‘Some of them are true’

Dolly Parton has been opening up in recent weeks about some of her favorite songs from her 3,000 track-deep repertoire.

The country music icon, 80, is reliving the process of penning her 2020 book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, with the help of resurfaced interviews and anecdotes on her Substack page.

The latest captures the story of her song “Shattered Image,” which turned 50 this year, and deals with the idea of the ways people’s perceptions and reputations can be “shattered” in the public eye.

Dolly Parton on her “shattered image”

“I think ‘Shattered Image’ is a song that so many people relate to, especially in show business, because it’s more about how, well, you don’t have to be in show business for somebody to shatter your image or ruin your reputation,” she said in the resurfaced excerpt.

The song was written in 1976 to serve as the third single from her studio album All I Can Do, her 17th LP and the last of her solo efforts to feature the involvement of her longtime musical collaborator Porter Wagoner.

“When I wrote that song, that was back during the early days when I was just really not used to people saying bad things about me, especially if they weren’t true. And some of them are true,” she noted.

Addressing stories about her in the press, she continued: “And a lot of those stories in the tabloids, like I’ve always said, they’re based on some thread of truth, but usually it’s so frayed by the time they get done with it, you don’t hardly even recognize it.”

© Getty Images

By the time Dolly had written the track, she was nearly two decades deep into her illustrious career, with several more heights to come. “But I don’t mind so much what they say about me as much as it hurts other people, and I hate that,” Dolly continued.

“I can handle it myself by saying what I say, doing what I do, and saying I don’t deny nor admit anything. But when they drag other people into it…,” she mused, then citing several lines from the song.

Her favorite line, the musical legend added, was: “If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones. Don’t shatter my image till you look at your own. Look at your reflection in your house of glass.”

© Getty Images

Dolly concluded her recollection with: “And, you know, don’t just shatter people’s image before you look and see what’s going on.”

Dolly Parton’s journey with Songteller

“Shattered Image” is the second song Dolly took on as part of her Songteller journey through time, the first being her 1974 hit “Love is Like a Butterfly.”

© Getty Images

“I’m excited to take you behind the songs with ‘Songteller: My Life in Lyrics,'” she penned while introducing the series. “I’ll be sharing never-before-seen interviews from when we created the book, along with the stories and inspiration behind the songs. I can’t wait to relive these memories with you.”