Some people get their best songwriting out at a desk, in a crowded train station (á la Carly Simon), or on the road (like Willie Nelson), but for Dolly Parton, that creative wellspring is at its most productive during this daily ritual she practices at her vanity. Parton’s ritual takes place when most of the rest of the world is asleep: the early hours in the morning she affectionately dubbed the “wee hour-a wisdom.”

Of the thousands and thousands of songs Parton has written over her prolific career stretching back to the 1960s, the country icon said her best songwriting comes from quiet moments in front of a mirror.

Dolly Parton Gets Her Best Songwriting During This Daily Ritual

Whether you’re a brush-your-teeth-and-go kind of person or someone with a dedicated and lengthy personal care routine, getting ready for the day is a ritual to which most of us can relate, even if you’re someone as famous as Dolly Parton. For Parton, one of her calmest and most introspective moments of her daily life comes in the early hours of the morning when she’s doing her makeup at her vanity table. (Wigs have been making the “hair” part a breeze since the 1960s.)

Speaking to Howard Stern in 2023, Parton said, “When I sit down to do my makeup…I’ve got the table there, I’ve got my makeup laying around, and I’ve got my notepad there, and my little tape recorder. Somehow, when I’m looking at myself putting on makeup, you know, my mind is working. Everything is kind of working. My hands are working. Somehow, there’s just something about that time of the morning, and when I’m doing that, I get some of my best ideas. The mornings are always best for me.”

Parton emphasized the importance of always keeping some sort of recording device, whether it’s a tape recorder or a pencil, handy. “Serious songwriters, we’ll write on a tablecloth, we’ll write on a napkin, on a Kleenex box, whatever, you know, is handy. I’ll use a Maybelline pencil, anything I get my hands on, ‘cause I know if I don’t do it right then, I will forget it. That’s part of your trade. Don’t take anything for granted. If this is your job, you do it, and you do it good.”

The Time of Day Is an Important Part of the Process, Too

Anyone who regularly wears makeup or significantly changes their natural look day-to-day can attest to the transformative power of putting on makeup. With each application, your outward appearance matches the vision in your mind’s eye that much more. Dolly Parton’s appearance is an integral part of her look, so it would make sense that the process of transforming into that version of Dolly would knock ideas loose. Parton writing while she does her makeup is a holistic process in which she turns into the country icon we know and love her as today.

And as she explained in an interview with Dan Rather, time is a crucial part of the songwriting process, too. She talked in-depth about her “wee hour-a wisdom” during the early hours of the morning. “I wake up early,” she said. “I’m one of those people that don’t require a lot of sleep. My dad was like that, too. I just really love the mornings when everything else seems to be kind of quiet and the energies are calm. It’s just like there are things out there for me, and I get up and do some of my best work before most people get up.”

“It just seems to be the time that I absorb things more than I do when everything’s crazy and the day has wore you out,” she continued. “I really feel like I connect more to that higher wisdom, and I seem to be able to get hooked into that, and great ideas come to me, whether it’s in a song or business ideas or just how to solve problems. There’s always a time for answers, and I get a lot of answers during that time.”