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Dolly Parton’s Guitarist Said the Character of Dolly Parton Had ‘Overtaken’ Her

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 22:55:00 +0000

Dolly Parton said she created a character to present to the public when she became famous. Her hair, makeup, and clothing present an image that she said was different from her true self. While Parton believed she and the character she presented were one and the same, her guitarist thought she let the persona overtake her true self.

Dolly Parton said she created a character for herself when she became famous

Parton said she invented the character of Dolly Parton long before fame. It helped her rise to success in the music industry. She said she is proud of what she created.

Dolly Parton | David Redfern/Redferns

“A character never grows old. A character lives forever, just like Mae West, like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Liberace,” she said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I guess I am a character. In more ways than just by look. I guess I’m a character only because I’m just totally what I am. I’m not afraid to be that and say what I want to, and just do what I want to.”

She said she treated the character like a ventriloquist does a dummy.

Dolly Parton’s guitarist believed that character overtook her real self

Parton said it was fine that she and her character became one in the same, her guitarist, Don Roth, had some concerns. Roth worked with other stars who were able to drop their persona offstage. He said Parton never did this.

“They come backstage, and they’re just regular people. They’ll offer you a beer. But Dolly is always Dolly,” Roth said. “I’ve never seen her without her wig, without her makeup. After we got close, I asked her why. She said, ‘It’s my opinion the reason I’m so successful is that the masses expect to see Dolly Parton sparkle and shine, and I don’t want them to ever not see that.’”

He worried that people were unable to get close to her because she didn’t present her true self. Roth certainly felt that Parton kept him at a distance.

“And even though I was a member of the band, I was closer to being the masses than I was to being a friend,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a character other than the spangles and sequins. If there is, it’s buried really deep. I don’t know that it’s an act at all, because the character has overtaken her.”

A reporter didn’t think Parton’s personality could all be an act

While Roth said he wasn’t sure there was anything beneath Parton’s shiny public-facing mask, others thought she presented her true self. Journalist Joan Dew didn’t think it was possible for Parton to completely conceal herself.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“You’ve heard all these stories about her marriage being an arrangement, and you’ve heard that she is so ambitious that nothing stands in her way,” she said. “And then you spend an hour with her, and she shines those big blue eyes on you, and that soft, little-girl voice, and she’s sweet. There’s a sweetness, an innocence about her, that can’t be all phony. Unless she’s the world’s greatest actress.”

Dew said she never doubted Parton’s sincerity.

Dolly Parton Was ‘Afraid to Appear Human,’ Said 1 Interviewer

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 19:40:47 +0000

Dolly Parton has spent her career cracking jokes at her own expense and telling stories of her humble beginnings in Tennessee. It’s worked well for her, as she has maintained the support of her dedicated fan base for years. In the 1970s, though, one reporter said Parton didn’t seem to want to be human.

Dolly Parton seemed afraid to be human

When Parton crossed over to the pop charts and became more of a mainstream celebrity, many people didn’t seem to know what to do with her. She wore exaggerated outfits, wigs, and makeup and cracked jokes about herself, but she was clearly a talented artist. Journalists began publishing pieces to see if she was really the way she presented herself. Dave Hershey of the New York Daily News did not believe she was fully genuine.

“I was sent down to do the ‘Dolly Parton — Is She For Real?’ story— what’s behind the cornpone charm,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And it’s a very well-cultivated act, I think. I tried to catch her at odd moments when she wasn’t hooked into her stage persona, but she always seems to be on. She’s just a very, very charming person, and you can’t catch her with her guard down. I’ve done a lot of big-time celebrities in the last year and a half, but she is as tough to catch off-guard as anybody.”

Dolly Parton | Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty Images

Hershey said Parton dodged questions about her childhood, which made him believe she wasn’t genuine.

“She’s very guarded about her childhood. Everytime I would say, ‘It sounds like you had a miserable childhood,’ she would say, ‘Oh, no, no, it was really quite happy, joyful. I’m not like Loretta Lynn. I’ve had a very happy life,’” he said. “She’s afraid to appear human, and that’s sad. It’s just a matter of time before people see through it. I went out there totally objective, and I could tell it was an act the whole time.”

Parton has spoken frequently about her childhood over the years. She has said that while the family was poor, they were happy.

Another journalist believed she was genuine

Though Hershey believed Parton wasn’t the real deal, other journalists didn’t think it was all an act. Journalist Joan Dew thought Parton would have to be the greatest actor in the world to completely conceal her true self.

