Audacious with Chion Wolf: Transcript Jada Star’s musical bond with her aunt Dolly Parton

Audacious with Chion Wolf
Link back to episode page >>

Chion Wolf  00:00

Howdy! This is an extended version of Audacious. Y'all enjoy it now, y'hear?

00:25

SONG: "Tell Me Im Your Angel" by Jada Star

Chion Wolf  00:57

From Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford, this is Audacious. I'm Chion Wolf, and that is the title track of the debut solo album, "Tell Me I'm Your Angel" by Jada Star. Maybe you recognize her. She was recently featured as "Jane" on the show "Claim to Fame". That's an ABC reality series with twelve contestants all related to really famous people, like the sister of Simone Biles, the grandson of Chuck Norris, the niece of Tom Hanks. They're all put into a big house together, and they have to guess who everybody is related to, while keeping their own famous relative a secret. But eventually, Jada Star's secret was out.

Jada Star  01:41

CLIP: Dolly Parton! That's crazy. That's crazy. Oh my god.

Chion Wolf  01:47

Today, Jada talks about growing up in the bright light of a cultural icon. Now, I want to set this up with a little snippet from before the interview got officially started. A few things before we jump in. First of all, we're going to record more than we're going to use, so you'll be edited down. If you feel compelled to use profanity - and I don't know if you will - but if it comes out, I just want you to know that that's okay, that I'll just BLEEP you on public radio, which some people really love.

Jada Star  02:18

Sometimes it happens! Sometimes it happens. I'm gonna try really hard. No, I try my best to behave. I'm always worried that she's going to get me if I embarrass myself.

Chion Wolf  02:30

See, my first thought is, she's probably not gonna listen to this show. But then, it's Dolly Parton. You can't count her out on anything.

Jada Star  02:39

That's the best thing you could possibly say. That's true, because she has surprised the crap out of me and other people on so many occasions, like so many occasions where you think she wasn't paying attention. And then it's like, Oh, crap, she saw the whole thing!

Chion Wolf  02:54

Not surprised for a second. Any questions for me before we jump in?

Jada Star  02:58

No, you just have like my dream job. An NPR show. That's the coolest thing on earth. And when I was in high school, NPR was my life. I just really liked hearing people talk and tell stories. And so it was just the best. And then when I looked you up, because of course I do that, I just I was like, oh my god, this is the coolest thing ever! That's so amazing. So yes, you're doing something I would love to do as well.

Chion Wolf  03:30

Well, I feel like there's a connection clearly happening here. So I wouldn't be surprised if we were on a panel together at some public radio conference five years from now. And we talked about this moment, which we have recorded. It's gonna be great. So I don't see why not. I don't see why this is not in your future too! Okay, so there's a lot of ways into this. And I apologize ahead of time for asking you maybe a few questions that you've been asked 10,000 freaking times. I'm hopefully going to ask you a few you haven't gotten yet. But I think the best way in is to ask you about your earliest memory of realizing that your aunt Dolly Parton was Dolly Parton.

Jada Star  04:09

I have a good one! I think I have a good one. So I was born in 1979. So I was born right around the time that she was just starting to get into movies and stuff, and become, you know, the 80's starlet kind of thing that she was, that I look up to more than Oh my god... So, I was little, and so she was still able to go to our houses and go visit everybody all the time, and we all lived in Nashville. So we always had family stuff. And so it didn't really stick with me yet that she was special. And also, everyone in my family are performers, pretty much. My mother is a performer and a singer songwriter, all my aunts...They're all stunning, gorgeous people, and I was just surrounded by them always. But I'd say I was maybe four or five and I even remember it's one of those core memory moments: I was watching Alvin and the Chipmunks. And I had a little travel television that I would carry into all my rooms with me, a little black and white with the antenna, and I was the sh** with that TV, right? I was watching Alvin and the Chipmunks in black and while on the TV, and she was on it. She was a voice. She was herself on Alvin and the Chipmunks. That's when it went... Wait a minute. She's on the thing I love. And then it never stopped happening. And I am 44 years old. And I still I remember a few years ago, she did the Colbert Report. And I was like, "You saw Stephen!" Because I love the Colbert Report! And I got to talk to her that week, actually. And I fangirled out! Everything I fall in love with, you end up being on it! And I said, What did you think? Was he great? And she goes, Oh, he smelled really good. She said he was really, really sweet. But it's just moments like that, where it's like, holy cow. And now my teenager is experiencing it. And it's really funny. Because they'll be watching some YouTube person that they like, and someone will reference "Jolene", and they'll run into my room and be like, "it happened again!" And I'm like, "it's never gonna stop. It's never gonna stop."

Chion Wolf  06:46

Not as long as they live. It won't stop. That's right.

Jada Star  06:49

My kid calls it a Jumpscare. They're like, it's a Dolly Jumpscare like, all of a sudden, shes just like... you're getting into the thing you like, and she's like, "Hi, how's it going?"

Chion Wolf  06:59

"Hi! everywhere!" Which makes everybody happy, which is why she's everywhere.

Jada Star  07:03

Its true!

Chion Wolf  07:04

What do you remember about what she was like when you were a child? And I feel like I know the answer: She's exactly who she always is, was, and will be is that right?

Jada Star  07:15

Absolutely right. Even still, now, if there's a child in the room, no other human exists. Other than that child. She just has always loved kids so much. And I think it's cuz she's like my grandmother, my mom, her mom, that had all the kids. And then she also raised everyone else's kids. She just loved taking care of people, and she just loved being a mama. And I think that Dolly has that thing in her too. And she still gets down and plays with any kids she sees, loves our kids, we grew up playing with her, she would play Barbies. And let us play in her closet and try on all her wigs, it's really nice memories. She's the best.

