):
that I'm I can do and try to hope for
the best, pray for the best, and do my best. Um,
and thank you for bringing this amazing album in. We
all need this kind of joy and I just love
it and I love you well, I love you too,
And I wanted to be a part of everybody's Christmas
this year. That's why I talked a lot between you know,
like when they were a little musical interludes, I talked
(16:28):
a lot. So I feel like I was in you know,
people's houses, you know, saying hey, don't you just love
Christmas all of the thing? You know, this and this.
So I did a lot of just you know talk
and chat to where I felt like that I wanted
to be part of everybody's Christmas and I feel like
I was one of their Christmas guests. And so that
made me feel good to think that I could be
(16:48):
in people's homes like that. Yeah. Yeah, Well it's such
a great album and again it's bringing a lot of hope.
I think it's a lot of people when we all
need it. So thank you, Well, good and Mary Christmas,
see you, Marry Christmas, Dolly. Thank you Okay, that's my Cody,
Oh my God, Dolly parton What Is My Life Right Now?
(17:09):
Thanks for listening to Cody Cast. Follow Cody Right Now
at Cody Allen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Care Cody
on hundreds of radio stations every day, and watch Cody
on twenty this weekend Saturday and Sunday at n a m.
Eight Central on CMT. Bye for now,
This is Cody Ellen's podcast. This is Cody Cast. I
can't believe I get to talk to her. I've had
the chance to interview Dolly Parton probably about four times now.
I think this is my fifth time. Every time, I'm
blown away by just the magic that is Dolly. She
(00:22):
gave a million dollars to Vandy, the Vanderbilt University here
in Nashville, one of the places that was working on
the research for COVID nineteen hoping to find a cure.
And because of Dolly's mega donation and the donations of
so many people and the hard work of so many
scientists and researchers and medical professionals, now we're getting closer
(00:42):
and closer to that having that vaccine. So um that
aside from the incredible singer, songwriter, the legacy that she has,
Let's talk Dollywood. As a kid, I went to a
place called Silver Dollars City. It was later bought by
Dolly and turned into Dollywood, And then I went to
(01:03):
Dollywood a few years later, and I'm telling you it's incredible.
And she's got a brand new Christmas album. I want
to get the all that she's on the line right now, Ladies,
and gentlemen, Dolly parton the One and Only h Cody.
Hey Dolly, how are you? I'm good? How are you doing?
I'm doing great and so excited about the new Christmas album,
(01:25):
A Holly Dolly Christmas. Um, you've obviously done holiday projects
in the past. Um, why was now sort of the
right time to do another? Well, I mean it's a
right time to do anything this fun and uplifting, don't
you think? And I think people are not going to
get out and you know, do all the stuff that
normal are going to do or would do this Christmas.
(01:46):
So I thought, since I had some time on my
hands too kind of hold up at the house, I'd
be creative and inventive and uh, just write some new songs,
pick some old classics, and get some special people to
sing on it, and just make it a Holly Dolly Christmas.
So you're saying you're not much of the couch potatoes
during the quarantine, I guess no, I'm not. I can't. Uh,
(02:07):
you know, I didn't want to panic. I was called
it a panic gimmick instead of a pandemic. But I'm careful.
We were smart. We were not able to get in
there together. You know, doing all these things. So most
of the artists that were on it, they recorded their
parts from their studios. We converged back and forth, you know,
you know, you know, my phone and uh, Facebook and
(02:28):
and emailing and all that. So we got the job
done and we all had a fun time doing it.
Gave us all a little something special to do. And
you wrote six of the songs on the project included
a few classics obviously as well. It's really hard to
do a Christmas album, I think, because it's hard to
pick and choose which to do. There's so many songs.
So how did you sort of build the list? Well?
(02:51):
I did definitely want to do some special things, like
one I chose a Christmas classic called I Saw Mommy
Kissing Santa Claus. I chose that one cast of my
work with the Imagination Library and my connection with children,
so I definitely wanted to put something special, you know,
in there with them, which is a great little Christmas
song anyway, and then of course I did I always
(03:13):
liked the song Holly Jolly Christmas. I used to work
a lot with Burrel Eyes on different specials, and so
when I got ready to put this together, I was
going to record that song, and that's kind of where
I came up with the idea. When I was doing
Holly Jolly Christmas, I was thinking, it's the Holly Dolly Christmas,
so that kind of lended itself well to that. And uh,
(03:33):
and then like you said, I wrote several but hopefully
some of them might become classics. And so we're excited
about it and hopefully it's a good mixture of the
old and the new and uh, just some great duet stuff.
