The song “I Will Always Love You” is commonly attributed to the late singer Whitney Houston, but not everyone is aware country star Dolly Parton originally wrote and recorded the single back in 1973.
Houston’s 1992 cover was an astronomical success — spending 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, winning two Grammy Awards and, ultimately, going on to become certified three-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Forbes previously estimated that Parton received over $10 million in royalties from the smash-hit single. However, Dolly never publicly revealed what she did with the money until Andy Cohen asked her directly on Watch What Happens Live.
When prompting Parton to reveal the best thing she had done with the royalties, she revealed she invested it into a local Black community.
“I bought my big office complex down in Nashville… down in what was the Black area of town,” she explained. “It was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there.”
Adding “it was off the beaten path from 16th Avenue,” a well-known area in the city, Parton continued that she purchased “the whole strip mall” there.
The singer declared that she felt it was “the perfect place for me to be, considering it was Whitney.”
“So I just thought this was great, I’m just gonna be down here with her people, who are my people as well,” Dolly said. “And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex. And I think, ‘This is the house that Whitney built.'”
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