What more can Dolly Parton sing? After decades of being a tour de force of the Nashville music industry, selling well over 100m records, she has parked her 49th solo album in the rock space, well, mostly. Rockstar shaped up when the 77-year-old was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At first, she didn’t want to be inducted because she is a country artiste and then she reconsidered. Just to add a rock-and-roll feather to her cap, she said she would record a rock album to justify her inclusion.
Of course, an album is not enough. She has a new book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones. And there is a lot to discover about her if you listen to the debut episode of What Would Dolly Do? Radio on Apple Music 1. On the show she said: “The more natural you try to look, the longer that seems to take. So mine’s easier because I know mine’s going to be fake. I just use it for kind of painting and powdering and doing my blush, putting on my eyelashes. Throw on a wig, and I’m ready to go… I actually can get dressed quicker than most girls.” And what is the length of time we are talking about? “I can do it really good in an hour.”
She is, of course, known for her looks... full of grit. In her early days in the industry, Chet Atkins told her to tone down her look. She said on Apple Music 1: “One of my dear friends and one of the most beloved people in the whole business was Chet Atkins… he was running RCA at the time. And he pulled me over to the side because he really liked me. He said: ‘Dolly, I really don’t believe that people are going to take you serious as a singer and songwriter unless you tone down your look. You’re a pretty girl. You don’t need all that.’ And I said: ‘Well, okay, I’ll take that to heart, Mr. Atkins. Thank you for your advice.’ And of course, I just got worse with it. And years later, after I became a star, he sidled up beside me and said: ‘Now, ain’t you glad you listened to my good advice?’
One of the revelations during her What Would Dolly Do? Radio episode has to with the household items she first used as make-up: “I think I wanted to be pretty. I’m not a natural beauty, but I can paint it up to where I can get away with it. But it was just always in me to wear lipstick. Even when I was little bitty, I would get in trouble because I would find all the natural things living back there in the mountains. I would pick-poke berries that stain forever, and I’d paint my lips and make jewellery and all sorts of things with that. And I’d use flour for powder, burned matchsticks, the kitchen matches, Mama’s big old wooden matches, to make my eyebrows and paint a beauty mark or whatever, eyeliner.”
Of course, one can’t forget her look on the cover of her famous album, Jolene. “Now that (jumpsuit) was something I bought off the rack... And I don’t think we even added.... Usually, I buy a lot of stuff off the rack, but usually we do what we call ‘Dollyize’ them, add some stones or add a collar or whatever. But I just remember I loved that little dress.”
