In her candid new memoir Songteller: My Life in Lyrics (updated 2025 edition, HarperCollins), Dolly Parton, 79, pulls back the rhinestone curtain on one of country music’s most legendary — and complicated — partnerships: her seven-year stint with Porter Wagoner. What began as a dream gig on The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967 turned into a love-hate saga of creative control, financial disputes, and emotional tug-of-war that birthed classics like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” — and nearly broke both stars. “He gave me the stage,” Parton writes. “But he also tried to own it.”

The story starts with a phone call. Parton, a 21-year-old unknown from Sevierville, Tennessee, was scraping by on $5 gigs when Wagoner — then country’s reigning TV king with 29 Top 10 hits — offered her a spot replacing Norma Jean. “I was scared to death,” she recalls. “But I needed the money, and I needed the exposure.” Her debut on October 14, 1967, drew 3,000 fan letters in one week. Within months, their duets — “Just Someone I Used to Know,” “The Last Thing on My Mind” — dominated the charts. Wagoner produced her first No. 1, “Joshua,” in 1970.

But the shine faded fast. Wagoner controlled the setlist, the wardrobe, even the jokes. “He’d say, ‘Dolly, you smile too much. Tone it down,’” she writes. “I’d think, This is my face, Porter.” He took 25% of her earnings and co-writer credit on songs she wrote alone. When Parton penned “I Will Always Love You” in 1973 as a goodbye to the show, Wagoner demanded half the publishing. “He cried in his office,” she reveals. “Said I was ungrateful. I said, ‘Porter, I’m not your property.’”

The exit was brutal. In 1974, after 260 episodes, Parton announced her departure. Wagoner sued for $3 million, claiming breach of contract. The case dragged two years; they settled out of court, with Parton paying an undisclosed sum and Wagoner keeping some publishing. “I paid for my freedom,” she writes. “Every penny was worth it.”

Yet the memoir isn’t a takedown. Parton credits Wagoner with teaching her stagecraft, harmony, and hustle. “He saw something in me before I saw it in myself,” she admits. They reconciled in 1988 when Wagoner, battling cancer, invited her to his Opry 30th anniversary. Their final duet, “Just Someone I Used to Know,” aired on TNN in 2007, months before Wagoner’s death at 80. “I held his hand,” Parton writes. “Told him I loved him. He squeezed back and said, ‘You always were my little girl.’”

The book includes never-before-seen letters: Wagoner praising her “Coat of Many Colors” demo, Parton pleading for solo billing. It also reveals a 1972 backstage fight where Wagoner threatened to fire her band; she countered by threatening to walk. “We were oil and water,” she laughs. “But together, we made fire.”

The 2025 edition, with 50 new pages, coincides with the 50th anniversary of The Porter Wagoner Show’s cancellation. Parton dedicates a chapter to Wagoner’s influence on her Dollywood empire: “He taught me show business. I just added the heart.”

Fans are devouring it. The book debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction list, with 1.2 million first-week sales. At a Barnes & Noble signing in Pigeon Forge, a tearful Parton read the final line: “Porter gave me wings. I just had to learn to fly on my own.”