“She can convince me of anything in an interview,” Dew said. “You’ve heard all these stories about her marriage being an arrangement, and you’ve heard that she is so ambitious that nothing stands in her way. And then you spend an hour with her, and she shines those big blue eyes on you, and that soft, little-girl voice, and she’s sweet. There’s a sweetness, an innocence about her, that can’t be all phony. Unless she’s the world’s greatest actress.”

Dew believed that all the glowing interviews of Parton backed up her belief.

“Have you ever read a cynical, bitter interview with Dolly Parton? An interview where the reporter doubted in print her sincerity?” Dew asked. “Never. And you probably never will. Did you read the Rolling Stone interview? Now, you know how cynical they are. The guy was eating out of her hand!”

Dolly Parton said she created a persona for herself when she became famous

Parton said she tries to present herself truthfully to the public, but she admitted she created a persona when she rose to fame.

Dolly Parton | Richard McCaffrey/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

“I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination,” she said, per the book Dolly on Dolly, adding, “I always think of ‘her,’ the Dolly image, like a ventriloquist does his dummy. I have fun with it. I think, what will I do with her this year to surprise people? What’ll she wear? What’ll she say?”

A number of celebrities have said they do the same thing in order to manage fame.

Dolly Parton Didn’t Think Anyone Would Like Her if She Showed Her True Self

Emma McKee — Sun, 18 Aug 2024 12:56:00 +0000

Dolly Parton has admitted that her public persona is at least partially a character she created. She dresses and styles herself in an exaggerated manner and relies on a cycle of jokes and anecdotes to get through interviews. In the early days of her career, friends said Parton was too afraid to show the public her true self. She feared people wouldn’t like what they saw.

Dolly Parton didn’t think people would like her true self

In order to manage fame, Parton said she created the character of Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton | Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

Parton’s friend said this was all an attempt to get people to like her. She didn’t believe her fans would appreciate her as she was, so she created a character to appeal to them.

“I think the most important thing in Dolly’s life is that people like her,” a friend told Alanna Nash in the book Dolly. “Because it’s real obvious that she does not think they do. She once told me, ‘If I showed myself just like I was, nobody would like me. No one would think that I was a star.’”

Dolly Parton’s friend thought she had a low self-image

Parton’s friend believed the singer liked glowing attention, which was why she enjoyed spending time around men.

“This woman has been put down quite a lot, but I think most of the putdown came when she was a kid,” her friend said. “I think she gets along better with men than she does with women because she likes to be courted. She likes somebody being overwhelmed by her. Maybe she has this dream of being able to dangle fifty men on a string. Since Dolly’s whole life is fantasy anyway, maybe she sees herself as having all these men who really, really love her and think she’s beautiful, and she can be a capricious b****. No matter how she treats them, they’ll like her anyhow.”

The friend claimed Parton had low confidence and relied on positive attention.

“With Dolly, she wants you to love her, but maybe she doesn’t want to have to give it back,” they said. “She really enjoys the adulation. It helps her. She has a poor self-image. Dolly doesn’t think she’s pretty. If she did, she wouldn’t wear wigs and rhinestones. People making over her is enjoyable to her.”

She shared how she built her character

Parton said that when she’s at home, she’ll wear more casual clothing and go without her towering wigs. In public, though, she sticks to her uniform of sparkling costumes and heavy makeup. She said that she built this image based on a woman in her hometown.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“My own overexaggerated look came from a serious place I’ve often spoken about: the town tramp in our little country hometown,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “They called her trash, but to me she was absolutely beautiful. She wore colorful patchwork skirts and pretty blouses and showed a little cleavage and had red nails and piled-up blond hair and red lipstick and high heels. She was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. When everybody would say, ‘Oh, she’s just trash,’ I’d say, ‘Well, trash is what I’m going to grow up to be.’ And I guess my look is glamorous trash!”

Parton has stuck with this look for much of her career.

Dolly Parton Was ‘Hypersensitive’ to Any Kind of Criticism

Emma McKee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 23:36:00 +0000

Dolly Parton is a widely beloved celebrity, but she still deals with criticism. Over the years, Parton’s music, acting, appearance, and personality have been picked apart. While she has said she appreciates publicity no matter where it comes from, those who knew her said any kind of critique used to send her spiraling.