Chion Wolf  08:05

And she named you, yeah?

Jada Star  08:07

She did! So she told me and my mom that she had seen an actress, a little girl, with that name on some type of soap opera or something. That's the only thing I could ever get from either of them, you know, 30 years later, whatever. And so I started doing my Google research. And I can't remember her last name off the top of my head right now. But I did find this woman who was a soap opera actress as a young girl, and into her teens, and then went on to be a voice actor for Sesame Street and stuff. So I sent her a message. And I was like, this is weird, and off the cuff. And please don't think I'm a weirdo. But I just thought you might want to know that my aunt, I'm pretty sure named me after you. And this is my aunt Dolly. And I just wanted you to know, I think I get to carry your name around. And I didn't think she would ever respond because she was lived in New York City and had this real busy life and stuff. And then six months later, she messaged me and said, I never checked my Facebook. This was such a delight! And I'll have to look it up and send it to you what her name is. But that name stuck in my aunt's head back in the late 70s. So when my mom had me, she was able to call her sisters and everyone lived in the same area at the time, and everyone rushes to the hospital. Which it's also very cute if you look at my baby sign in book because Dolly had been doing a show, and came in with just a entourage of drag queens and actual clown. But she showed up and my mom was the first sister to have a girl Which, to the sisters was like, we finally, you know, it's very cute, and that was me, and so Dolly said, "I want to name her and I want to name her Jada." And my mom was, you know, on these good 70s drugs, and was like, "That's great!" And Dolly went, let's name her "Jada Starlene"! And my mom was like, "that's great!" In the hospital.Lord, ether, who knows, whatever it was. But my dad, thank all of the universe, my dad, who's from up north in Massachusetts was like, "That is great. Can we remove the 'lene' part? You seem awfully fond of that lately." They all agreed to name me Jada Star Anderson. And I used to hate it as a kid because I would have kids make fun of me and be like, " Oh, Jada Star, that's not a real name!" And it made me feel kind of bad. Like I was trying to be something. And I was I was like, I'm not trying to be anything! My aunt and my mom were both really sweet about being like, "It's your name. You don't have to worry that you have to act a certain way. And if somebody doesn't like it, too bad." I could never find pencils with my name on it.

Chion Wolf  11:14

Me neither!

Jada Star  11:15

Right, of course!

Chion Wolf  11:17

And to this day, when I go on a vacation, when I go to the souvenir shop, I don't see Chion in any of the little keychains or license plates or trinkets! Nothing.

Jada Star  11:26

It's the coolest name, though!

Chion Wolf  11:30

Thank you!

Jada Star  11:30

And usually in high school, I started just telling people, "My name is Jada Star." And they'd be like, "Is that really your name?" and I'd go, "my parents were hippies", and just kind of fixed it.

Chion Wolf  11:35

Like anyone has an evolving relationship with an older family member that they look up to, of course, your relationship with Dolly over the years has changed and evolved and grown. How would you say it's most different now at 44 years old, than it was maybe when you were maybe 11, or 12. And that we're in that super formative era?

Jada Star  12:03

It's changed in great ways. It's gotten a lot more depth and complexity to it, again, in a good way, because as a teenager, or a young person, I had a lot of things I wanted to do. You may have been the same kind of kid, I was like, I want to be a veterinarian and a journalist. And I want to be Dana Scully, and I want to be all these things! And I always wrote poems, but I never shared those with anyone. And it wasn't till I got much older, I've always called myself a very late bloomer to the party. I'm always late to the party. But then I started writing songs. And then that's where our relationship started to change. On this other level, when she was like, Oh, you want to do the thing that I love doing? Let me talk to you about it. And that was really special to me. And scary. Really, really scary.

Chion Wolf  12:58

What was scary about it?

Jada Star  13:01

Because... I always say that when I sing something I wrote myself to somebody, because I don't have the internal heart of a performer like she does, I feel like I'm just standing there in my underwear. Literally, just like braless, panties, guitar... She helped me with that a lot, though. She was kind of like, "I get it." She said, "Why do you think I do all this?"

Chion Wolf  13:29

Gestures to face and body...

Jada Star  13:30

Yeah, she's like, "All this stuff." But she was somebody that was like, "I like the stories you tell. And you should keep doing that." And because I felt like I had her behind me... I get emotional, because I felt like I had her behind me. Because I never... Just from old childhood stuff, and whatever, I just never wanted to draw attention to myself, you know? And so, being a performer and a singer/songwriter, especially in this family, was kinda like, oh, that might be something that I'm not interested in.

Chion Wolf  14:05

Yeah, it's incredibly vulnerable to do something like that in so many ways, and you've got this woman who is everything...

Jada Star  14:12

And I went to school to be a counselor, and I finished college, just got my Associates in psychology, and I was like, cool, and then I got pregnant and I was like, gonna have a baby, gonna do mom stuff, go back to school... And then it was when I was going to go back to school that Dolly said, "There's a show at Dollywood I'd like to see if you want to be part of." I had a struggle deciding between college and that, but I needed to take care of my family at the moment. That was a better opportunity. So after the first week of it, after the very first show, people would come up and talk to us after every show, and these strangers are telling you really personal things about themselves, pain, and ways that she has helped them, ways that hearing about my family - my grandparents and my aunts and uncles and stuff - has helped them. I realized that I think the universe kind of stuck me there for that reason. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I still get to do the big thing I wanted to do, but maybe I'm not supposed to be isolated while I do it. Because I wanted to be in a little bubble. And be, like, "No one look at me!" But hearing other people's stories also encourages me to write other stuff. And it just... You find out - and Dolly taught me this - that you don't write for yourself, ever. You're kind of plucking stuff out of the air that people need to hear. Even if it's something that you don't like when you write it, but it might be right for somebody else. And so that's all the stuff that she means to me. I ramble a lot when I talk about her because it's so crazy.

