I don’t think it will come as any sort of surprise to say that Dolly Parton is a rich lady.
She came from almost nothing, growing up in a cabin in the rural mountains of East Tennessee, and has become the queen of country music and an extremely savvy businesswoman because of her hard work and talent.
Forbes revealed just how much she’s worth last year, and her estimated net worth comes in at a whopping $350 MILLION in total.
Her music catalog accounts for a third of that money, as Forbes also estimated that it’s worth a staggering $150 million, mainly since she owns all of the rights to her songs through her own publishing company.
She started her publishing company in 1966 at the age of 20, along with her late Uncle Bill, and has managed to legally maintain almost her entire catalog of music up until this point. Her estimated royalty income is between $6 million and $8 million for iconic songs like “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene,” among others.
And recently, she was even nominated for a spot at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which she graciously bowed out of, but is still in the running for since ballots had already been sent out prior to her declining.
Dolly has plenty of other lucrative investments outside the music business which have proved to be extremely smart moves over the years, as well.
In 2019, she signed a deal with licensing agency IMG to expand her brand into the consumer market, launched her own perfume called “Scent from Above” last year, produced and starred in several Netflix shows and movies, put out her first Christmas album in 30 years last year in 2020, and has a thriving presence on social media.
She also penned a novel with James Patterson that was released a couple weeks ago, along with an accompanying album, called Run, Rose, Run, which she plans to turn into a big screen movie with Reese Witherspoon here soon.
One of the best business decisions she ever made, though, was in 1986, when she purchased a theme park called Silver Dollar City near her hometown in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and turned it into Dollywood. Since then, also according to Forbes, it’s been a massive success:
“In its first season, Dollywood attracted 1.3 million visitors—a 75% increase over Silver Dollar City’s season the year prior.
The park is now Tennessee’s most-visited tourist attraction, drawing about 3 million visitors a year. Parton’s 50% stake is worth about $165 million.”
It’s clear that Dolly has put a lot of that money to good use, too, through a multitude of charitable endeavors like her foundation, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, as well as her generous donation to Vanderbilt University last year to help with the development of a COVID vaccine that she eventually got herself.
And not long ago, she shared her secret to how she found incredible success in the entertainment industry, and as a byproduct, how she’s been able to make so much money over the years (in addition to working her ass off):
“You can give what you’ve got, but don’t give it all away. I pray also that God will, you know, give me enough to share and enough to spare when it comes to my money, but also to myself. Let me share everything I can, but let me keep me.”
There ya have it, straight from Queen Dolly.
Being a genius songwriter and cranking out mega hits like “Jolene” helps a little bit, too:
