Dolly Parton admired Elvis Presley, but she could acknowledge that his career took a downturn in the final years of his life. Parton believed that he’d begun to lose the star power that defined the early years of his career. She thought that if he’d lived for another five years, his legacy could be completely different.

Dolly Parton said Elvis’ public image was changing

Parton never met Elvis, but she loved his music and felt connected to him. 

“He was very loving, very emotional, very sensitive, very giving, very humble, thankful, grateful,” she told Playboy in 1978, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “I always felt that he was totally in awe of his own success and he didn’t quite understand why he had been so chosen and why he was such an idol.”

As a fan, it saddened her to watch Elvis’ career decline so sharply in the 1970s.

“When he started losing his glamor and doing those concerts, he became more ordinary,” Parton said. “That’s when they started publishing all the things about him. Then people realized that he was not a god of any sort, but he was just an extraordinary human being.”

She believed that the public’s perception of him would have changed if he’d lived for another five years. His image might have suffered more significant damage.

“I think if he hadn’t died when he did, within the next five years he wouldn’t have been a hero at all, because he was talked about too much … seen too much,” she said. “That’s how cruel the public can be.”

Dolly Parton said she didn’t want a career like Elvis had

While Parton admired Elvis and wanted a successful career, she said she didn’t want to follow the same path as him. He’d been too big of a star.

“It’s just that I’m tryin’ to do everything I’m capable of doing and have a perfect balance in my life — to be successful at my work, and at bein’ a wife and a sister and a friend,” she told Rolling Stone in 1980. “I have to have all of those things in their proper place. I don’t want to be a star if I have no life. I’m not willing to be like Elvis, who had no personal life.”

Other musicians have echoed this sentiment. The Beatles said they didn’t want to end up like him either.

She refused to let him cover one of her songs

Parton’s closest brush with Elvis came when he tried to cover “I Will Always Love You.” This thrilled her at first, but then she learned he would take at least half the publishing rights. Parton realized she couldn’t do this.

“I cried all night,” Parton said on the Living and Learning with Reba McEntire podcast. “Oh, I just pictured Elvis, like, singing it. And I know that Elvis loved it… but it’s true. I said no.”