Country legend Dolly Parton doesn’t see the point in splashing her fortune on diamonds when it won’t change who she is.
Conservative estimates put Dolly’s fortune in the region of $500 million (£379 million), with $200 million (£151 million) of that attributed to her Dollywood theme park.
But the singer, who has recently released new album, I Believe In You, written exclusively for children, admitted in an interview with the BBC that growing up poor, and advice from her parents, has shaped her shrewd attitude to money.
“It’s hard for me to spend money on tonnes of stuff because I’m going to look the same, no matter what I wear. If I wear diamonds I’m still going to look like a rhinestone,” she smiled. “Being brought up poor means I don’t take things for granted, and no matter how much money I make, I’ll always count my blessings quicker and more often than I count my money.
“Even now if I go in a store it’s hard for me to pay a huge amount of money for one item. I say ‘good Lord’, what could mummy and daddy have done with that!”
However, the Jolene singer expresses her generosity easily elsewhere. She recently donated $1 million (£750,000) to the Vanderbilt University Children’s Hospital in Nashville. Dolly was inspired to donate money after her niece Hannah Dennison was successfully treated for leukaemia at the hospital, and on a recent visit she explained the motivations for her philanthropy.
“I love children. I’ve always been involved in one way or another with children’s charities or with children in general, because I love little kids,” she smiled, reports Billboard. “I’m from a big family of children.”
A portion of the sales from I Believe In You will go towards funding Dolly’s Imagination Library, which she founded in 1995 to promote early childhood literacy.
