In 1967, Dolly Parton got her big break on the syndicated country music show, "The Porter Wagoner Show." And several years later, in 1974, she finally felt it was time to leave and branch out on her own. According to the Tennessean, Parton had only promised to do the show for five years, but she stayed for seven.
"It was his show, and I understood all that, but I still wanted to go. So we were going around and around with that," Parton told Nashville Songwriters Association International (via the Tennessean). "So, finally, I thought, 'How am I gonna make him understand how much I appreciate everything, but that I have to go? He won't listen to me. He's not listening to reason when I want to go!' So I went home and I thought, 'Well, what do you do best? You write songs.' So I sat down and I wrote this song."
Wagoner was so impressed with the song when Parton sang it to him that he began crying and gave her his blessing to go off and do great things — on one condition. He wanted to produce the song, because he felt it was the best one she had ever written.