As you will know, it was done. Let's talk about
that for a secon because your goddaughter Miley Cyrus is
on there. Of course you've seen with her dad Billy Ray.
(03:54):
But I think the biggest surprise of all for me
when listening was Jimmy Fallon No. But you know what,
h me is the one that gave me the idea
to choose all these others. He was my very first
choice because years ago, a few years back, around the holidays,
I was on his show and he wanted me to
sing All I Want for Christmas as You, which is
(04:14):
one of his favorite songs. I guessed, and I didn't
know it well enough to do it, and I didn't
want to embarrass myself trying to sing am rad Carish song,
you know, when I didn't even know it. So I said,
I'm sorry, Jimmy, I don't know it well enough to
do it, and so that I always kind of bothered me.
So when I got ready to do my Christmas album,
I had learned it though, uh since then, and I
(04:35):
and it just like a light bulb went off in
my head. You know, I was going to record it,
and I thought, how pout? I asked, Jimmy's allen? Because
I loved his voice. He sings with everybody. He just
does it in a joking way. Par it isn't all
but I've noticed he has a good voice. So I
called him and I said, would you be willing to
sing on all I want for Christmas? To you? And
(04:56):
I told him the story and how why I learned it.
He said, oh Dolly, I'm not don't consider myself a
real singer. I said, well, I think you have a
great voice. I said, would you be willing to try it?
And he said, well yeah, if you a problems for me,
if it ain't good, you won't use it. I said, okay,
I promise you that, and so but he recorded I
think he killed it. I thought it was great, one
(05:16):
of my favorite things on the whole album mine too.
I thought, wow, that's Jimmy Fountain singing. It was really good.
What about working with Michael Boublet another duet with him
Cut Up and Cozy Down? Yeah, well that was you know,
I wrote that little song at the same thing. I
didn't know. I just when I wrote it, I had
recorded it. And then somebody said, you know he would
be great on this. I think it was Kent wells Uh,
(05:39):
the guy you know that produced the record, my bandleader,
And I said, well, I guess I didn't try to
see if he would. I said, I don't know if
those people like Pat would want to sing with me.
They're not very country. He said, I bet they would,
and so I called him and he said, absolutely, I'll
sing on it. I've loved you for here and my grandpa,
my grandpa loved do I used to watch you and
(06:01):
I a little boy. Of course that made me feel
about a hundred but anyway, he said, seriously, I'm a
big fan and I would love to sing. So he
did it. And then of course you mentioned Billy Ray
and Milly they're my They're my god family, and they're
just like family to me. So they both were on it.
Willie Nelson, as you know, I wrote my favorite, one
(06:21):
of my favorite classic Christmas songs of all times, pretty Paper.
So I asked him if he'd sing on it. He saild,
you know, damn well, I'll sing on it. So and
so I'll put my guest are too. So that was
a great joy doing that, you know, with him. And
so we just went down the line and I did
(06:42):
do it with my brother Randy, uh and my niece Heidi.
It's a song I wrote. My brother was our Christmas baby.
Randy was born around Christmas, so I thought that fit
and so we just had a lot of wonderful people
all over it. One of my favorite Christmas albums ever
was when you and Kenny Rogers saying Together. Of course,
we lost Kenny the past year. Um, tell me about
(07:04):
maybe one special memory of your friendship with him. Oh, well,
every membery I have of Kenny especial because we were
just like we were just a natural team. We were
like best friends. Uh, we were like brother's sister, but
we were like best buddies. But I remember one of
my greatest joys is when I recorded that album with
Kenny and we did a Christmas special of course that
(07:25):
year also, But one of my favorites is when we
recorded that. It was in July. That's back when we
could reach, you know, record in the real studio with
the real musicians, that everybody's singing and playing at the
same time, unlike this year when we kind of had
to sub it out to everybody from their own places
to put their parts on. But we decorated uh the
(07:46):
studio and Christmas tree, snow, holly and mistletoe, and we
had such fun. And every day we we worked, we'd
bring each other a little present wrapped up and it
made it really feel like Christmas. Would turn the air
conditioner down on Old QUI felt it was a cold
in the room. We wore our little jackets and stuff
sweaters in the studio. So but me and Ki made
(08:08):
a lot of a lot of precious memories. And when
he died, it was just like I lost her brother.
