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With Dolly Parton‘s 80th birthday almost here, celebrate the iconic career of the legendary country star by picking up Martha Ackmann’s new biography, Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, which dropped on Dec. 30, 2025. The book is available for purchase at Amazon for $21 and $30 at Barnes & Noble. If you don’t have time to sit down and read, the book is also available on Audible for just $0.99, making the title easily accessible for those who prefer audio or who are visually impaired.
Reading this book, it’s easy to see how Parton became such a big hit. You’ve got anecdotes from Parton’s past ranging from juicy gossip to more humble moments. At just 13 years old, she first performed at the Grand Ole Opry, a famous weekly radio broadcast for country music. It’s safe to say that move takes major guts. As the story goes, Parton released “Jolene” in 1974 and the rest is Country history. In short, the track skyrocketed her career, making her a household name.
Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
A Dolly Parton biography.
The book details Parton’s transition from being an impoverished child in the Smoky Mountains to her eventual rise to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist. Parton’s music career is just as iconic as her big hair and even bigger personality, with Billboard charting hits like “9 To 5,” “Heartbreaker” and her famed track “I Will Always Love You,” covered by Whitney Houston in 1992 for The Bodyguard film’s soundtrack. The song also caught the eye of a certain “King of Rock & Roll.”
“Well, actually, Elvis (Presley) loved that song. That was when he and Priscilla (Presley) were having their problems.” Parton explained in an interview in 2025 with AXS TV. “She (Priscilla) told me that Elvis sang that to her on the day of their divorce,” Parton continued. The track peaked at 47 on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts and remained on the charts for a total of 10 weeks. The song was released in 1974 as a single, part of Parton’s wildly popular Jolene album as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner.
“Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis’ manager) calls me the day before and says, ‘now you do know that Elvis is recording songs and you do know that Elvis doesn’t record anything that he doesn’t publish or at least get half the publishing. He would have rights to the publishing of the song. I said I can’t do that,” Parton explained in her recent AXS TV interview. “I was so disappointed. I was going to have to tell my friends Elvis didn’t record it.” Parton attributes her business-savvy thinking in situations like this one to her father, who was a hardworking farmer and construction worker.
All this, and more, can be found in Ackmann’s new book, available on Amazon, Audible and at Barnes & Noble now.
