Dolly Parton says she does not regret her life without kids — and reveals the inspiration behind new children’s album I Believe In You

ONLY once in her extraordinary life did Dolly Parton consider having children.

You have to go back to 1964, when 18-year-old Dolly met handsome Carl Dean in ­Nashville’s not-so-salubrious Wishy Washy Laundromat.

Two years later, they married and their thoughts inevitably turned to starting a family.

They wondered if their kids would be tall like him or petite like her, and even decided Carla would be a nice name for a girl.

But Dolly, with her bubbly personality and cloud of blonde curls, possessed a voice that could make grown men weep.

“I was very playful at that time,” she tells me. “I had a great sense of humour and all my friends loved hanging around me. I’d play guitar, I’d sing and I could make up funny stuff right on the spot. I was good around a camp fire.”

The principled, God-fearing young woman felt she had to choose between being a mum and pursuing her dream of being a country singer.

Having grown up the fourth of 12 children in a humble Smoky Mountains cabin, determined Dolly picked the bright lights of fame.

Today, the sequin-spangled, silicon-enhanced superstar is one of the world’s most recognised singers because, as she tells everyone, “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap”.

And she is still married to Carl Dean, 51 years after they tied the knot, even renewing vows with him last year.

Dolly doesn’t regret her childless journey through life and says: “I never want to retire . . . only if I was sick or my husband was sick and I needed to take care of him.

“I just love what I do, love who I am and I love the things that I’m able to accomplish

“I just hope my health holds up so I can carry on.”

Yet through the decades she has never lost her love of children, explaining why, at 71, she’s made her first album especially for them.

To mark I Believe In You, I spoke to the irrepressible icon  . . . and found her to be in wise-cracking form.

She begins with a typical Dolly quip: “Somebody said, ‘Why did you wait so long to make a children’s album?’ and I said, ‘Well, I wanted to wait until I was in my second childhood . . . and I’m there now!’ (Cue a peal of infectious laughter.)

“I have a very child-like spirit and I’ve been writing these songs for years.

“I spend so much time with children that I think like a kid.

“They keep my spirit young. I hear them say little things and act out certain things and that gives me ideas to write down.”

Though Dolly never experienced motherhood, she says: “Being from a big family, with eight children younger than me, we all had to be responsible for one another.

“All the girls were little mothers and all the boys were little daddies and we were very close.

“Now I love my little nieces and nephews (who call her Aunt Granny).”

But she is godmother to a singer also born in Tennessee and who also commands the world stage . . . Miley Cyrus. “I love Miley and I’m very proud of her,” she says. “She’s like one of my kids. Like all kids, they go through their times, have a right to make mistakes and grow up in their own way, according to their own personalities.

“Miley’s a good girl. She’s smart and she’s talented and I’ll always be on her side.”

On Miley’s new album, Younger Now, which reflects her country roots, there’s a life-affirming duet with her godmother called Rainbowland.

“We wrote the song together and sang it together,” says Dolly. “It’s the first time we’ve actually recorded anything together after all these years. It’s got a good little message about life as well.

“If we could all love one another and try to shine a light on some of the problems, we could live in Rainbowland. It’s very positive and uplifting.”

As for Dolly’s new record, proceeds go to her ever-expanding Imagination Library, the charity she launched in 1995 to encourage childhood literacy by giving free books to under-fives.

To date, 100million books have been sent to kids in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Belize.

Dolly credits her farmer father Robert Lee Parton for her hard-working approach to life but heartache caused by his illiteracy was the catalyst for the Imagination Library.

She explains: “I’m very proud of it. I established it in my home county because my dad couldn’t read or write. He lived long enough to see it start and I got him involved.

“He was so smart, so wonderful and such a good daddy but it was just crippling to him that he couldn’t read.”

If Dad was the grafter, Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, provided her vivacious daughter with her joie de vivre. “Oh I’m so much like my mom it’s crazy. If Mom hadn’t had a houseful of kids and had gone out in the world and done something else, I think she could have been like me.

“I look like my dad and his people. He was fair and Mom was dark but my spirituality, my personality and the music all came from Mom’s side.”

Dolly’s all-time favourite composition, Coat Of Many Colors, was dedicated to Avie Lee because she turned rags into a coat for her daughter while telling the biblical story of Joseph as she sewed. A new recording of the song appears on Dolly’s children’s album. “I was very influenced by my mom and that’s why that song is so precious to me,” says Dolly.

She maintains her sense of humour comes from both her parents.

“My mother’s people are absolutely hysterically funny and so are my daddy’s people . . . two different types of humour.

“My mom’s people and my daddy’s people liked each other and a lot of them dated or even married each other.

“We were all kind of double first cousins and when we would all get together it was like a comedy show. We’d laugh so hard it would be crazy.”

Behind the laughter and because of her childhood, Dolly has always been on the side of the underdog, able to fight their corner because she’s been there herself. Her children’s album tackles some big subjects, as she explains: “I cover bullying on Makin’ Fun Ain’t Funny.

“Chemo Hero is about children who have to go through cancer and Brave Little Soldiers is for other sick children or just children going through divorce or broken homes.

“I’m saying, ‘We’ll get through this, we’re little fighters.’ I really tried to make it kid-friendly but these are really good messages for the parents as well.”

The album begins with the title track, I Believe In You, inspired by Dolly’s favourite childhood book.

“We didn’t have a lot of children’s books growing up but one of the first books that made a big impression on me was The Little Engine That Could.

“That’s why it is the first book we give out at the Imagination Library. We have from the beginning and will continue to.

“It says, ‘I can, I can, I think I can’, and the song uses that line. I’m here to shout that you can do it! We all have a little engine inside us and we use that attitude and like to say, ‘You need to believe in yourself because I believe in you’.”

Speaking to Dolly you can’t fail to feel her breathless, undimmed energy but even she plans to take things a little easier in the coming months. She says: “I’m going to enjoy the holidays pretty much in Nashville at home with my family.

“I don’t have any heavy-duty things going on right now but of course I’ll always be writing. There’ll always be work to do but I’m not taking on any tours and I’m not recording any new music.”

One thing’s for sure, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean won’t stay quiet for long.

“I’ve got so much left to do and I keep fearing I might run out of time before I get it all done, but I look like a cartoon anyway so I think I’ll look the same if I am 80 or 90,” she says with a laugh.

“I’m a little person and I think little people seem younger. There’s a child-like thing about them.”