Chion Wolf  15:50

So it sounds almost like the combination of her love, your both genetic but also spiritual connection with each other, and also the way that she puts it, the way she just put it about, like, you write for other people, you serve them... Are all also sort of antidotes to the possible self doubt, you may fear, because you'll never - and no one will ever - be her.

Jada Star  16:17

Yeah, absolutely. And that was my fear. Why would I even pursue that kind of career, because of who she is? Because I was scared of people going, "Well, who do you think you are?" I don't think I'm her. We're all playing different sports. It's okay. We don't have to compete like this. And she's proud of any of us that want to do that stuff. And she is right behind us. And she's always encouraging of it. She doesn't have any of that "I'm the queen and..." No, because she doesn't see things that way. She sees all of us. And I think this comes all the way back to my grandmother. We are all servants. Whether or not you're religious, I'm not terribly religious, but I still get the idea of helping your fellow man. And that's what Dolly does, I think. She takes it so to heart. She's like a nun or a monk. I know that sounds very silly. But it's a person that's like, "Okay, I'm married to this forever." And she's like, "I'm married to creating love and peace and joy, as long as I'm breathing." And I don't know what seed got into her head when, but it's just always there. It is. Every time I see her now, and she's nearly 80, it has never dimmed. She's always doing something and encouraging you and saying "What are you doing?" You can't sit without without her going, "What are you doing?" She wants to know that you're doing stuff, you got to do stuff.

Chion Wolf  17:58

See, I feel like there are a lot of people on the planet who inhabit that sort of presence. And they demonstrate their values. They don't just talk, they demonstrate it. But your aunt Dolly has reached a level that is beyond compare. She is one of the few things that everyone can agree on! And maybe there are a few people that are from other planets. I would like to interview if they're from other planets, that would make a great episode of audacious, but what do you think? How do you think... What do you make of it? What do you make of her? How, in a world where everybody disagrees about everything does everybody agree about her? I don't even know how to touch the question of how, why? What do you think? What do you think?

Jada Star  19:03

I think, and she'll tell people, too, it was a matter of this cosmic moment. This time in our culture, when it was that she was first heard, and first made her step out. It was absolutely perfect for what she had to say. On top of it, though, every intention of hers has always been pure. And her intention has always been, "Do you want to hear the song I wrote?" That's it. Not "Do you want to give me money for the song I wrote?" or, "Look at me. I'm singing the song so good!" No, it's her going, "Do you want to hear this story? I want to tell you a story." And that's all it is. But she was so intelligent that she looked at the people around her, and she knew how to massage these different situations to get just far enough in to get just enough people to hear her, that she's gonna live forever. Even if it was, "Okay, all right, these dumb men want to talk down to me, I'll make my blonde hair bigger, and I'll push these puppies up to my chin, and we'll see, because at the end of the day, I'm still me." All I have to do is get heard. She's a great example of someone who understands how to balance the ego properly. Right? She's not, "I need all these accolades. I need all these things." She's truly humble. She believes in herself. She knows that she's been meant for this. So she's not going to say, "Oh, I'm a terrible writer." She knows she's a good writer. But it's because she says, "I have these stories to tell. And for whatever reason, I know how to interpret them for people in a way that they like." It's hard to explain. I always joke, I say, she's like a eldritch being! She's from another planet. I don't know what happened! And she's like that in our family too! We all know that she's different and special. We - I'll speak for myself - I don't ever want to disappoint her. I don't ever want to do any damage through my dumb actions on the amazing work she did, which, a little peon like me never could. She's everything, but it's because we love her so much. And we've seen all the work she's put into it. But she doesn't sleep! All she thinks about is writing stories and telling stories and talking to people and telling more stories! She worries us sick now, she just never stops.

Chion Wolf  21:41

It's also amazing to me that even people who've never heard any of her songs, or maybe only just a few, still have that sort of feeling that I'm touching on, like... Getting emotional, even just trying to ask, how did she get to be this way? Where did she come from? What did she do? How does one do this? Because it truly is beyond even her storytelling. It's her... I mean, I don't know fill in that blank. It's her...

