Remembering When Dolly Parton Put an Interviewer in Her Place in 1978

“I don’t like to be like everybody else”, said Dolly Parton in an interview with Barbara Walters in 1978. At the time, the country singer was wearing a vivacious blue pant-and-top set, complete with a flower in her blonde locks.

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Dolly Parton has always faced questions and criticism about her looks and style, and it was no different in the late 70s. Even Walters herself had a few questions regarding the singer’s appearance. But just as she does today, Parton chose to handle her curiosity with class and grace.

“You don’t have to look like this. You’re very beautiful. You don’t have to wear the blonde wigs. You don’t have to wear the extreme clothes, right?” Barbara Walters inquisitively told Parton.

Dolly’s response? The “Here You Come Again” vocalist actually agreed that her usual getup is “certainly a choice.”

“I’ve often made this statement that I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable,” Parton explained. “That’s the easiest thing in the world to do. So, I just decided that I would do something that would at least get the attention. Once they got past the shock of the ridiculous way I looked and all that, then they would see there was parts of me to be appreciated. I’m very real where it counts. And that’s inside.”

She continued, saying, “I know exactly what I’m doing, and I can change it at any time.”

Dolly Gives Plastic Surgery Advice

Dolly has never been one to hide the fact that she goes under the knife to keep up her appearance. How else would the 80-year-old look as good as she does at her age?

The singer told Howard Stern in 2023 that, while she has used plastic surgery in the past, procedures are not something that she takes lightly.

“I always say, just find the best doctors,” she shared. “Some of my celebrity friends, I give them the names of the doctors that I’ve used, but you just got to be very careful not to overdo it ’cause you never know. Anytime you go under the knife you could come out looking not good.”

Parton even mentioned her friend, the late singer Kenny Rogers, when talking about bad plastic surgery jobs.

“It’s always a risk, and every time I go in for anything, I think, ‘Oh Lord, please, you know, let this all work out fine,’” the singer shared.

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