Dolly’s reaction was anything but reserved,
"I broke my high heels jumping up and down. It is one of the biggest thrills of my bluegrass life."
In addition to earning Dolly her sixth GRAMMY Award, 'The Grass Is Blue' won Album of the Year Award in 2000 from the International Bluegrass Music Association. The award ceremony was held in October of 2000 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dolly appeared on the Oct. 25 "Halloween Special" episode of the one-season CBS television show "Bette" starring Bette Midler and featuring Dolly as a character very similar to herself. In this episode, Bette grows jealous of Dolly as they film a Halloween special. Dolly and Bette sing several songs together during the show including a version of Dolly’s classic "Islands in the Stream."
Dreamland Forest captured the fun of a treehouse and created an area where imaginations could flow freely. The interactive attraction included the “wet and wild” area Bullfrog Creek water battle, The Bee Hive target shooting game and a water and toddler play area.
Dollywood’s $5 million Dreamland Forest featured 15,000 square feet of interactive games, gadgets, and gizmos for children of all ages. It inspired them to dream the same way Dolly did! She said,
“When I was a kid I loved the idea of a treehouse… a place among the leaves where I could get lost in my own imagination.”
Dolly starred as Leanna Taylor in her made-for-television movie, "Blue Valley Songbird" and worked behind the scenes as the film’s executive producer.
The movie aired on Lifetime in November of 1999. Leanna Taylor is a Nashville singer who uses her music to face her troubled upbringing. Dolly’s inspiration came from her song "Blue Valley Songbird" on her album "Hungry Again." Dolly said,
“As soon as I wrote the song, I had full intentions of making a movie from it… In my mind, I thought, 'This is like a screenplay.'”
Dolly took a hands-on approach to the project.
"I was very involved… And I promoted shooting the movie in Nashville from day one. I was thrilled that we could film it here… I felt it was very important to find Southern people to write this script… The writers we chose were both from the South, so they had an understanding of it."
While there is no official soundtrack, a number of the songs in the movie are available on Dolly’s album "Hungry Again."
Dolly also performed several songs at the show, most memorably "Coat of Many Colors" (video below). Dolly’s longtime friend and duet partner Kenny Rogers presided over her induction which included a montage video of her career highlights.
Portions of Dolly's acceptance speech - (RAW video)
Footage courtesy of Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum Nashville
Dolly went on to say,
“I want to thank everybody that's ever played a part in my career. And there's so many I couldn't possibly mention them, but there's a few people that I really need to thank special. Porter Wagoner played a big part in my life. And Porter couldn't be here tonight, but, I want to thank him. I know he's out there watching 'cause it was because of him that I had all those great RCA records back in the early days and all our duets and a lot of wonderful things happened to me because he gave me that first big break.”
Dolly performs "Coat of Many Colors" (RAW video)
Footage courtesy of Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum Nashville