Jada Star  22:07

It was a perfect combo of nature and nurture. On the type of person she was born as, that she was given such a beautiful mind to imagine things, and to see beauty and to turn it into so much more in her head. But to also be given a mother and family members around her and a father and uncles and aunts that saw that in her, and didn't put her out to go work in the barn. They didn't say "There's no time for that." They cherished it in her. At a time when a lot of children weren't heard, her family listened to her. And our family. We have the family business. We all work here in the studio, we help each other, we don't want to take anything from anyone else. That's working hard. We'll do it ourselves. That's something she's put in us. And it's how our family has been as far back as we can go. We've always had writers and singers and storytellers and traveling... I don't know we were traveling minstrels. I have no idea why she grew up on those stories too! She is just the perfect outlet for all these things that she heard as a kid. She was encouraged to tell them as a kid and I still think that's unheard of for that time period. But in my family too, it wasn't your typical... Even the gender roles weren't the same like women in my family preached. Right? That wasn't common. And it also makes me emotional, because I'm like, Look what just some encouragement can do for a kid. Just a little bit, with no electricity, no nothing. They still found a way to make... It sounds like such silly cheesiness when you tell the story of when she got the kids entertained, and they washed out in the river... And they did though! She wanted to keep her kids entertained! And her mom learned how to keep her entertained, and her mom taught her that, they taught Dolly that, and she was ready to share those stories with everybody. And everyone needs a family. That's another reason Dolly says "I am your aunt, I'm your mom, and your sister. I'm your best friend. I will never let you down. You can tell me anything." And my grandmother was that person. I really think I see a lot of my grandmother in her. Now my grandmother helped raise me, which is why I talk about her all the time. I have a mom, who I love very much, but my grandmother took care of me. And so I was very fortunate to see the person that raised Dolly and hear those stories directly from her, and see her pride in all of her kids, and to sit as a little kid and be like, I'm getting to hear this story from the person that told it to Aunt Granny - we call her Aunt Granny - and then she goes and tells these stories. I still can't believe people know who my family is. And the stories still get to go around, and my grandmother is still getting to take care of other people's kids, even when we're all grown up. And I'm especially upset with how things are in the past couple years for all my LGBTQ friends, and people in my life, and my family that I love so much. And that means a lot to me to that she's a home for everybody. It doesn't matter if, "Okay, well, I read the Bible and it says this," who cares? Your neighbor's gay, who cares? You guys can still be friends. That's what she wants people to do. And I don't know that anyone else can navigate that situation quite the same way that she does.

Chion Wolf  26:30

As Dolly Parton's nice, I can imagine that there's some degree of wanting to protect her. I'd like to hear about that dynamic in you.

Jada Star  26:45

She is very much a mother figure to me, but not just to me, to most of my cousins. So because she gives so much of herself, because we see her when she is tired... We're all protective of her for that. There's a big thing in our family where we teach each other to kind of conserve our energy that we put out, right? If you're a healer, you have to save a little bit for yourself, or you'll kind of empty yourself out emotionally. I think that's the thing. All of us want to protect her from the most, but I think she's got it handled, but you do want to protect her, and you don't want to do things that might disappoint her. I want to live my life and be a person that she would be proud to have as her niece. That tries to put forth all this stuff, she's worked 60 years! She's worked so hard to put that out into the world, I think that we're all kind of, not in a bad way, burdened with keeping it up as much as we can.

Chion Wolf  27:59

One thing that people who are related to famous people experience is also the sense that you are sharing this family member with us. Which I think is a little bit of a strange way to put it, because in order to share something, it's like you have to possess it, and you do not possess her. But I'd like to hear your thoughts about that. That feeling of maybe getting less of her because other people get her attention.

Jada Star  28:23

When I was really little, I was walking in the backyard with my grandmother. And I said, "Mamaw, you had so many kids, and you had so many of us nieces and nephews," there's like 15 of us. And I said, "So how do you you love some more than the others?" I was five, I was very precocious, and my grandmother said, "I already had the room. I already had the room!" She was like, "God just unlocked that door for that new person." And so I think that's how we all were raised. And so it doesn't feel like we want to be selfish with her. We know that we're supposed to share her with everyone. But we also know that she knows that there's enough of her. At the end of the day, her family, her blood family is... You're so sweet. I want to give you the biggest right now!

Chion Wolf  29:31

I'sm just feeling emotional! That makes total sense!

Jada Star  29:34

But she's made it very clear to all of us that this is who she is and what she's wanted since she could talk. She told her mother and father that's what she wanted. And so they supported her, and her family supported her emotionally, and at the same time, she is so good still, at reaching out and making sure everyone still feels special with her. She'll go to East Tennessee and say, "I just want to see everybody in East Tennessee. Please come, let's have dinner and stuff!" and she'll do that. The ones of us that live in Nashville, we might get to see her a little more. But she does special things for us too, because we some of them we got teenagers still and she's like, "Take the kids bowling!" It's the best. So she still tries, even though she's everywhere. I wish I could explain it. Anyone would feel like an underachiever to be around her.

Chion Wolf  30:34

But then she's so awesome that she would uplift you and make you feel like you were 100% of who you were ever meant to be anyway.

Jada Star  30:40

Absolutely. Absolutely! When I first started working at Dollywood in the family show, I was nervous. I have general anxiety disorder. And so I take Lexapro for it. And so I really have worked hard in therapy to stop beating myself up for everything. I'm not perfect, of course. And this one day, I just had a hard rehearsal, eight, nine years ago, and I lgran downstairs to the dressing room at lunchtime, and I hid in a closet in the dressing room. Like an adult, like a reasonable person, and hid in the closet. I'm crying. I'm in the lady's dressing room. I think no one's gonna see me. I hear my aunt because she was at rehearsal. And Judy Ogle, her best friend, walk in, and she said, "Judy, no one's in here, let's have lunch", and I'm in the closet. And I think here we go. So it's a movie now. I'm Jennifer Aniston. And I hear Dolly go, "Judy. Can you go into that closet and see if there's any napkins in there?" I'm not kidding you. Judy comes to the door. She opens the door. I'm holding paper towels. I have tears pouring down my face. I'm holding paper towels. Judy looks at me and she grabs paper towels, shuts the door. Doeesnt say a word. Judy is thinking, Okay, this is a situation. So Judy goes over, and I hear her whisper, "Jada's in the closet!" My aunt goes, "What?!" And she goes, "Jada's in the closet!" And Dolly went, "Jada, get out of that damn closet!" And so I come out of the closet, I'm sobbing, she goes, "What is wrong with you?" And I was like, "I don't know, I just felt really clumsy at rehearsal, it's stupid!" Just crazy. And she goes, "Oh my Lord." And she looks at me. She looks over at Judy, who's been her best friend for her whole life. Right? Just... Soulmate. And she looks at Judy. And she goes, "Judy, look at her. She cries and hides like I do!" And I was like, "What do you mean?" And she goes, "Honey, I cry three or four times a day. But then you suck it up. And you clean yourself up, and you go right back out there." And she said, "I love you." And she hugged me, and in that moment, I thought, Okay, she is a real person. She has the same moments. She's just really good at keeping it off to the side. She knows her little safe zone. But having that compassion from this person that's practically a deity in a lot of ways, where you're like, I'm you're niece and I still feel nervous standing around you sometimes. It felt so sweet for her to be like, "I get you." And I felt like she got me. That's such a long, silly story. But just for someone to know... Even that silly dumb situation, that compassion from her... This is also part of her being like, okay, "Alright, you cried. Alright now, come on!" And not in a mean way. Not in a Geena Davis "Long Kiss Goodnight" way, but in a "Okay. All right. Big deep breath. Let's go." And that, I think, is the key to her. Is that it doesn't matter. You keep going. I did a thing, and everybody didn't like it. Okay, well, I'll do something else now. You can't just stop. You don't fail until you quit.

