As a rising star, Dolly Parton was reluctant to let anybody tell her what she could and couldn’t do – including what clothing was appropriate for her to wear.
In a latest interview, Parton shares that each her father and grandfather detested her fashion decisions.
Parton admits that her grandfather, who was a preacher, even physically disciplined her based on the clothing she would wear.
“I used to be willing to pay for it,” Parton, 77, told The Guardian.
“I’m very sensitive,” she continued. “I didn’t like being disciplined – it hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped or whatever. But sometimes there’s just that a part of you that’s willing, if you happen to want something bad enough, to go for it.”
Parton has all the time been vocal about her signature style – colourful makeup, plunging tops and large hair – inspired by the local “town tramp.”
“She was flamboyant. She had brilliant red lipstick, long red fingernails. She had high-heeled shoes, little floating plastic goldfish within the heels of them, short skirts, low-cut tops, and I just thought she was beautiful. When people would say, ‘She ain’t nothing but trash,’ I’d all the time say, ‘Well, that’s what I’m gonna be after I grow up.’”
Her family weren’t the one ones giving Parton pushback on her clothing decisions.
The “9 to five” singer battled record label executives as well.
“I’ve all the time been true to myself,” she shared with The Guardian. “That was what my mama all the time used to say: to thine own self be true. I put quite a lot of stock in that. The whole lot I do, whether it’s my personality, how I conduct myself and business, or whatever, if I do it my way, in line with what I understand and consider, there’s a strength in that. You possibly can think, ‘I can stand by this, I can live by this.’”
With all that input, Parton says people’s opinions of her did matter, but she “never cared a lot” to let it keep her from being her authentic self.
Representatives for Parton didn’t immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.