Dolly and her dangerous curves

By ELIZABETH HEATHCOTE

Despite the brassy glamour, Dolly Parton has stayed close to her humble Tennessee roots.

Voluptuous country and western singer Dolly Parton, 56, was raised in poverty with 11 brothers and sisters on a farm in Tennessee before heading for Nashville as a teenager.

Since then, she has had hit after hit, established herself as a film and television actress, and opened a theme park, Dollywood, near her home in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Parton, whose latest album is Halos and Horns, lives with her husband of 36 years, Carl Dean.

Q: You are a formidable businesswoman and very independent. Do you consider yourself a feminist?

A: No, I consider myself feminine. I consider myself a woman with some talent and some power, some guts and some spunk, but I would have been that if I'd been a man. I think women should be treated equally, and I'm going to see to it that I am.

Q: You're known for your curves. Have they ever got you into trouble?

A: Well, yes, but that's why I had curves. I wanted them to get me into trouble. I've never felt like I couldn't handle it. I had six brothers, I totally understand and love men. Some women are intimidated by them but I've always known how to manoeuvre. I look like a woman but I think like a man.

Q: Would you leave the house without makeup?


A: Not unless Carl was dead. Maybe if I had to get him to the hospital in the middle of the night, but I'm not even sure about that. I might make him hang on so I could at least get a little lipstick on.

But seriously though, when I'm in California, they're so prone to earthquakes you never know when you're going to have to run out in the street, so usually I'll sleep with my makeup on, at least my eye makeup.

Q: You've had some nips and tucks over the years ...

A: Oh sure. I'm gonna have some more when I need them.

Q: What would you recommend most?

A: I've done mine in little bits and pieces, so I couldn't say for sure, but I think that's the way you should do it. Instead of having some great body lift or huge facelift you should take care of the little problem areas as they come up and then you don't ever look weird.

But I'd recommend everything I've had done. Whatever I see that's bagging, dragging or sagging, I just go fix it.

Q: Your look is quite brassy. Are you hiding a private self behind it?

A: No, I think I've been around long enough for people to pretty much know what I'm about. Of course a lot of how I look comes out of a place of insecurity or just a country girl's idea of what glamour is.

I wear high heels because I'm short. I wear long fingernails because my hands are short. I wear my big hairdos and wigs and stuff because my hair won't do what I want it to. So any negatives I have, I turn into positives.

Q: Is it about being a celebrity?

A: I would do it even if I wasn't in show business. I would be a waitress spending all my wages on makeup and bleach and high-heeled shoes. I think of my makeup as a box of crayons and I look at myself as a blank canvas - I like getting paint on there. It makes me feel better. I'm not a natural beauty.

Q: Your latest album's about sinners and saints. Have you got a heightened sense of guilt?

A: My grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher, and I think that all people who were brought up in a fundamental church like I was are left with some sort of guilt when they stray a little bit.

But I don't agree with it. What I say is, I'm too good to be bad and too bad to be good - I'm sort of caught somewhere in the middle.

Q: You grew up with 11 brothers and sisters. Weren't you desperate for a bit of peace and quiet?

A: Yes, I was. When I was a kid, there were eight children younger than me and when they were crying all night, I used to think, God, if I could just get out of this house and go somewhere that's quiet. That's why I'd take my guitar and go out to the barn or up to the woods.

But after I moved to Nashville, those first few weeks, I just about died. It was like where are y'all? I'd have given anything to hear the baby crying, or have some toenails digging into my shinbones in the middle of the night.

Q: Did having so many screaming kids around have anything to do with your decision not to have your own?

A: No, in the early days me and my husband thought we wanted children, so we didn't do anything to stop them for many years. But then I raised five of my brothers and sisters, and they've had their own children too. I don't know that I would have been a great mother, but I made a great aunt and I make a really great granny. They all call me aunt granny.

Q: How are you different to the teenage girl who arrived in Nashville in 1964?

A: I'm the same girl I was then. I've never moved away from my home and my family and I still wake up every day and feel like I'm just starting my career. I still love what I do.

- INDEPENDENT

* Backstage: Dolly Parton is on TV One at 9.30pm.