Chion Wolf  34:04

Sometimes I think about how people who make us feel seen, people who make us feel better than we see ourselves, are often received that way. Because the person reflecting that back to us inhabits it. So it's like she must see her greatness because of the way we feel great in her presence. There's only one way and that's it right?

Jada Star  34:31

Yeah. She doesn't want you to feel bad. She wants you to feel your feelings. She had to go through so much to get to where she is, and that's the other thing, that... Being a relative of a celebrity, and when I was on Claim to Fame, I found that almost everyone else on the show was raised the same way. No one was ever given anything for nothing. Their celebrity wanted everyone to know how to get there, what they had to do to get there. Here's this hard work we have to do. Dolly is the most amazing relative on Earth, and she will always have your back. But you can't just sit there and do nothing. You have to show that you're trying to do something. She's never going to tell you what to do, or who to be. But pick something. What does she say? "Pick something and do it on purpose." Just do it, whatever it is. And so that's a big deal, too. I thought that was really nice about the cast on Claim to Fame, because I was like, wow, almost all of you are that same way. Your celebrities Chris is Donny Osmond... All of them, Nick Kent, they all grew up with those kinds of families. And I thought that was so cool! And that's why I think all of us got along so well, because I was like, Oh, this is a common thread in, i think most celebrity families, especially ones where it's not old money. You know what I mean? I compare Dolly to the Osmonds a lot because of similar timeframe of like, they didn't start out wealthy. Dolly didn't start out as Dolly. It just kind of happened. And so people make a lot of assumptions about some of us. Without realizing that, no, we still have family dynamics, we still have things we do for each other, and with each other, and get mad at each other. But we're not, like, super Nepo baby monsters.

Chion Wolf  36:33

No, and I think that is against what a lot of people presume about anyone related to anybody famous, especially rich and famous. And that's exciting to sort of blow that up and say, No, we could do better than that, you know, when we do do better than that.

Jada Star  36:49

And I'm not trying to pretend I don't have privilege, either. But you don't get to choose the family you're born into, and how they work, you know. And so I am really happy that I got born into this one. And that my family, we are tight. I work with cousins and stuff every single day making stuff, creating things, writing songs, making albums together, just encouraging each other. And it's so nice. It makes me feel really happy. And that's something that makes her happy. So that's another reason we love doing it.

Chion Wolf  37:33

When you are at a party or meet new friends, and they don't yet know that you're Dolly Parton's niece... How often do you bring it up? How often do you hope someone else brings it up? You're shaking your head, no... And when it does come up, what have been some of the ranges of reactions that you've experienced?

Jada Star  37:59

I do love it. I love hearing people's stories of how much they love her. I will never get sick of that. Ever since I was little. It makes me feel good. I'm like, Yeah, hell yeah. Cuz that's my aunt and I love her! I don't ever want anyone to treat me differently because of that. And I don't want... There's a certain type of person that will find out. And we'll immediately go into what-can-I-get-from-you mode. There's not as many of those as you think. There's some, but not as many, and but a lot of times, it's just totally innocent. They just are delighted and think it's cool. I've never gone around telling people. I was also given my dad's last name. So I have cousins that their dads are Partons. And so it was harder for them in our hometown. And I felt bad for them for that. And it's kind of a confusing feeling too, because you're proud of her. It's not that at all. It's just you don't want people to make a bunch of assumptions about you before they get to know you.

Chion Wolf  39:00

Are you ever put into a weird position where people ask to meet her?

Jada Star  39:04

Yes. All the time.

Chion Wolf  39:06

What do you do when that happens?

Jada Star  39:08

I always tell people she's incredibly busy, and really hard to get a hold of, but I'm sure if she met you, she would love you. I try to be as gentle and kind as I can. And whenever I worked at Dollywood, little kids would bring me pictures they drew for her and stuff. And I would take pictures of them and send them to her secretary, and I'd be like, I know this is crazy. But if you get a chance... And she looks at stuff like that whenever she is handed it, she doesn't mind talking to people and signing things and stuff. I'm just very careful about what I show to her because I know there's so much that comes in. And if she could, she would spend all her time signing and meeting and stuff, but she can't.

Chion Wolf  39:58

Of course we had to get help from our favorite East Tennesseean, Heather Ream. She is an author, she was on our show twice, she's a super smeller. We had her on our show about about that. And also we did a show about smells that remind you of your childhood and we'll link to her most beautiful reflections about that.... I mean, ask a super smeller what their nostalgic smells are. Absolutely amazing. We're big fans of Heather Ream. And Heather is also... I want to say Heather is one of the biggest Dolly Parton fans out there. But she has so much competition! I don't know if that's true!