Dolly Parton was sensitive to criticism in the early days of her career

Writer Alanna Nash spent time with Parton while putting together her book Dolly. In their time together, Nash said she “heard [Parton] tell reporters how much she disliked their stories, how they embarrassed her in print, and how, as a result, she and the reporter could never be friends, since she didn’t trust him anymore.” She found Parton to be “hypersensitive” to any kind of criticism. Others who knew Parton agreed.

“She couldn’t even understand if you wanted to sit next to someone else on the bus,” her guitarist, Don Roth, said.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

Her friends said negative coverage could completely ruin Parton’s day.

“A horrendous writer in Green Bay tried to write a negative piece, but it didn’t come off,” reporter Dave Hershey said. “The woman quoted Dolly as saying ‘Ah’ for ‘I,’ and Dolly got a little rankled at that. She said, ‘She tried to make me sound like a country bumpkin.’”

The singer’s friend said she desperately wanted to be liked

One of Parton’s friends said the singer cared deeply about people liking her. The friend claimed Parton shaped her public image into a figure everyone could like. This could be why criticism stung so much.

“I think the most important thing in Dolly’s life is that people like her,” her friend said. “Because it’s real obvious that she does not think they do. She once told me, ‘If I showed myself just like I was, nobody would like me. No one would think that I was a star.’”

Her friend believed this stemmed from Parton’s low self-image.

Dolly Parton said there was only one kind of criticism that upset her

Parton said she got used to criticism the longer she was famous. She didn’t mind the coverage, understanding that it came with her job.

“I set myself up for a lot of it,” she told The Province. “I’m very famous for the boobs, and I certainly don’t do anything to hide them. That makes me appealing on a cover, especially now with this silicone scare. With the way I look, I’m going to be the one that they put on the cover and say those things about, whether it’s true or not.”

Dolly Parton | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Still, she said there was one type of coverage that would always bother her.

“The only time I do get a little concerned about what the tabloids say is when it involves an issue like this that’s so important to women,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know the difference between the real press and the tabs and they believe that I’m sick. When you’re a celebrity, you have millions of fans and you’re like a member of the family. They get afraid when you’re ill. They think you’re going to die and they don’t want to lose you.”

Porter Wagoner Shared Why the Way Dolly Parton Left Him Was ‘so Wrong’

Emma McKee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 14:13:00 +0000

Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner worked together in the early days of her career. He hired her to sing on his show and they collaborated on multiple albums. As the 1970s wore on, though, Parton began to want to build a solo career. Her decision to leave their partnership greatly wounded Wagoner. He believed that the way she went about leaving him was not right.

Porter Wagoner felt betrayed by Dolly Parton

Even after Parton left Wagoner’s show, they continued to have a working relationship. He produced her albums, at least for a time. As she further honed her solo career, she realized she wanted to be her own producer. She moved forward without Wagoner, which he saw as a major betrayal.

“It was the way the move was done, the manner in which it was done that was so wrong,” he said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Because at each meeting that we would have with RCA, or with the record execs who were talking about directing Dolly’s career more toward the pop market, I never failed to mention at any time that if the production of her records was short in any way, I would be happy to work with or step aside and let anyone else get involved who they thought was better qualified. And even with this happening, the entire move was done behind my back and with her and RCA.”

Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton | GAB Archive/Redferns

He said that working for Parton had harmed his career. He felt he deserved better treatment from her as a result.

“[T]he schedule was so heavy, in having to put time in on her records and our duet records, that I decided to quit the road,” he said. “Had I not been producing Dolly Parton’s records and the duet records, I would not have quit the road, ’cause my schedule would have been loose enough that I coulda done the things they wanted to do. That’s the reason I felt that it was such an underhanded thing to do.”

Dolly Parton felt trapped in her working relationship with Porter Wagoner

Many people surrounding Parton said that Wagoner was an anchor on her career. When she moved on from their working relationship, she was able to build the type of career she had always wanted. She said that she had always wanted to write songs like “Jolene,” but could not while she was with Wagoner.

“That was the first time I noticed people sayin’, ‘That’s different than what you been doin’,’” she said. “But I had been fightin’ for that sort of thing for years. I had all these songs I was writin’, and I was developin’ musically, as far as a different style of pickin’ and hearin’ different sounds in my mind was concerned. ‘Jolene’ was the first good example of the fact that you can be yourself and still improve on whatever you do.”

She wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’ for him

Before Parton moved on from Wagoner as her producer, she had to extricate herself from her role on The Porter Wagoner Show. He did not want her to leave, so she wrote the song “I Will Always Love You” for him.

