Legendary country singer Dolly Parton said she based her entire look on the “town tramp” despite being physically reprimanded for it.
Parton, 77, discussed the woman from her hometown who inspired her signature style, which included embellished outfits and big, bouffant style hair, during an interview with The Guardian published on Monday.
“She was flamboyant. She had bright red lipstick, long red fingernails,” said Parton.
“She had high-heeled shoes, little floating plastic goldfish in the heels of them, short skirts, low-cut tops, and I just thought she was beautiful,” the “Jolene” singer continued. “When people would say, ‘She ain’t nothing but trash,’ I would always say, ‘Well, that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up.”
Parton said her grandfather, a preacher, utilized corporal punishment when she tried to mimic her fashion inspiration, but that did not dissuade her.
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“I was willing to pay for it,” she told the outlet. “I’m very sensitive, I didn’t like being disciplined – it hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped or whatever. But sometimes there’s just that part of you that’s willing, if you want something bad enough, to go for it.”
When record label executives thought she should tone down her look, Parton ignored them. “I’ve always been true to myself,” she explained. “That was what my mama always used to say: to thine own self be true. I put a lot of stock in that.”
She continued, “Everything I do, whether it’s my personality, how I conduct myself and business, or whatever, if I do it my way, according to what I understand and believe, there’s a strength in that. You can think, ‘I can stand by this, I can live by this.’”
“My look came from a very serious place. That’s how I thought I looked best,” Parton added. “Sometimes that’s worked for me, sometimes it can work against you. It took me probably years longer to be taken serious, but I wasn’t willing to change it, and I figured if I had the talent, it’d show up sooner or later.”