Jada Star  40:33

Has she been to Dollywood?

Chion Wolf  40:35

Oh, yeah! So Heather's a huge fan. And when we were setting up this conversation with you, I wrote to her and I said, what questions would you have for Dolly Parton's niece? And she wrote back within 10 minutes. And this is one question she said:

Heather Ream  40:56

In her autobiography, "My Life and Other Unfinished Business", Dolly tells the story of her mama who had a near death experience following a bout of serious spinal meningitis. She also says that her mama had psychic sensitivities. And then she describes a few accounts of her mama's premonitions. So my first question is, are you familiar with these stories? Do you think Dolly has psychic sensitivities as well? And what about you?

Jada Star  41:25

Wow, Heather, here we go! Oh, my gosh, I love that. In our family, we like to say, "well, you know, I just got a feeling. I don't know why, but I just got to feeling!" Something my mamaw was real big on, Avie Lee, she'd say, "you know, I just felt led to tell you..." That kind of stuff. Growing up, that was just a fact in my life. And I didn't know till I got older and out of the house in a way that that wasn't as common in other families. I feel like if you asked my grandmother, she would tell you she was guided by the Holy Spirit. She has no psychic powers. It is all God. And it is all the Holy Spirit. That's what my mama would tell you. Dolly may also tell you the same thing. I'm gonna say, don't whoop me, Aunt Granny, but she's spooky. We joke, my cousins and I, will be like Granny is spooky, sometimes she knows stuff. Or you'll tell her something, and she'll go, "I already knew." Or she'll message you about something that you haven't told her about. My more skeptical side of things kind of makes a middle ground where I'm more followed Jungion stuff. And so I was like, maybe they're tapping into that collective unconscious better than others. I have a pretty keen intuition. But I'm also a born skeptic at the same time. So I questioned myself constantly, which is really funny. My kid is also very intuitive, and also skeptical. It's very funny. They're like, "I don't know why, but I feel like this", and then something will happen. And they'll be like, "I don't know, though. I don't know. It's probably just a coincidence." And I'm like, "I don't know, maybe." I think we see the breadcrumbs a little clearer, maybe? But some people, I'm not sure. I think, though, that everyone could. I think everyone has it in them.

Chion Wolf  43:33

I've experienced a big lesson that the degree to which you deny your intuitive messaging is the degree to which the intuitive messaging will show you that it exists. And it's not going to be that painless.

Jada Star  43:46

No, and the universe will absolutely scream at you. I love that you said that. Because I've told people my whole life. For me, personally, anything I have ever been a judgmental person about, anything I've ever been ugly about, it happened to me, within six months. Of me being a little snot. My 20s were all karma. Not like I was a horrible person, but if I got judgey about something, "oh, I wouldn't do that! If that was me, I wouldn't do that!" And then the universe would be like, "Here it is! What do you think now?" Because I started really respecting that, things improved for me. And so I'm not sure what the universe is about. I'm not sure what God is or what it all is. But there's something, and we're all connected. And I think we need to lead with love always. And that's what Dolly and my mom always did. And that's what they taught me and my cousins to do. And a lot of my other cousins also are very, we call each other at weird times. We do the thing where you'll think about one another, and you'll call each other at the same time, or you'll call it the exact same time and it cancels each other out! I do that with my cousin Rebecca all the time, or we'll buy the same stuff at the store that week. She'll go "Look, I got a new pillow!" and I'm like, "I got the same pillow." I think ours is more family related. But Heather to answer your question, I have heard the stories. I saw them in person with my grandmother. I've experienced Dolly spookiness, all of the people in my family have a lot of spookiness. It's mainly the girls.

Chion Wolf  45:27

I have a Google Doc, where I have started keeping track of all the spooky things.... All the times I've thought of someone and they texted, or all the weird coincidences or manifestations... Just yesterday, my best friend - and I haven't had a best friend since I was a kid, this woman is so important to me, she's my favorite person - She came over yesterday to hang out and we were just chatting. And sometimes, you know, when you're talking to somebody, of course, you notice when you're talking to somebody and they say something that reminds you of a line in a song?

Jada Star  45:55

Yes.

Chion Wolf  45:56

And she said something that made me go, "ooo, child, things are gonna get easier..." And her face was like, "What?!" Turns out, just that morning when she was at Walgreens, that song was coming through their speaker system. And she was saying how she was talking to the lady behind the counter about "yeah! I hope things do get easier!" I'm somewhat skeptical. And she's even more skeptical. And I was like, "I just want to point that out." And I pulled up my Google Doc. And I was like, Michelle mentioned...

Jada Star  46:25

You are the messenger! You are the messenger. And the same way that Dolly writes songs, that stuff hits you, or the messenger for your friend, she needed to hear that.

Chion Wolf  46:36

So did I.

Jada Star  46:37

I feel that stuff all the time. I think as human beings, we want to put legs on stuff and anthropomorphize stuff so bad. We're like, No, we need to put a head and arms and legs on it, or we can't figure it out. But we're all connected for sure. And I think that Dolly does have this really incredible faith, this wonderful Christian faith, and I believe a bunch of that stuff too. But every generation gets a little different, you know, and I think that's a big part of it. But she also has such respect for other people's beliefs too. Her meditation is prayer. You know, everybody's meditation is a different thing, right? At the end of the day, we might just be talking to the same thing.

Chion Wolf  47:20

Probably! Here's another question from Heather Ream.