“[A]ll we were doing was fighting, and it just wasn’t working,” she said on Dolly Parton’s America, adding, “I couldn’t think. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. He wasn’t happy either. I thought, ‘This is just insane. We’ve got to do something.’ That’s when I went in and said … I thought, ‘He’s not going to listen.’ We’d fought. I’d go home crying. That’s when I wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’ and went back to sing it.”

Wagoner was so moved by the song that he told her she could leave if he could produce the record.

Dolly Parton ‘Almost Fell Over’ in Shock When She Posed With a Near-Naked Arnold Schwarzenegger

Emma McKee — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:16:00 +0000

Dolly Parton and Arnold Schwarzenegger posed together for an interview she gave with Rolling Stone. The pictures caused a bit of a stir, as Schwarzenegger was practically naked in them. Parton could hardly talk about the photo shoot without dissolving into laughter. She shared what it was like to take the photos.

Dolly Parton posed with Arnold Schwarzenegger for Rolling Stone

In 1977, Annie Leibovitz photographed Parton and Schwarzenegger for Rolling Stone magazine. Parton said she hadn’t known what to expect when she walked into the shoot.

“I just thought I was just gonna take regular pictures,” she told interviewer Huell Howser, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “But when I got there, this girl, it’s a real popular photographer, Annie Leibovitz, she’s really, really sharp, and she comes up with some real good ideas. But when I walked in, here was this naked man.”

Schwarzenegger wore a red Speedo, but Parton covered it in some of the photos, giving the impression that he was fully naked. She could hardly talk about it without laughing.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“Almost naked — had on these little skin-tight, uh, shorts, and all this . . . body, and it was just … I just almost fell over. [Laughter],” she said. “And I said [she gets a mischievous glint in her eye], ‘What are me and him gonna do together?’ [She squeals on the last syllable, and then begins giggling so hard she almost can’t tell the story. Howser can hardly contain himself.] And the idea she had was the male and female body. And it turned out really neat.”

She said she enjoyed working with Schwarzenegger that day.

“It’s got a lot of … attention, yeah, and they made some posters up of ‘em,” she said. “And he was such a nice guy to know. We had a fun day takin’ the pictures, but, like I say, it was new to me.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger shared what it was like to pose with Dolly Parton

Schwarzenegger said he also enjoyed shooting with Parton. In an interview with Time Magazine, he said she was the perfect weight in his arms.

“[She was] the nicest weight I have lifted in a long time,” he said. “I did a one-arm curl with her. She was about 110 pounds, good resistance. My biceps felt very good after that. So did I.”

Some people were unhappy with the story that ran with the pictures

In the interview itself, Parton spoke to journalist Chet Flippo. She talked openly about her body, sex, and the “hot and heavy” stories she wrote as a “horny” teenager. Parton’s former designer, Lucy Adams, believed this reflected a changed version of the singer. Because of this, she didn’t think that the story could all be true.

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

“I think it’s their own writing lots of times,” Adams said, adding, “I can’t see Dolly changing that much, ’cause I don’t think Dolly would change basically from what she has always been. I told her when we were doing the show, ‘Dolly, don’t ever change.’ She said, ‘I can’t. I have to just be me.’”

She worried that changing in this way would do nothing good for Parton’s career.

“I hope she never does, and I don’t think she has to,” Adams said. “I don’t think she could better herself by changing in any way.”

Still, Parton said she was happy with the way the interview turned out.

Dolly Parton Was ‘on the Brink of Being Scared’ in Front of a Star-Studded Audience

Emma McKee — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 18:15:00 +0000

In 1977, Dolly Parton’s career was on enough of an upward trajectory that she was performing for audiences of celebrities. At a show in New York, a number of big names turned up to watch Parton sing. While Parton is confident in her abilities, she admitted that getting in front of this crowd was a daunting task.

Dolly Parton performed to an audience of celebrities at one concert

In 1977, Parton geared up to play three shows at New York’s Bottom Line. This was a big opportunity for her, as it gave her a chance to perform songs from her more pop-centric album New Harvest … First Gathering. Parton had been performing in front of audiences for years at this point, but the show in New York felt like a new frontier. It didn’t help that there were many highly recognizable faces in the audience.

Dolly Parton | Bettmann/Contributor via Getty

According to the book Dolly by Alanna Nash, celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Candice Bergen, Phoebe Snow, John Belushi, Lily Tomlin, Eric Idle, Patti Smith, and Janis Ian were in attendance. Parton admitted that she found the crowd a bit intimidating, but she was able to relax once she got onstage.

