If you are a fan of country music, and specifically, Dolly Parton, you are surely familiar with the video of her playing a song during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1979. In the episode, Parton performs a special song she wrote just for the show, and while the song itself is impressive, what is more impressive is her guitar playing. Particularly, Dolly Parton is still able to strum, pluck, and play the guitar with lengthy acrylic nails. If you play guitar, you realize how big of an obstruction this accessory would be.
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Well, for Parton in that performance, they seemingly did not hinder her ability at all. As a matter of fact, on a separate occasion, her staple acrylic nails actually came in quite handy, as they acted as a percussive songwriting tool for her hit song “9 to 5”.
Why Dolly Parton’s Nails Were the Perfect Tool for the Place and Time
In 1980, Dolly Parton was starring in the infamous film, 9 to 5, alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. While filming the movie, Parton needed to write the theme song for the film. However, given that she was on a film set, she could not play her guitar or belt out the lyrics and melodies she was experimenting with. Thus, her big acrylic nails came in mighty handy during the song’s creation.
Recalling how Dolly Parton utilized her nails, she told Today, “I did it on my fingernails.”
“Anyways, it sounded like a typewriter, and I didn’t have my guitar because I didn’t want to get too scattered, because we were trying to stay in the mood, and they were doing lights, and all that.”
“And I would just kind of play my little fingers, go back to the hotel at night, write down the words, and or get my guitar and start singing it, but that’s kind of how it all works, and then I played my nails on the real record just for fun,” continued Dolly Parton.
If you listen to the single, you can’t hear Parton’s fingernail playing. After all, the producers probably edited them out. However, what you can hear is the sound of a typewriter. Which, per her comments, was seemingly inspired by the sound of her fingernails. Where there is a will, there is a way, and Parton found that way when she wrote “9 to 5”.
Photo by Andrew Putler/Redferns/Getty Images
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