Really love this post from earlier in the month that celebrates the fifty year anniversary of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You. It’s an incredible song and means different things depending on the version you listen to - Dolly’s soft-spoken heart-felt love song is the original and best, but Whitney’s passionate belting out of the track is absolutely iconic.

The highlight of this celebration for me though, is the strength of character Dolly showed when Elvis came calling:

“You cannot imagine how excited I am about this,” she told him. “This is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me as a songwriter.”

But the night before the recording session, his notoriously tough manager, Colonel Tom Parker, called Parton and told her Presley wouldn’t record the song unless she handed over half of the songwriting rights.

Displaying the same hard-nosed business savvy that saw her walk away from Wagoner to find solo success, Parton forced herself to say no.

“I said, ‘I can’t do that.. Of course I cried all night about that.”

Honestly, what belief in yourself, what a testament to sticking to your principles. What a legend.