Dolly Parton is opening up about her private world.

In this week’s PEOPLE cover , the country legend reveals her morning routine — and why she still starts her days at 3 a.m.

“Sometimes it’s earlier than that,” Parton, 79, says. “That’s when I do all my spiritual work, my prayers and my dreaming, my thinking, when all the energies of the world have kind of died down.”

The singer — who looks back on her career in her new book Star of the Show: My Life on Stage — says she takes after her late father, tobacco farmer Robert, when it comes to being an early riser.

“I'm like my dad. And the older you get, the earlier you wake up, I've noticed that too. I don't want to miss nothing either. So I don't require a lot of sleep, I'm just one of those people that don't,” she adds. “It seems

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