Dolly Parton might be a country icon, but it’s not music that’s her life mission: it’s glorifying God.
“As I mentioned earlier, my grandpa was a preacher,” she told Today’s Nashville, explaining that her grandfather was “a very positive, uplifting person, and I learned to love Jesus, and learned that Jesus loved me when I was a little bitty kid.”
Her mother also instilled a strong sense of faith in Parton, and she said she “kept all those things kinda tucked away into my subconscious mind and in my heart, and those are the things that have helped me through the years.”
“I never do anything that I don’t pray about it, and I always ask God to lead me and show me and direct me,” Parton explained. “Just to kind of guide me to do things that would glorify Him and to uplift mankind. That’s kind of my mission.”
Related: Dolly Parton and Zach Williams Talk About Faith: ‘A Mighty Thing’
The “Jolene” singer has previously shared her commitment to helping others. She told Guideposts, “I really feel like I have a calling. I feel like God had told me early on in a feeling that I was supposed to go till He told me to stop and He [hasn’t] said nothing yet about quitting. And so I ain’t said nothing about retiring yet.”
“Every day I pray for God to lead me and to take out all the wrong things, wrong people in my life, bring all the right things, right people in, and to let me glorify Him and uplift mankind,” Parton continued. “Let me be a light, and a vessel to be used…I just really want to do what I can in this world to make things better, if I can.”
It was recently announced that Parton will be honored with the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, along with Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.
“We at the Americana Music Association have long admired Ms. Parton’s work as a singer, songwriter, entertainer and one of the greatest ambassador’s music has ever known,” Jed Hilly, the Executive Director of the Americana Music Association, said in a statement. “With all of her extraordinary accomplishments — from philanthropy to television, film and business — our desire is to honor Dolly for what has always been at the heart of her legacy: a definitive songwriter and artist whose songs have shaped generations.”
Through her decades in the music industry, as well as her tireless humanitarian efforts, Parton is working to fulfill her calling from God to help others.
Read Next: Dolly Parton Grew Up Focused on 3 Things. Faith Was One of Them.
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