When you made your first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, you were denied entry at first because they couldn’t find your name on the list. Then, once you got in, one of your two scheduled song performances were cut because the one-and-only Dolly Parton showed up to perform. What did you learn from that experience?

Don’t panic. Mom and daddy was up in the front seat of the car, and my older sister, Alice and I were in the back seat when we pulled up there to the gate at the Grand Ole Opry. The gentleman was like, “Nope, she’s not on the list.” Daddy said, “Well feller, what do you think we ought to do?” And he said, “I guess you ought to go home.” He said, “Well, it’s 700 miles home.” And I said, “Daddy, let’s go across the interstate to that Get-N-Go and I’ll call my booking agent, Shorty Lavender.” And they said, “You go back over there, we’ll have that taken care of.” Sure enough, that guy at the gate then said, “Mr. McEntire, you just go right on park in number 67 there.” And nobody panicked, nobody got upset.

So we walked in and the [Opry folks] came to me and said, “We’re going to take one of your songs from you if you don’t mind. Dolly just pulled up in the parking lot in her bus.” And I said, “Oh my gosh, can I meet her? She can have both my songs, I just want to look at her.” And she walked in front of me in this beautiful black chiffon pant suit with rhinestone butterflies all over. And I thought, Wow, that’s what an angel looks like. Just beautiful. I was thrilled to death to be there.

Oh my God. What a story.

Yeah, everything works out the way it’s supposed to. Just don’t panic, don’t freak out, and kind of sit back to see where it leads.

What did Dolly say when you told her this story for the first time?

I don’t think I ever told her. No, because when I’ve got time with Dolly, I want her to talk. I don’t want to talk. I’m going to learn from her. She’s done more than I’ve ever done. She’s very wise. She’s got such knowledge and I just want to pick that. I want to learn from her more and more.