“I was a little nervous — on the brink of being scared,” she said. “But when I walked out on stage, I was at ease. The crowd was just great.”

Dolly Parton felt out of place with audiences like this, said her guitarist

According to Parton’s guitarist, Don Roth, she often felt ill at ease when she was around celebrities.

“One thing I learned a long time ago is that Dolly Parton is still very much a little girl. She’s very uneasy in surroundings she doesn’t know,” Roth said. “I think that’s the only reason she likes her bus. It’s a security blanket to her. She leaves the concert, she goes back to her little room on the bus. And I know she’s very insecure at these press parties she does only because RCA or Katz-Gallin says do ’em. She’d rather go back to the bus and get into a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.”

He said that she went “into the shell” when she felt out of place and didn’t seem like her typical warm, bubbly self. Still, she won over the crowd in New York with her onstage banter.

She admitted she still feels starstruck around some people

Even after years of fame, Parton admitted that she sometimes feels starstruck. She said that Jagger, who was in the audience at her New York show, is someone who still makes her feel nervous. Several other rock stars also impress her.

Dolly Parton and Mick Jagger | Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images

“I’m working on a rock album now, and I’ve been talking to Elton John, Mick Jagger, and Debbie Harry,” she told People. “Every time I speak to one of them, it’s just such a thrill.”

Dolly Parton Said Her No. 1 Album Wasn’t ‘the Kind of Hit’ She Wanted

Emma McKee — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 18:30:00 +0000

In 1977, Dolly Parton released the album Here You Come Again, representing her calculated move onto the pop charts. This had been Parton’s goal, but she wasn’t sure she was thrilled with the method of getting there. While she liked the album, she said it was slicker than something she normally would have liked to put out.

Dolly Parton said one successful album sounded too slick for her

Parton released the single “Here You Come Again” at the encouragement of her management team. She didn’t write the song, and she wasn’t sure if she loved the way it sounded.

“I knew the song was a hit, but I wasn’t sure if it was the kind of hit I wanted,” she said, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I wouldn’t want to get labeled with this slick production because my own songs are a lot more gutsy and a lot more soulful. The album is slicker than I’ve ever heard myself, or would probably ever want to hear myself again. But it was somethin’ I purposely did.”

Still, she released the album for a reason. It landed her on the pop charts and was her best-selling work to that point.

“We were purposely trying to get a single and an album that would cross over. And we did,” she said. “In three weeks, the single sold more than anything else I’ve ever had out. And in two weeks, the album outsold any other album I’ve ever done.”

Dolly Parton warned her producer that she didn’t want the album to stray too far from country

Parton feared Here You Come Again would alienate her longtime country fans. While she trusted her management team and her producer, she warned them not to stray too far from her roots. Parton told them she wouldn’t trust them again if the album angered her fans.

“She was questioning whether it would be a country hit,” her manager, Sandy Gallin, said. “She told me, ‘I’m not going to trust you again if the country people don’t like this.’ She’s very sensitive to not offending her country fans. That’s important to her.”

She said she wanted to start recording more traditional songs again

While Parton prides herself on her songwriting, she only wrote four of the songs on Here You Come Again. She hoped to bring more of her own writing to the public on later records. She also wanted to put traditional country songs on her albums.

Dolly Parton | Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

“Evidently, my own songs, as they were, didn’t quite hack it, so we purposely included songs that were recognized by the pop world,” she said. “But once I crack that market, my own songs will be accepted. And when I get to where I want to go — which is a long way from here — I’ll still be going back and doing the old traditional songs and preserving them that way.”

Dolly Parton Couldn’t Have Held Her Own With Barbara Walters if Their Interview Happened Earlier

Emma McKee — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:03:00 +0000

In 1977, Dolly Parton agreed to an interview with Barbara Walters. Several people in her life warned her against doing the interview, but she felt it would be a good career move. Parton displayed a level of confidence that endeared her to the public. Hal Durham, a manager at the Grand Ole Opry, said Parton would not have come across so well if the interview had happened several years before.

Dolly Parton held her own in an interview with Barbara Walters

In her 1977 interview with Walters, Parton was poised and confident when Walters asked if Parton believed people saw her as a joke.

“Oh I know they make fun of me, but all these years the people have thought the joke was on me, but it’s actually on them,” Parton said, per Elle. “I am sure of myself as a person. I am sure of my talent. I’m sure of my love for life and that sort of thing. I am very content, I like the kind of person that I am. So, I can afford to piddle around and do-diddle around with makeup and clothes and stuff because I am secure with myself.”

