Country music icon Dolly Parton declares that all of her amazing successes as a singer, songwriter, actress and author is because of her humble upbringing-and that she's proud of her "hillybilly, white trash background," according to The Boot.
Parton was born in the backwoods of East Tennessee as the fourth of 12 children who lived in a rustic, one-room cabin. She has described her family as being "dirt poor." Her father paid the doctor who helped deliver her with a bag of oatmeal. She outlined her family's poverty in her early songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).".She left home at age 18 for a shot at stardom and never looked back.
"We were really Hill. Billies," she told Southern Living magazine. "To me that's not an insult. We were just mountain people. We were really redneck, roughneck, hillbilly people. And I'm proud of it. 'White trash!'
"I'm proud of my hillbilly, white trash background," she continued. "To me that keeps you humble; that keeps you good. And it doesn't matter how hard you try to outrun it - if that's who you are, that's who you are. It'll show up once in a while."
Still, what the Country Music Hall of Fame member most wants to be known for is her many abilities, which she says are more the result of hard work than anything else.
"I've always believed in my talent," admits the "Jolene" singer. "And I've always had more guts than talent. So I've always had to go that extra mile. I've always wanted to be a star, I've always wanted money and wanted to travel. So I knew there was a price to pay for that.
" I knew I wasn't going to be sitting around and somebody come along and say, 'Hey, I've got it all figured out for ya.' I figured I was going to have to work for all that. And I have. But I've loved that. I've loved the work as much as I've loved the success."
Parton's latest album, "Blue Smoke," was released earlier this year.
