Despite the fact that Dolly Parton doesn't think she was meant to have children of her own, her maternal instinct has always been strong.

"I grew up in a big old family with eight kids younger than me and several of my brothers and sisters came to live with me early on in my life," she tells People. "I've loved their kids just like they're my grandkids, and now I've got great-grand-kids!"

Parton is called "Aunt Granny" by her nieces and nephews, while her husband Carl Dean goes by "Uncle PeePaw."

"Now I'm GeeGee, which is great-granny," she says. "I often think, it just wasn't meant for me to have kids so everybody's kids can be mine."

Her love for children is also seen through her non-profit Imagination Library, an organization that gives free books to pre-schoolers, where she is known as "Book Lady" rather than a country music icon.

"I think kids relate to me because they think of me like a Mother Goose or a Fairy Godmother," Parton says. "I'm like a cartoon character -- my voice is little and I'm an excitable little person like them! I'm very childlike in that way, in my nature."

Parton recently released her 42nd studio album 'Blue Smoke,' her highest-charting release to date. See the video for her latest single, 'Home,' here.

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