Kristin Chenoweth Sends Birthday Love to Dolly Parton: ‘My Ultimate Inspiration’

In honor of Dolly Parton‘s recent 74th birthday, Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth took time to send her well wishes the country music icon. Chenoweth reached out on social media to Parton, sharing a few photos of their time together over the years.

“Happy Birthday to YOU, [Dolly Parton,” Chenoweth posted. “You are my everything & my ultimate inspiration. I love you so much!!”

Chenoweth released her For the Girls album in 2019, a tribute to female artists she loved and was inspired by, she asked Parton to join her on “I Will Always Love You” –– but didn’t expect Parton to agree.

“I wanted to honor, celebrate actually, women that I have always wanted to sing their music,” Chenoweth previously told PopCulture.com and other media. “Lesley Gore, Doris Day, Peggy Lee – I like to go back to the original source, so I asked Ariana Grande to sing ‘You Don’t Own Me,’ the Lesley Gore song, so I tipped my hat to her, and Ari does her thing.

“Then, of course, I never thought Dolly Parton would sing ‘I Will Always Love You” with me, but she said yes,” she continued. “I’m still pinching myself, actually. We did a really cool version, arrangement of that. That’s been a very special song, just for reasons known to myself, my whole life.”

It was “I Will Always Love You” that made Chenoweth feel brave enough to pursue the career she wanted, even if the odds seemed sometimes insurmountable.

“I’ll be honest with you, that song taught me to bet on myself, because she bet on herself when she separated from think about it, her mentor, the person that guided her in her career,” Chenoweth said, speaking of Parton’s split from Porter Wagoner, which inspired “I Will Always Love You.” “She bet on herself, and made it a good parting. It wasn’t a bad divorce, per se. It was just her, betting on herself.

“That’s what I’ve taken my whole life, when I learned that story, and that’s what I wanted to know from her,” she added. “It’s a good lesson for not just girls, but anybody to know.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Jeff Vespa