Dolly Parton wass not only one of the greatest living legends performing country music today, but she’s also one of America’s biggest exports. Dolly brought in millions of dollars in revenue a year on the back of her undying singles and massive world tours. But who was Dolly Parton?
Most people only know the wise-cracking blonde that shows up every couple of years on TV to sing “9 to 5,” or from the Dolly Parton Meme Challenge which started a social trend, but the Dolly Parton biography is full of heartbreak and a never-ending drive to succeed. Whether you’re one of Parton’s biggest fans, or you’re a newcomer to this country/pop crossover mega-star, these Dolly Parton facts will give you more to love.
After six decades in the music business, there’s almost no end to the Dolly Parton trivia, and the singer herself seems to relish dropping hints about her real life into every interview she gives. After you’ve spent any time reading about the singer, it’s obvious Parton knows where she fits into the modern cultural landscape as America’s campy country aunt, and she dishes out enough homespun and sassy wit to fill that role perfectly.
If you only know Parton’s singles, this is the perfect opportunity to learn about Dolly Parton family history, and dispel a few rumors that have plagued her since she first hit Nashville.
The secret to Dolly’s almost 50 year marriage to her husband, Carl Dean? Time apart. Though rumors circulated for decades about affairs, pairing the singer with everyone from Burt Reynolds to Sylvester Stallone (and some women, too), Dolly insisted that she’s nothing more than a flirt:
I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like… Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny – I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people – I’m just flirtin’ and having fun.
The couple reportedly have a stable, loving marriage despite Dolly’s roving eye, and the fact that she spends half the year away on tour while he stays home managing a farm and his paving business in Tennessee.
The pair met when Dolly was only 18, and she says, “I think Carl will always see me the way he did when we first met, just as I do him. We’ll never be old to each other.”
Many of Dolly’s songs (including her hit “Coat of Many Colors”) revolve around her childhood poverty. Dolly allegedly grew up “dirt poor” in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee as one of 12 children in a one-room cabin with no electricity or running water.
Her community was so poor, Dolly’s father reportedly paid the doctor who delivered her with a bag of oatmeal.
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