NASHVILLE, TENN. (COW GUY CLOSE) — “All right, welcome back. You know, say what you like, but one thing is for sure: Dolly Parton was an absolute powerhouse when it comes to business. She built a $450 million empire, and best guess, some say it’s more than that, even by fiercely protecting her intellectual property.
This is what I want to talk about: her business acumen, right? While she was universally loved for music and her sharp commercial instincts, they reshaped how artists now approach ownership in the entertainment industry.
So back in 1974, Dolly’s track, you know the song “I Will Always Love You,” had just hit number one on the country charts. Elvis heard it, and he loved it and wanted to record a cover version. The night before the session was to happen, Elvis’s aggressive manager, remember Colonel Tom Parker, everybody knows him, well, he called Dolly with a non-negotiable term.
He said Elvis would not record any song unless his team received 50 percent of the publishing rights.
Well, at just 28 years old, Dolly stood her ground. She said no. I wrote that song against the biggest operation in music. She stood up to him. She told Parker she couldn’t sign away the rights, explicitly stating that her copyrights are the inheritance she was building for her family in the future.
See that? Always looking to the future.
So Parker yanked Elvis from the project, and the recording was canceled.
But in 1992, Whitney Houston covered the track for the movie “The Bodyguard,” remember that? Well, Dolly Parton reportedly generated more than $10 million in royalties just from that version alone.
She remarked with a little tongue-in-cheek that she made more from that track, at least enough from that track, to buy Elvis’s Graceland house outright.
I think that’s fantastic. Now, moves like this, that has set her apart, as well as putting her in a power position later on in life. Those decisions really pay off.
Somebody else has done the same thing. His name is Warren Buffett, right? How about this stat? He accumulated roughly 98 percent of his wealth after the age of 65.
Talk about compounding. That’s a great example of it.
So I wanted the thoughts of our next guest on this. He’s still young. He’s got a ways to go. Please welcome to the show Mr. Matthew Tuttle, Tuttle Capital, coming to us from Greenwich, Connecticut. You’re just getting started. You’re a young pup in this day and age.
Yeah, Dolly had some great business acumen.
She had great acumen looking towards the future, hanging onto things, doing the right thing even when it was difficult. I think there are great lessons to be learned there.
And a lot of these people that you think of enriched all their lives really started only accumulating once they started to compound the returns, once a lot of those business decisions they made when they were in their 20s and 30s started to kind of come to fruition when they were in their 50s and 60s.
I think there’s a lot of good lessons in there. I mean, a lot of huge lessons in there, you know.
I love the stories of entertainers and athletes who, you know, they’re born with this natural talent. But, you know, a lot of times that’s got a shelf life, and, you know, you see some of these, and you see it on both sides, some who, you know, who squander it and, you know, end up in dire straits, and then others, like Dolly Parton, who build this massive business empire off of what she’s done.
You know, and as an entrepreneur myself, I love the idea of building something that doesn’t need you to be on stage, right? We’re recording or doing that to be able to make money. You know, I think those are great stories and lessons for people, especially in this age of AI where, you know, most people in this country, you know, if they’re not working, they’re not making money.
And, you know, I think there are a lot of lessons to learn from people like Dolly Parton.
You know, Dollywood out in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Here I read this morning as one of the most successful, you know, amusement parks in the country. So even, you know, she had great ideas, and she put into place the right people, and she managed herself, and I think it’s just great to see people like that.
Right. I think that’s a bigger point there that you bring up, man, and I think that’s fantastic. The need in this day and age of AI, you know, these things, she didn’t have to be on-site to have them do well and make her money and continue to pad her pocketbook.
So, and then obviously with Warren Buffett, too, a great example of, you know, everybody always assumed he was rich from the age of 13.
Oh, he did well, and he’s 30, but he really accumulated 98 percent or 99 percent of his capital after the age of 65.
So there’s something called patience and compounding. I think people should learn that well, and also it’s never too late, you know? I’m not young at 57.
So, you know, I look at the Warren Buffett story and, you know, that gives me some good motivation.
Yeah, I mean, 57 to me is young. All right, how about that? Man, I’ve got you by a few years, but I think that a lot of these stories, they lot of these stories play well out there in America, because a lot of people think they’re over at a certain age, but you’re exactly right. There’s still some fight left in this old dog, huh?
I appreciate you playing along with that today. I wanted to give Dolly a little bit of a shout-out, and I think that’s fantastic to see a woman of her stature do all those right business decisions, even when it wasn’t popular back in 1974. That’s a long time ago.
You coming? Get back to regular time. I know you just got back from the Far East. Thanks for being on the show. Matthew Tuttle, Greenwich, Connecticut. Tuttle.”
January 19, 1946 - August 25, 2026