Heather Ream  48:00

We know Dolly was awarded $100 million by Jeff Bezos last year to give to any charity of her choice. I have no doubt that she'll spend it on a worthy cause. But my other question is, what charity would you give that 100 million dollars to? How would you spend it to make the world a better place? Thanks!

Jada Star  48:25

The Trevor Project. Anything to show a large amount of support for the trans community, publicly and loudly is what I would do with it.

Chion Wolf  48:38

And Dolly has been somewhat... I want to say, like, amazingly inclusive of people in the LGBTQIA plus community. And not when it was necessarily easy or en vogue or at all popular. Of course, respecting that right now, there's also still a tremendous amount of pain and harm and fear in our community. But why do you think Dolly cares about this community at all?

Jada Star  49:07

I think if we took it and this would be me talking to her more conservative fans as well... If we go by what she says, and she says she believes what Jesus in the Bible said, which were "God is love". She believes that God is love, period. Period. There's no "God is love unless..." "God is love except for..." "God is love, but..." There's none of that. She truly lives that God is love. There is no "but you have to be this way." If a parent loves you unconditionally, and we're supposed to believe that God is our parent, then that parent loves us unconditionally. And that's what I've pulled from her and her belief in that. She's like, "I'm not here to pass judgment on anyone and none of us are. And all we're supposed to do is love each other, period." And I think that's why it's so important to her, on top of people in her own family, cousins and nieces and nephews, and not just speaking for myself, I am a queer woman, I am a bisexual person. But a lot of us are queer in our own ways, even within the family, and we all have always loved each other and accepted each other. And so she loves all of us. She's seen it in front of her, she's seen it with her friends. And honestly, one of the first trans people I ever met was someone that worked for her when I was little. It's just always been kind of a part of our lives and not in a "these are my gay friends," just... this is my family. This is theirs. It seems so silly to me that people, and I think it seems silly to her too, that people would go, "This is a person! We can be friends. Cool! Who do you sleep with? Before I can decide if I'm your friend or not." It's very silly. And my grandmother was like that too. My grandmother was zero judgment whatsoever. And I think that's why Dolly is like that. She just wants people to love each other, and seeing people fight over politics, all sides, has really torn her up. Seeing her own family members argue about differences, she will get right in the middle of it and say "Enough, stop it. I don't want to hear it. Enough. There's enough negativity in the world." That's why I think it's important to her, and she doesn't want to see people get bullied and picked on. I don't speak for her. But that's what I've gathered from everything I've seen.

Chion Wolf  51:53

It's funny, because I think about how when people are loving to all, especially to the LGBTQIA plus community, it means that people who are not in that community are also welcome! You go to any pride parade, and it's like, we take everybody!

Jada Star  52:10

Yeah! It's this weird labor pain that's happening, but I will tell you as a parent living in Nashville, last year, we took our kid to their first pride parade, which was so fun. And this year, they didn't want to go. Because they were scared. And I was hurt. And I'm still hurt. I'm mad. And so we didn't go. And even though I tried to be like, "Hey, we got this, and we can't let people bully us. And we're gonna go together, and we all support each other." And they were like, "Mom, I don't really want to deal with it." And so we didn't, and I was so pissed off, and I know that it's gonna get better. And it's real easy to say that. When I'm not in certain communities, you know, but I know that I can say that for me and my family, we love and want to take care of everybody. And we want everyone to be okay. And I love that my aunt is making that more apparent. That makes me feel happy. That's why I said what I said on Claim to Fame. That's why I went on it. That sounds so weird, but it's because I felt like, okay, I'm scared. And I don't want to do the show. Because I'm scared that I'm going to look like a dummy the whole time. At the same time, I'll get a chance to tell people that really love her that they can safely love her, because we've all had our hearts broken by so many celebrities in the past few years. Right? Just so disappointing. It's like, oh, God, if you get you know that feeling oh, I liked them. That sucks. I happened to me this week, right, and so I think it's important for people to know that from my perspective, she's someone you can safely love. And she's not going to jump scare you and suddenly become a person that hates everyone, because there's enough of those out there.

Chion Wolf  54:06

Maybe that's part of why it feels so good to love her. Because I think we know we can.

Jada Star  54:13

Oh, that's beautiful. That's true. I get emotional about it too. I didn't quite get the type of "mom love" that I should have, right? None of us have. I didn't, and if I didn't have Dolly, and if I didn't have my grandma and my aunts, and I love my mom too, but she just wasn't able. That's why my family is so important to me too, because they made me feel loved. And they made me feel taken care of and they make everyone around them feel that way. That means so much to her. Even now I think about how long she's been doing it, and I can't wrap my head around it. And even being asked to be on Claim to Fame last year, I thought it was a joke because I was like, who am I? She's amazing. What are you guys doing? Getting to meet people out in California and spending a month away from my husband and my teenager meeting strangers telling me how much they loved her. It was just, it's unreal. She's immortal. Now. And we can all just hope for a tiny bit of that one day.

Chion Wolf  55:28

Have you ever written a song about her?

Jada Star  55:32

I have! She's doing a family album project where she talked to a bunch of her brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and she's like, "I want to put something together from all of you that we can all have for each other." And so I wrote a song called "The Orchard" for it.

Chion Wolf  55:49

How did she like it?

Jada Star  55:51

She said she loved it. And it was really sweet. I always have that feeling of like, is she just being nice? But you know what, when it comes to songwriting, she she'll tell you if you need to fix stuff, and what she thinks, and she seemed to like it. I think it's always scary to show that stuff. But yeah, I wanted to give her something special and different. And to show her that I wanted to make an effort to make something new. And I think she liked it.

Chion Wolf  56:21

Is there one song that you are most proud of? That you'd like to have on the show?

