On Dolly's Nov. 27 Showcase Artist interview on CMT (apparently a repeat of the one the network reportedly aired Nov. 2) hosted by Patty Loveless, Dolly performed a live acoustic version of "Paradise Road." A video clip was also shown from "Eagle When She Flies." Those interviewed included Ricky Scaggs, who said Dolly was someone from the mountains who still loves her home and her music and helps disprove the belief that nothing good can come from the "sticks;" Dabney Coleman, who said she possesses such a great sense of giving like no one else he's ever known, thinking more of helping others than of anything else including music; Patty Loveless, who said Dolly was like a big sister to her and taught her how to be a lady and how to get along with people; and Porter Wagoner, who called Hungry Again "tremendous" and said Dolly is a "marvelous" songwriter (he was interviewed throughout the show).

Some items Dolly discussed included the following:

* Before singing "Paradise Road" she explained how she went back to her Tennessee mountain home to write the songs for Hungry Again and had removed her acrylic fingernails to play guitar, and since she had them on during the interview, her guitar playing wouldn't sound as good. She said songwriting is a natural thing for her, that she just thinks of things and starts writing them down and they start rhyming. She said if she doesn't have time to finish a song but thinks of a good line, like "the straw that broke the camel's heart," she'll write the line down and finish the song later. She said when she sits down to write, something is "burning" inside her. Porter said he's seen her make notes on songs she had been writing two or three weeks earlier and is able to keep them all separated in her head, something he said he cannot do and doesn't think many songwriters at all can do.

* She told the story of how her most successful song, "I Will Always Love You," came to be. This part of the show began by showing her 1995 appearance on the Grand Old Opry during which she talked about the song, likening it to a Japanese horror film monster that wouldn't die or the O.J. Simpson trials going on and on, but saying if a songwriter is lucky, he or she will write a hit; if very lucky, the song will be a hit twice; if extremely lucky, the song will be a hit a third time; and now she was going for a fourth. Frequently throughout the tale, portions of her 1982 version played over photographs of her and Porter. Dolly said the song came straight from her heart and was written when she was in the process of leaving Porter's television show. Porter said he had shortly before she wrote it told her that she had been focusing too much on songs of country life, with themes such as mama's black kettle or daddy's working boots, but that people outside of the rural areas and international audiences didn't care about those things, didn't know about those things, but they knew about love, a universal topic.

Dolly said she had told Porter when she joined his show that she agreed to stay five years then wanted to leave to pursue her own career. After five years, she continued to stay because they were such a successful duet but wanted more freedom, and that caused problems with Porter, and they began to fight horribly. She said he just wouldn't listen to her, so she decided to say what she felt the best way she knew how, in a song, and maybe through that he'd understand. So she went to her house in Antioch, Tenn., sat down at the corner of her sofa in the den with the fireplace on and in about two hours wrote "I Will Always Love You." In that same songwriting session that afternoon, she also wrote "Jolene," which is probably the song of hers recorded by more other artists than any other except "I Will Always Love You." The next day, she played the song for Porter, and she said he told her if she wrote many more like that she'd never have to write again. Porter said she told him that she wrote it about him, to which he responded that even if she hadn't written it about him, it was the best song she had ever written and the most commercial with the widest appeal because everybody in the world loves someone else.

Dolly recalled that she had country No. 1s with it in 1974 and again in 1982 from the soundtrack to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and then re-recorded it as a duet with Vince Gill in 1995 (which went to No. 15). However, she noted the most successful version was by Whitney Houston in 1992 (which stayed at No. 1 on the pop charts for 14 weeks), saying the four combined versions sold more than 5 million copies. She said the song seems to come back every 10 years, so she can't wait to see who records it next. The segment ended playing the end of the Opry performance, with Dolly, Vince, and Porter all three singing the final chorus of the song.

* She spoke of Dollywood, her theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., (one of the most visited amusement or theme parks in the U.S.), saying she wants it to become more of a cultural center, reflecting the history and peoples of the Appalachians.

* She spoke of the Dollywood Foundation, which helps education in the poverty-stricken east Tennessee area, mainly in Dolly's home county, Sevier County. She said the foundation has moved more toward helping literacy with younger children, giving each child in the county a bookshelf shaped like a train and a new book every month until they start attending school. She said this helps parents read to their children to allow the children to learn to read, the parents who may have reading problems themselves to improve, and the parents to spend more quality time with their children. She said the foundation also maintains a hotline for students from kindergarten through 12th grade for them to call if they're having trouble with money for clothes or buying books. She said she feels drawn to give back to the community and that anyone who becomes successful and is unwilling to give back is committing a sin against themselves.

* At the end of the show, Dolly held up her 1977 album New Harvest, First Gathering, explaining that the day she left Porter's show for good, she cried for the entire drive from his office back home, but during that drive she also wrote "Light of a Clear Blue Morning," which is included on that album. She said the lines just came to her, "I can see the light of a clear blue morning/Everything's gonna be alright/It's gonna be okay," and knew that everything would be okay. As the credits rolled, as with all three of the other interviews, the 1992 video for that song from the Straight Talk soundtrack played.