Music legend Dolly Parton heard she needed to change right from the beginning, she says. Over and over, Parton says, she was told she needed to change her look to thrive in the entertainment business — otherwise who could take her seriously? (Lesson: be careful what advice you take.)
Parton listened, politely as she does, but thankfully she didn’t heed the advice. Because it didn’t suit her. Know who you are, as Parton likes to say.
“The way I look and the way I looked then was a country girl’s idea of glam,” Parton revealed on the WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast. “Just like I wrote in my ‘Backwoods Barbie’ song. People wanted me to change, they thought I looked cheap. But I patterned my look after the town tramp.”
The “country girl’s idea of glam” quote is direct from the song, and in the podcast Parton says it’s autobiographical.
In “Backwoods Barbie” Parton also sings “I wanted to be pretty more than anything in the world. From rags to riches in my dreams, I could have it all.”
And she adds a warning to those who might underestimate her. “Don’t let these false eyelashes lead you to believe that I’m as shallow as I look, cause I run true and deep.”
As she says in one of her famous wise Dollyisms, “it costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
