Dolly Parton Has A Message For People Who Tell Her To ‘Tone Down’ Her Look

Dolly Parton, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, is set to release her first rock album, Rockstar, on November 17. While promoting her new music and book, Behind the Seams, she appeared on the premiere episode of The Kelleigh Bannen Show, chatting about her life and career with the country music singer and songwriter.

The 77-year-old revealed that country music star Chet Atkins once told her to “tone down” her looks, a piece of advice she has now blatantly refused to take.

Dolly Parton tells the haters ‘go to hell’

Bannen asked Dolly what she would do if Chet told her that today. “I’d say, ‘Go to hell. I ain’t doing it.’” However, she responded quite differently when it happened, recalling, “I said, ‘Well, okay, I’ll take that to heart, Mr. Atkins. Thank you for your advice.’ 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?’”

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Dolly also reminisced about her husband calling her outfits “doll clothes.” She shared, “I remember Carl said one time, ‘Sometimes I go out in the closet when you’re gone, and I think those look like doll clothes. They look like a little girl’s clothes.’ I said, ‘Well, they do ’til I get in them.'”

Dolly Partons’ famous “Jolene” jumpsuit

During the discussion, Dolly also touched on her appearance and the planning that goes into it. Usually, she and her stylists would buy clothes off the rack and add embellishments like “stones, a collar or whatever” to “Dollyize” them, but the famous Jolene album cover jumpsuit was straight off the rack. “I don’t think we even added [anything]. I just remember I loved that little dress,” she shared.

Dolly and her creative director, Steve Summers, still do a lot of touch-ups to her clothes to fit her body type and signature appearance. “He knows all my strengths and all my weaknesses, knows what not to put me in or knows what I will not wear. And I’m little, I’m short, and then I’ve got all these other things going,” she said, referring to her buxom figure.