'I've got used to people looking at them, don't you worry': Dolly Parton gets up front and very personal

By Lina Das

Dolly Parton is endearingly upfront - in more ways than the obvious - about every aspect of her life


Dolly Parton is writing a musical about her life. If there's a movie, she's wondering how Scarlett Johansson would work out.

With that in mind, you can be sure that the Dolly musical won't be inhibited by any false modesty on her part.

Nor is it likely to leave any skeletons unrattled, for Miss Parton is endearingly upfront - in more ways than the obvious - about every aspect of her life.

When we meet at her all-pink place in Nashville, Tennessee, she loses no time in telling me about the casting couch invitations that came thick and fast when she first became a country singer.

'I never slept with anyone to advance my career. If I slept with someone, it was only because I wanted to.'

Then there was the long period of depression after a partial hysterectomy.
'It lasted several months until one day I just said to myself: "Right, get off your fat ass, or, if you really are suicidal, then go and shoot your brains out. But get your misery out of other people's lives and shut up."'

She is searingly honest, too, about the mystery of her 44-year marriage to Carl Dean, a former construction worker so reclusive that she is often asked whether he really exists. 'We have stayed together so long because I am gone so much of the time. When I'm home and things get testy, he'll say: "Ain't you got somewhere to go?"'

And as for her looks, she insists that she has never used her femininity as a weapon. 'No, but I often used it as a tool. I developed fast and by the time I was 15 or 16, I realised the effect it had on men.'

Face-to-face with the legend that is Dolly, one is struck by how hard it is to take all of her in, in just one sitting.

The blonde hair, the red nails, the mint julepy voice, the heels, the itty bitty waist and, of course, those breasts, don't constitute a look so much as an allout assault on one's senses.

Encased in a black sequined dress, I try not to stare, but I can't avert my eyes. 'Oh, I've got used to people looking at them, don't you worry,' she laughs.


Dolly's bosom is the least impressive thing about her. In a career spanning almost five decades, her achievements are without parallel


Frankly, though, Dolly's bosom is the least impressive thing about her. In a career spanning almost five decades, her achievements are without parallel.

One of the most successful artists, she has amassed seven Grammy Awards (from 45 nominations), two Oscar nominations, 42 Top Ten country albums and more than 100 chart singles, including Jolene, 9 To 5 and I Will Always Love You. As well as a theme park, Dolly owns restaurants, a water park, a radio station, a cosmetics brand and film, record and TV companies
She has her own Tennessee-based theme park, Dollywood, runs her own literacy programme - Dolly Parton's Imagination Library - which every year distributes 2.5 million free books to children in the U.S. and in the UK and, in the midst of all that, she still manages to pump out albums, including her new CD/DVD package entitled Live From London.

When does she sleep? 'Well, I usually get up at 3am. I don't require a lot of sleep and if I get tired, I'll take a powernap during the day. When my Carl is awake, I'll put on my make-up and roll my hair a little, because I don't want to look bad for him, do I?'

The sheer effort it takes simply to look like Dolly is a subject from which she herself has never shied. 'My husband says I look like a Q-tip', she laughs.
When asked how long it took to do her hair, Dolly, a staunch advocate of wig-wearing, famously replied: 'How do I know? I'm never there!'

And when commenting on the benefits of plastic surgery, she joked that Carl would never have to cheat on her, 'because he gets a new wife every three or four months'.

'I've made a fortune looking cheap,' she says, but at 64 she doesn't look cheap, she looks kind of mesmerising - a potent blend of real and fantasy.

The anything-goes attitude is refreshing, yet you feel that there is a lot more going on underneath the surface.


Country singer Dolly Parton at the opening of the Dollywood Theme park, a theme park devoted to the life and works of the country music star

Though she is now worth around £150million, Dolly grew up 'dirt poor' on a farm in Sevierville, Tennessee, and managed to succeed in what was then a male-dominated industry.

'When starting out in the business, I looked easy and people didn't take me seriously,' she admits. 'I always looked like I could be had and I still do!' she giggles. 'But the truth was, I couldn't.

'The casting couch was very much present in country music when I got started and, Lord, I couldn't even name all the times I've been come on to.

'I'd be offered jobs and then before the deal was done, they'd say "Would you like to come up to my room?" and I'd say: "I don't need the job that bad, and I'll never do that to get ahead."

