Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings is out on Netflix today. Each episode is inspired by one of her songs, and Dolly is appearing in each of the eight episodes, according to IMDb. Dolly has been giving interviews ahead of the show’s launch. One of the things that she told Robin Roberts in an ABC News Special was that she sees herself as a kind of mother or aunt figure to today’s younger artists. She tells them she’s proud and that “you can do it and you’re doing great.” Don’t expect that Dolly gives them advice, though. She tells People why she refuses to do that:

“You can’t really give advice,” the country legend, 73, says in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “Like I say, I have information, but it’s really not right to try to tell somebody else how to live their life…

“I was advised by a lot of people how I was doing things wrong when I came in,” she continues. “I thought, ‘How can I do things wrong when it’s about me? I will know it if it’s wrong. I will know it because I’m that in tune with myself and that in tune with God. It may not always turn out right from me, but I’m still safer in doing what feels right in my gut and in my heart.’ That’s why I say it’s not advice. There are things that I say, ‘You don’t need to ever do this.’ But we know what those are anyway. If someone just point blank asked me something, I’ll give them my take on it. But I still ain’t going to advise them.”

Dolly talks about her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, and how she doesn’t give Miley advice, either:

“I’ve told [Miley] some things that I think are valuable and that she uses, but I’d rather live an example,” she says. “[I’d rather] be an example rather than just try to tell somebody to do this, do that because I don’t think that’s right. Everybody’s different. You’ve got your own journey. And some people are going to help you along the way and they can kick a few rocks out of the road for you, but you got to walk it.”

During a press conference held at her Dollywood DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, to promote Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings in October, Parton told reporters that she’s proud of Cyrus, 26, for “doing her thing.”

[From People]

I understand why Dolly doesn’t want to give advice: She got a lot of bad advice when she was starting out, and decided that if she trusted herself and God, she’d be fine, and that’s worked out for her. So, she knows better than most people that it’s possible to get terrible advice from well-meaning people, and she doesn’t want to steer anyone wrong and give them advice that won’t actually help them. Since she “lives an example,” as she calls it, other people can perhaps take a decent guess at what advice Dolly would offer them, based on how she’s lived her own life.

On the other hand, I can see people who love and respect her really valuing her take and advice on certain situations. Heck, I’d love her advice, for that matter. If I were Miley, I’d probably be calling her often to ask for all sorts of advice, because she’s Dolly-freakin’-Parton, and my godmother. But, Dolly is an icon who can do as she pleases, so if that means not giving advice, so be it. I do appreciate that she doesn’t want to be overbearing and start every sentence with, “Based on my long, successful career, if I were you, I would…” She knows that will grate, and so she wants to avoid it. I just feel that, given her decades of experience in the music world, she probably wouldn’t give anyone bad, useless advice. Oh well. We’ll all be left wondering, “WWDD?” I’m going to try to binge Heartstrings this weekend, and can’t wait. (I’m going to assume that she’d at least tell me to do that, if I asked.)

Photos are production and behind the scenes stills from Heartstrings. Credit: Tina Rowden/Netflix press