Dolly Parton Takes Us Through Her Morning Routine, Which Starts At 3 AM

The great Dolly Parton sat down (err, Zoomed in) for an interview with Country Living to promote her new Duncan Hines baking collection, which recently expanded into breakfast foods. Breakfast talk turned to Straight Talk morning talk, and Dolly took us through her daily routine. Her wake-up time? 3:00 AM. In the morning:

“I’m usually having my coffee and doing my spiritual things around 3 o’clock in the morning,” she says. “I do my readings and my affirmations and my prayers and all that. Then I’ll start drinking my coffee and make something to eat. Then, if I’m not having to go to work real early, that’s when I do some of my best writing. I usually have great ideas in the morning when my mind is rested.”

Huh. Like Dolly, I also get my best ideas at 3:00 AM … when I’m still trying to get to sleep. I roll over, turn on my phone (which, of course, blinds me), type some “brilliant” idea into the Notes app, and completely wake myself back up. And for what? A note that says, “the Purge but weekends”???

It’s safe to say that Dolly’s morning ideas are a lot less nonsensical than mine. In between writing, she usually makes calls (I’m assuming this includes faxes) and goes through paperwork. Imagine Dolly Parton calling you at 5:00 AM? You would have no choice but to pick up and pretend you’d been awake for hours. Dolly continues:

“By that time, I’ll have my good breakfast and take any vitamins and medication. I take a bath, get dressed, and put my makeup on, and I’m ready to go. I can get more done before 7 o’clock than most people can all day.”

When 78-year-old Dolly needs a break from all the noise, she’ll go to her kitchen for some “Beethoven and biscuits.” Cooking Southern food while listening to classical music helps calm her:

“Sometimes I just like it to be quiet because my head is always full of music and people talking to me and talking at me.

So, sometimes that’s a good time for me to be quiet. But when I want music I play some country music, some yacht rock, or some old classical music. Boy, there ain’t nothing like cooking a big old southern meal listening to classical music.”

Finally, Dolly shares these words of wisdom: “Remember, we gotta sing, we gotta write, and we gotta eat!” So go out and buy her albums, books, and baking collection, STAT.*

*No, Dolly didn’t pay me to write this, but if there’s one celebrity whose products I’ll happily endorse, it’s her!