'People still thought I was cheap and though it was painful at times, I knew that that talk would be shortlived.'

Being aware of the power she wielded over men, thanks to her looks, imbued Dolly with an early confidence. 'I was always at ease with myself, and coming from a family of 12 with six brothers, I understood men and loved them.

'But I was also confident about who I was and my talent, so when I went into meetings, I never crumbled under a man's power. I'd tell them "I have something to offer which I think could make us both a lot of money, if you want to take a gamble", and leave it at that.'

A natural-born performer, she combined her singing talent with a gift for crafting songs that could tell a story in three - usually heart-wrenching - minutes.

I Will Always Love You, arguably Dolly's most famous song, wasn't in fact written for a lover but for the country star Porter Wagoner.


Dolly Parton and and her reclusive husband Carl Dean on their wedding day 44 years ago - he has only seen her sing live once


Hired to appear as a regular on his TV show aged 21, Dolly soon became a household name, but when she decided to leave the show after several years to pursue her own music and film career, Wagoner didn't take it well.

Knowing he wouldn't listen to her explanation, she penned a song 'which explained the way I felt'. It didn't, however, stop him launching a lawsuit against her. It cost Dolly £650,000 to sever herself from the partnership. But it did prove that she was no pushover.

Elvis Presley wanted to record I Will Always Love You, but only if she signed over half the rights to him - which she refused to do.

It eventually became one of the best-selling songs of all time thanks to Whitney Houston's rendition of it in 1992.

'When I'm dead and gone, the continuing royalties from that song might send a nephew or niece of mine to school.'

She and Carl have never had children. 'I would have made a nice mama, I think,' she says, 'and I always thought I'd have kids.

'We tried to for many years, and then I put it on hold, because my career was doing well and I was on birth control pills. Later, I came off them and still nothing happened. I don't feel sad about it, because when I started doing work for children's charities, I thought maybe God didn't want me to have kids, so that everyone else's kids could be mine.'

If they'd had children, Carl would have been left at home to raise them - an arrangement which no doubt would have suited the publicity-shy Mr Dean.

He is never seen at his wife's side in public, and Dolly says he has only ever seen her perform once.


Parton's Islands In The Stream duet with Kenny Rogers was voted the greatest country duet of all time in 2005


They met on the day she arrived in Nashville to seek stardom. He was driving past just as she was about to go into a laundrette, and he pulled over to talk to her. 'He warned me to stay out of the sun, me being so pale, we got talking, and two years later we married.

'I joke about how little we see of each other, but the fact that we're not together enough to get sick of one another helps. I know we'll always be together till one of us dies, and I hope we can go together because it'll be sad for the one who's left behind, as I don't think either of us would marry again.'

Which doesn't mean to say there has been no gossip about their marriage. Rumours of affairs with film costars Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone and even a relationship with her assistant Judy Ogle have abounded, with Dolly herself being mischievous enough to keep the rumours going.

So is it a case of the looser the grip, the tighter the hold with regards to her marriage? 'I think so,' she nods. 'If I'd married someone in showbusiness, there'd be too much competition.

'When I met Carl, I wasn't a star - I was just dreaming of being one, so I know he doesn't love me because I'm famous.'

In the mid-Eighties, Dolly collapsed on stage and had to undergo a partial hysterectomy, leading to a period of depression.

'I went through a dark time,' she says. 'I was starting my menopause and I was feeling guilty about my success. Maybe I was thinking that I'd been selfish not to have had children.


Dolly also had success in the UK - here she is pictured with radio presenter Terry Wogan during his Radio 2 breakfast show programme in 2001


'That period forced me to take an inventory of my life until I forced myself to snap out of it.'

There has been talk of Dolly appearing on Britain's Got Talent or The X Factor - Simon Cowell is a fan - 'but it just hasn't worked out yet. But I love that Susan Boyle - what an amazing story.

'Would I like to duet with her? Sure, if she'd have me. But all those long notes she does, I don't think I could keep up with her.'

Dolly gets up to leave, showing her incredible figure. How on earth does she still do it?

'Because I'm just phoney,' she laughs, 'it's a lot easier! And I'll probably still be looking like a silly little thing if I live to 90.'

Phoney or not on the outside, there's never been any doubt that inside Dolly Parton is 100 per cent the real deal.


source: dailyma