Dolly Parton Says She Was Told to ‘Change’ Her Look and Dress ‘Simpler’ Early on in Her Career
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Dolly Parton shared the piece of business advice she repeatedly ignored.
“The main advice that people wanted to give me was to change my look and to go simpler with my hair and the way that I dressed,” she said.
Thankfully, she didn’t listen to them and went on to establish the persona we know and love as the Queen of Country.
Could you imagine Dolly Parton without her signature towering hair, bold makeup, and bedazzled outfits? We couldn’t either—and we’re glad she never listened to skeptics who told her to tone it down. The singer recently revealed it was the main criticism she got early on in her career.
“The main advice that people wanted to give me was to change my look and to go simpler with my hair and the way that I dressed,” she said on the WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast. “Not to look so cheap. Nobody was ever going to take me seriously.”
Clearly, they were wrong. Just look at how much Dolly Parton is worth: the Queen of Country is now one of entertainment’s greatest successes with a growing net worth of $600 million and counting.
To limit her style would’ve stifled Parton’s creativity, which is directly linked to the quality of music she puts out into the world. She said she always wanted her look to match her “outgoing personality,” and now, since she’s become a living legend (I mean who else withdraws a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination?!), we can all agree it certainly does.
Believe it or not, Parton originally modeled her flashy persona after the “town tramp” that lingered the streets of her hometown. When she first began writing music at a young age, she admired her look.
“Everybody said she was trash and in my little girl mind I thought, ‘Well that’s what I’m going to be when I grow up,’” she said. “It’s really like a look that I was after.”
Throughout her career, Parton has always prioritized the creative process. In her clothes, raw lyrics, and intentional music, she wants the heart and soul behind her message to shine. And she’s careful not to let anything get in the way of that, be it naysayers or even technical mistakes that pop up during recording.
Parton explained to Grant that she has often left production faux pas on her tracks when the feeling and emotion of a song couldn’t be recreated. “Maybe it’s not technically correct, [but] if it’s emotionally right, I leave it like it is,” she explained.
The same sentiment goes for bloopers that may happen during live performances. “If I mess up, I just make it part of the show,” she said.
That mentality is what Parton calls a “professionalist” as opposed to a perfectionist. She understands that attaining perfection will always be a losing battle. “Everybody likes to do their best at all times,” she explained. “We don’t like to mess up. I don’t like to make mistakes. But like I said if you make a mistake, it’s best that you just pick it up and turn it into something positive.”
We couldn’t agree more.
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