It really was. I mean, it's it's still heavy in
my heart. I still think about him. When I do
think about him, I just kind of, you know, just
kind of gasp and you know, tears or just that
feeling you know, still rushes over me, but that happens,
but he'll always be around for all of us in
(08:29):
his great music. One time Kenny told me that you
use a fax machine. Um, I'm got a printer now.
It makes so much fun of me. But I still
write my songs on a cousette player. I still write
my song's long hand on a legal pad. I'm just
still an old timer. And he used to always ragged
me out, you know I was. I said, Oh, Kenny,
(08:52):
he said, well, how am I going to do this?
You're go I can't fact, I said, old you don't
have any trouble finding me. Whohen you want something? So
don't give me that. I know. He's always said, yeah,
what about them carry you pigeons? I said, yeah, they're
stinking up my bus, but we're all right. So do
you have a iPhone or any modern technology? Yeah? I
have a smartphone. I'm not very high tech, but I
(09:15):
I'm totally surrounded in my company with with all of that,
So anything I want up, I'll get it out there.
But I don't want to be bothered with all that stuff.
I'm not that curious about other people and things. I'm
involved in my own work, I call out, I take
cold if I want to pick them up, or I'll
call back when I got time. But I'm not sure.
(09:36):
I'm not your big high tech girl. Uh, but I'm
getting it done. I'm out there all over the floor.
You are. Um. November sevent You're also releasing a book, Songteller,
My Life and Lyrics. So what would be one surprise
from the book? Maybe something we don't know about you? Well,
I think there's probably too little surprise. It's all around
a lot of these of course, everybody knows the songs.
(09:57):
But what what makes this book more interesting, I think,
is me talking about writing you know, why I wrote them,
where I was in my life and where I was
in my mind and my emotional stuff. You know at
the time where some of these songs were being written,
and what they were about, what I based them on.
So uh. And there's a lot of most people have
seen most of all the pictures through the years, because
(10:20):
I've been around a long time. But there's a lot
of pictures that you know that a lot of the
fans have not seen yet, and a lot of little
stories that they haven't heard yet. Christmas on the Square,
as we go back to the new album is one
of the songs and also a title of the Netflix
movie that you're doing. So i'm what can you tell
us about the movie. Well, I'm very excited about this movie.
(10:42):
I think that it's released if I'm not mistaken on
the date. I think it's the twenty two of November.
I believe that's right when it debuts. It's called Christmas
on the Square. Like you said, I did a bluegrass
version of it, Country Bluegrass on my holid Christmas. But
the Netflix is a full blown musical. I wrote all
the music. There's fourteen original songs in it. Dabbie Allen
(11:04):
choreographed and directed it. And now Christine Barinsky uh As
stars in the movie, and uh and and Treat Williams.
So we've got a great cast. I'll play an angel,
a five see angel, trying to teach her some good lessons.
So I come back as different things. I'm a bad lady,
you know in the early part, and then you know,
I just kind of come in and out doing doing
(11:26):
my special things, trying to change her heart and mind
about saving this, you know, little community, because she's she's
a rich woman and she's selling the town and to
build a Walmart hup thing, and so the people are
trying to save their community, and so it's really a
wonderful story. And so I enjoyed writing the music and
I think people are gonna live. Got a lot of
(11:47):
dancing and singing, and uh, it's really a full blown
kind of like a Broadway top you know show going
back to your first acting job, Nine to five. I,
as a kid loved that movie. My mom and dad
should have known that I wasn't like the other boys
because I love that movie so much with these like
incredible female heroines. And I had the original motion picture
(12:11):
soundtrack album. We just dug it up the other day
in an old closet at my mom's old house, and
I still I wore that thing out well good, well
that you can you believe that that's been forty years.