Dolly Parton | Paul Natkin/Getty Images

According to Durham, Parton likely would not have responded in this way, if the interview had taken place in earlier years.

“I’m not sure Dolly could have done that Barbara Walters interview two or three years ago,” Durham said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She might not have been that outspoken. She would probably have been that honest, but I’m not sure she would have said as much as she did.”

He believed she had gained confidence in her crossover career. She knew this was a controversial move and it took bravery to execute it.

“It’s probably a matter of confidence,” he said. “When she made the move to cross over, she knew that people were going to criticize her for it, and for that, you have to have a certain confidence in yourself.”

Dolly Parton said people warned her about meeting with Barbara Walters

While Parton came across well in the interview, some people in her life were concerned she would not. Parton didn’t worry about this. She respected Walters and trusted her to conduct the interview fairly.

“When I decided to do my first Barbara Walters special, a lot of people warned, ‘Oh, you’re crazy to do that! She’ll chew you up and spit you out,’” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “Nothing could have been further from the truth. Barbara is a very insightful person. Once she realized I was real, that my insides weren’t as phony as my outsides, she got completely into it.”

She said the interview was good for her public image

Upon reflection, Parton said she was glad she did the interview with Walters. She believed it was an opportunity for her to show the public her true self.

Barbara Walters | Tom Hill/WireImage

“Before that special, I think a lot of people were curious about me but didn’t quite know what to think,” she wrote. “Just like Barbara, they found out I was real and took me into their hearts. That special did incredible things for me, and I have gone back to do others. Barbara and I have always had a mutual respect and admiration, and I’m sure that will continue.”

Even in recent years, Parton has received praise for the way she handled herself in the interview.

Dolly Parton Made Prince Philip Laugh With a Joke at Her Own Expense

Emma McKee — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 12:52:00 +0000

In 1977, Dolly Parton met Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip after a concert in Glasgow, Scotland. She admitted that she was incredibly nervous before meeting the royal couple, but this didn’t stop her from being herself. Parton cracked a joke about herself that got a laugh from Prince Philip.

Dolly Parton cracked a joke when she met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip

In 1977, Parton performed in a variety show during Queen Elizabeth’s Scottish Jubilee tour. Afterward, Parton met the queen.

“That show was fantastic,” her backup singer Mary Fielder said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “To hear about the Queen all your life and then there she is. The Queen told Dolly she enjoyed the show.”

Dolly Parton | Michael Putland/Getty Images

Parton joked about the rhinestones on her gloves when compared to the real diamonds Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip would own. This got a laugh out of Prince Philip.

“There was some remark made — I guess it was actually Prince Philip who said it, but Dolly went to shake his hand and she had on a diamond glove — I guess that’s what you call it — and she withdrew her hand and said something about her diamonds being fake and knowing that he was used to real ones,” Fielder recalled. “And he laughed.”

She said meeting them was a dream come true

Parton admitted to feeling incredibly nervous ahead of her meeting with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. She quickly felt at ease, though.

“I was scared to death that I was not going to know how to curtsy, that I wasn’t going to bend right, but she was just very warm, very sweet, and I could tell she was a very giving person,” she said, per Business Insider. “And just meeting the Queen of England, just to meet a queen, it was amazing.”

She said it was a moment she had dreamed about as a child.

“A lot of people thought I was silly, or seemed to, when I said I got so excited. But I really did, because that’s something we grow up with in the United States,” she said. “Thinking of fairy stories, kings and queens are kinda like fairy tale characters to us as far as the glamour goes. I was fascinated by her face and by her eyes, how clear they were. I always wanted to build my home like a castle, with a real drawbridge and everythin’. Maybe the Queen could come and live with me. Forever and ever.”

Dolly Parton was more comfortable around Prince Philip than other celebrities

Though Parton was jittery before meeting with the queen, her guitarist said Parton seemed more comfortable than she did when she was with other musicians. She felt more insecure with certain celebrities.

Dolly Parton | Richard E. Aaron/Redferns

“She leaves the concert, she goes back to her little room on the bus,” guitarist Don Roth said. “And I know she’s very insecure at these press parties she does only because RCA or Katz-Gallin says do ’em. She’d rather go back to the bus and get into a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans. Really, she would be much more at ease meeting the Queen of England. The Queen would accept her as Dolly, but she feels insecure around big-time people, and she considers New York big-time people.”