Country music star Ricky Skaggs has shared a deeply personal memory of Dolly Parton, recalling how they prayed together in a small, rebuilt church in her backyard before recording the 1989 album "White Limozeen." The album, a significant comeback for Parton, helped re-establish her in traditional country music.
Skaggs, a bluegrass and country artist himself, described the experience during an interview with Fox News Digital. He visited Parton at her Nashville home prior to the recording sessions for "White Limozeen." Parton led him to a church that had been a place of worship during her childhood in East Tennessee. The structure had been dismantled, its parts meticulously numbered, and then reassembled in her backyard.
"She took me out in the backyard and showed me this little church that she used to go to when she was a kid up in East Tennessee," Skaggs said. "They had torn it down and they numbered all the slats and all the flooring and everything like that. They brought it down to her backyard and rebuilt it into a beautiful little church."
Inside the church, which featured a small piano and an altar reminiscent of old mountain Baptist churches, Skaggs and Parton shared a moment of prayer. "We got up by the altar and just started praying after talking in there for a while about our faith. And we asked God’s hand to be on this record, that he would bless it, bless the musicians, bless all the singers," Skaggs recalled.
He added, "I just never have forgotten just the power of that day. That whole day was just wonderful. It showed me the kind of woman she was."
Skaggs' collaboration with Parton on "White Limozeen" came about after he and his band appeared on her television show, "Dolly." Following the appearance, Parton invited him to produce the album.
"She said, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that. And I think I really want to do a country record. But I want you to produce it.’ I said, ‘What?’" Skaggs remembered, expressing his initial shock.
Prior to "White Limozeen," Parton had been exploring more pop-influenced material, with her 1987 album "Rainbow" being a critical and commercial disappointment. "White Limozeen" marked a return to her roots, with Skaggs guiding the production toward a more traditional country sound. The album proved to be a success, reaching No. 3 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart and spawning two No. 1 country hits: "Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That" and "Yellow Roses." It also earned a Gold certification from the RIAA.
Beyond their musical collaboration, Skaggs noted a lasting bond with Parton, rooted in their shared Appalachian heritage and Christian faith. He spoke of Parton's compassion and generosity, often expressed through her extensive philanthropy.
"Some religious people would have really, and probably did, judge her for the way she wore her clothes, or the way that she did this and that and the other, but man, she reflected the love of Jesus everywhere she was," Skaggs said. "She did so much for the homeless, for the poor, for hurting people."
Parton's philanthropic efforts included launching the Imagination Library in 1995, a program that has distributed millions of free books to children worldwide. She also established the My People Fund to assist families affected by the 2016 Tennessee wildfires and donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for COVID-19 research in 2020.
Skaggs mentioned that the spiritual moment before recording "White Limozeen" has influenced his own band's pre-show ritual. "Me and my band nowadays, we pray every time before we go out on stage and everything," he said. "We just say a prayer and thank God for our gifts and our talents and just ask that someone would be touched by the songs that we do."
Reflecting on Parton's legacy, Skaggs stated, "She was serious about music. She was serious about her life. She was serious about God. I'm telling you in her heart, I never met a person that had a more pure golden heart than Dolly."