Dolly sweet

Senior editor Novid Parsi of Time Out Chicago has had some real interview gems in the "Over & Out" section of the magazine, which is also called "the last word of the week." John Mahoney (Barton Fink, Frasier) and Tracy Morgan immediately come to mind, and this week it was Dolly Parton. I found her response to the following question both saddeningly honest and brilliant.

On your new album you sing, "I've always been misunderstood because of how I look." How much has that misunderstanding been of your own making?

It’s all been of my own making. I’m not a natural beauty, and as a poor country girl, you long to be beautiful. You don’t know style, you don’t have taste, so you tend to go on the more gaudy side. But that’s how I still feel most comfortable. And I know a lot of people look at me and think, Well, you just look like a whore. I know that I’m not, but it’s how I look. But it’s the way I choose to look.

Comments

[ab]

Isn't Dolly the one who also said in response to some charge about the same topic, "Hey, it takes a lot of money to look this cheap."?

[Lindsay]

Agreed. Refreshing honesty. I'm going to pull that one out after I get my butt lift ;)

[Steve Smith]

She used the line AB mentions in her fantastic show at Radio City Music Hall last night. Another nice quote came during a bit when she was responding to a stack of printed questions supposedly submitted by fans outside. "Have you ever had plastic surgery?" she read, then dropped the paper and said, "Next question." After a huge audience laugh, she gleefully explained that "if something's bagging, sagging or drooping, I'm going to have it nipped, tucked or sucked." She added, "I haven't had anything done this year. So far."