We're celebrating the fourtieth anniversary this year of nine to
five from when that movie came out, And of course,
(12:31):
you know, I wrote the Broadway musical of nine to
five and then it's been all over the world on stage,
and I think they're even going to bring it back
to the stage to the States as a stage traveling
stage musical. So Anyway, We've been around a long time
with all sorts of great things. As we wrap here
a couple of Christmas memories. First, your favorite holiday meal
(12:53):
to cook? What do you love to make on Christmas? Well,
we do all the traditional stuff like everybody else, Uh,
you know, the turkey and dress, and sometimes we just
make big fat chickens instead of turkeys. But but we
do all the hams and the and the stuff in
the mashed potatoes, and and the pumpkin and sweet potato
pies and all that kind of stuff. And we and
(13:14):
I make a big pot of chicken dumplins every year.
My family loves that. Mama used to make dumplings at Christmas,
so I still do that in addition to all the
other stuff. So we just loved to laugh, sing and
and eat like everybody else. When it comes to the
Christmas tree going up in all the decorations, a lot
of people debate when it's appropriate. Is it after Halloween
(13:37):
or maybe Thanksgiving or December? Or when do you put
up the tree? I put up my Christmas declarations the
day after Thanksgiving when they take down all my Fall
declarations and celebrate the you know, Thanksgiving, and then we
go right up put every Christmas thing because I love
Christmas and all my houses, even the out outdoor houses
(13:57):
here like the little poodle house for the little playhouses
for the kids here on my farm. And so we decorate,
and I celebrate Christmas from Thanksgiving until my birthday on
the nineteenth of January. Always make them leave my declarations
up until aft for my birthday because I'm still celebrating.
And do you have a favorite ornament you put on
the tree that's maybe specialty in your heart? Not really,
(14:20):
We always, you know, we have all kinds of ornaments,
and there are certain things that we kept over from
from our childhood that Mamma used to make up rag
bows and little stuff when before we got even electriciana,
before we had the money to buy real ornaments, we
made a lot of you know, our own ornaments and
decorate our own tree. Mama was always great with the
ribbons and rags and cloth. So we still all of
(14:43):
us have something of mama's from the old days, and
so we always put those up. But now they're all
all special and we have, you know, we're just kind
of playing all of it. You are super smart and
quick with it still even as you age. How do
to stay so um tuned in and so articulate? Or
(15:03):
do you read a lot? Is it just a matter
staying busy? How do you stay so on top of things?
It's all of that. I do love to read. I'm
able to. Uh I don't watch a lot of television,
and so I when I do relax, I like to
just read a good book. I just read whatever is
out there on the on the you know, some of
the old classics or something. With friends, we passed books
(15:25):
back and forth. But I just I try to stay
in tune. Always my favorite saying about myself, and it's
the truth. I'm so old as yesterday, but I'm as
new as tomorrow. I'm looking enough to have all these
nieces and nephews that are young and smart, and they
still love me. They love, you know, being a part
of my life. And they get all excited when they
(15:46):
find stuff, you know, all about me, you know, on
online or out there on you know, you know, all
that cyber world. So they share that with me. And
so I just stay in tune with uh. Just I
just go with the flow. I don't I don't stress
myself out about any of it. I just I just
stay me and just put out there what I feel
(16:06):
that I'm I can do and try to hope for
the best, pray for the best, and do my best. Um,
and thank you for bringing this amazing album in. We
all need this kind of joy and I just love
it and I love you well, I love you too,
And I wanted to be a part of everybody's Christmas
this year. That's why I talked a lot between you know,
like when they were a little musical interludes, I talked
(16:28):
a lot. So I feel like I was in you know,
people's houses, you know, saying hey, don't you just love
Christmas all of the thing? You know, this and this.
So I did a lot of just you know talk
and chat to where I felt like that I wanted
to be part of everybody's Christmas and I feel like
I was one of their Christmas guests. And so that
made me feel good to think that I could be
(16:48):
in people's homes like that. Yeah. Yeah, Well it's such
a great album and again it's bringing a lot of hope.
I think it's a lot of people when we all
need it. So thank you, Well, good and Mary Christmas,
see you, Marry Christmas, Dolly. Thank you Okay, that's my Cody,
Oh my God, Dolly parton What Is My Life Right Now?
(17:09):
Thanks for listening to Cody Cast. Follow Cody Right Now
at Cody Allen on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Care Cody
on hundreds of radio stations every day, and watch Cody
on twenty this weekend Saturday and Sunday at n a m.
Eight Central on CMT. Bye for now,
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