Jada Star  56:25

Honestly, the song I'm most proud of is "Let You Go".

Chion Wolf  56:52

Why?

Jada Star  56:55

Because I always joke that I'm like a vampire. I'm such a jerk friend, because I'll listen to you, and sometimes if you say something really poignant and beautiful, I'll be like, "just gonna put that in my notes app real quick. Don't worry about it. I'm just gonna, no, no, keep going. I'm listening!" It's not that bad. But I was helping him when he was going through the worst breakup ever. And it was so heart wrenching to watch this person I love to go through this. And one day I just was we were getting ready for work together, because we went to work at same time... And it was one of those BFF things, like, I'm gonna shower, you hang out, I'm gonna get ready, and we'll go. And while he was in the shower, I ended up just regurgitating all the stuff we've been talking about. And wrote that song that I had also taken from my own experiences for my own divorce and things and it's just, it's this little amalgamation of being in a relationship where you feel like, if I left would you even notice at this point,? Do I even know how to breathe without you though? Because the song is very raw. And also because I love the way it was arranged. Music is my drugs. And so growing up, I always had a real strong connection to 70s Brit rock, or big orchestral things, or, you know, Al Stewart type music Year of the Cat, so this kind of has an Al Stewart vibe to it. And a guy that played a steel guitar for him played on it too, which makes me really excited! And so it's just a song that feels really good. And it's my first solo album. I always did stuff with friends or with family, because I was scared to do it by myself. And this is my first by myself, and songs that I just wrote myself. And so that's the one I think I like listening to the most.

Chion Wolf  58:57

There's a difficult question that I have been dreading asking. But if I hung up this Zoom call, and I didn't ask it, even though it puts you in a terrible position...

Jada Star  59:06

That's okay!

Chion Wolf  59:06

...I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. What is your favorite Dolly Parton song?

Jada Star  59:14

My favorite Dolly Parton song is "The Bargain Store". My mom was living in Massachusetts at the time we had moved to Massachusetts to be closer to my dad, because they were going through some stuff. So we were living in Plymouth. And I was going through records, and she had a stack of old records of my aunt Dolly and I said, "Oh, I've not listened to these!" and she goes, "We can listen to them! I don't care." So I put this one on that I had never heard. And the first song was "The Bargain Store". And I remember from the first chords of it, it had this kind of minor, very... I always describe songs by the emotion I feel from it. I don't know. It's weird, but when I heard that song, I was just like, I don't know how to describe this feeling. But I like it. And so I remember listening to it four or five times in a row to where my mom came in the room and went, "What the hell are you doing?!" And that's when I think I became a fan of my aunt. Because when I was little, and she'd come over to the house and hang out, she wasn't sitting there with a guitar, she was playing Barbies with you! But it was me listening and being like, Oh, I like listening to this. And that particular song. I just liked the way that she works melodies. And that really inspired me a lot.

Chion Wolf  1:01:08

When you were eliminated from Claim to Fame, Dolly had a video message for your send off:

Dolly Parton  1:01:14

Hi, Jada, I am so proud of you! It's been a joy watching you grow up, you know how much I've loved you and how close we've always been, being your aunt and all... So proud of you, girl!

Chion Wolf  1:01:26

When you reflect on your aunt and the role she plays in your life, not that she would be eliminated from anything, what would be your message to her?

Jada Star  1:01:36

Ah, you're killing me! My message would be, I hope that she knows how much of her is in all of us that she loves; how much of her we take in and how much we want to make her proud, and make her legacy go for a zillion years. I want her to know that she's everything to all of us. And that she's always been enough. She's always been more than enough. She's always been good. She's always been funny. She's always been kind. And she's never had to prove anything to anybody. And because of that, I think we all get to be stronger people. You know. It's hard sometimes to talk to her when you're around her, right? Because you don't want to, interrupt her or bother her, but she wants you to. She knows that she's kind of elevated and in this different place too, and so I think on top of all this love that she has, and she gives, I think she's always going to be a little lonely, too. And I just don't ever want her to feel lonely. I think that's what I'd say is please don't ever feel lonely. And please know how much everybody loves you. Yeah.

Chion Wolf  1:03:06

I've asked enough questions so that I can sleep tonight. But is there anything I didn't ask you that you kind of wished I did, or you kind of expected me to and you can't believe I didn't ask you, or anything you thought you were gonna bring up but it kind of slipped your mind, like, open floor, anything.

Jada Star  1:03:27

Getting the opportunity to even do stuff like this is so surreal. I didn't start getting to do this stuff till the past year or two. And it's been a weird experience. Again, late bloomer. And people like you have just made me feel super special. And it's so nice to get to tell people how I feel about her and my whole family, and that I'm proud of them, and also to get to share my music with people, and you talked about my music and all that, so I'm really happy. I just want people to hear my music, and I want to make a lot more.

Chion Wolf  1:04:00

Jada Star, thank you so much for talking with me.

Jada Star  1:04:03

Thank you so much! I appreciate you so much!

Chion Wolf  1:04:40

We're going out with my favorite Dolly Parton song "Coat of Many Colors". And you already know this show is so very lovingly produced by Jessica Severin de Martinez, Khaleel Rahman, Meg Fitzgerald, Meg Dalton and Catie Talarski at Connecticut Public Radio in Hartford, with enormous heartfelt thanks to, Heather Ream. She's the author of the newly released memoir, "Lunch Ladies Bought My Prom Dress". Stay in touch with me at ctpublic.org/audacious, on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok at ChionWolf, and you can always send me an email: Audacious@ctpublic.org Thanks for listening.