I am on the phone with Dolly Parton, and she is making me laugh.

Ten minutes previously I had been sat in my flat waiting for her agent to call me from LA, feeling slightly apprehensive at the thought of interviewing one of my all-time heroes. But as soon as I hear her Southern drawl purring through the other end of the line, I relax. Parton is instantly honest, friendly and – yes – very, very funny.

We’re rattling through a list of her biggest career highlights – of which there are many – and she’s telling my how proud she is to have received the Kennedy Center Honors, and to be recognised in the Songwriters Hall of Fame (“the country one, and the big one!”, as she is quick to point out). She takes her songwriting “more seriously” than anything else, so “being nominated or acknowledged for songs I have written have been my true career highlights”.

As I said, there are many: Parton has nine Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association Awards and three American Music Awards, among others. She has been nominated for a Grammy no less than 47 times, and received two nominations for an Academy Award.

“Those moments stand out, and I appreciate every single one of them,” she says. Then, in the same breath, she adds: “You never get tired of being appreciated and acknowledged… I don’t work for that, but it’s nice when it happens.”

I can almost feel her winking down the phone at me.

We asked Dolly Parton to share her advice on building a stellar career