Dolly Parton Didn't "Always Love" Porter Wagoner

While promoting the musical, 9 to 5, (which makes its way to Broadway in April 2009), country legend Dolly Parton opened up to the Los Angeles Times about the influences, good and bad, that her former boss, singer Porter Wagoner, had on her career.

The good: Wagoner apparently was the inspiration for the beloved romance anthem, "I Will Always Love You." He even reportedly helped her get her start when he invited her to The Porter Wagoner Show as his duet partner back in the '60s.

The bad: He was also the inspiration for Parton's character, Doralee, in the movie, 9 to 5, where she plays a secretary dealing with a sexist boss.

Parton told the Times of Wagoner, "He was very much -- I don't mean this in a bad way, so don't play it up that way -- but he very much was a male chauvinist pig."

"He was in charge, and it was his show, but he was also very strong-willed. That's why we fought like crazy, because I wouldn't put up with a bunch of stuff," the singer added.

She said of her seven year stint on the show, "Out of respect for him, I knew he was the boss, and I would go along to where I felt this was reasonable for me."

Parton continued, "But once it passed points where it was like, 'Your way or my way, and this is just to control, to prove to you that I can do it,' . . . then I would just pitch a damn fit. I wouldn't care if it killed me. I would just say what I thought. I would do like the Doralee character and say, 'I would turn you from a rooster to a hen if you don't stop!'"

Luckily though, as any good country song, the story had a happy ending.

After not being on speaking terms for 10 years, the two made amends and became friends again. Reportedly, Parton was even at Wagoner's bedside last year when he died.