Dolly

Dolly is definitely the woman of the moment right now, she is on the front cover of every paper in England, she just stormed the stage at Glastonbury and became the most talk about act of the weekend, just released a new 32 track album and announced a world tour. And can we please remember that she is 68 years old! Dolly is truly a living legend that deserves all the respect in the world. From humble beginnings living in the mountains of Tennessee she has gone on to have 41 top 10 albums and 110 singles that all charted. She has starred in 12 movies and countless TV programmes. She has won 7 Grammys and been nominated for a further 45 (currently the record amount by a female artist - level pegging with Beyonce).  Dolly is the Queen of Country and below I will list some Dolly facts that you may or not know, but you surely will love her for.

1. Dolly was only 7 when she wrote her first song and was appearing on radio from the age of 9. Her first record ‘Puppy Love’ was recorded when she was just 13 years old.

2. She has been married to her husband (Carl Thomas Dean) for over 50 years.

3. Dolly once entered a Dolly Parton look-a-like competition. She came second - to a man.

4. Dolly has her own theme park - Dollywood. She refuses to ride the roller coasters though as she is deathly afraid. 

5. She is Miley Cyrus' God Mother.

6. She supports gay marriage. On gay marriage, Parton said, “I always say, ‘Sure — why can’t they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do!’”

7. She refused to sell Elvis Presley the publishing rights to her hit ‘I Will Always Love You.’ Elvis’ manager called Parton the day before the recording session and told her that he and Presley wouldn’t record any songs that they didn’t have at least half of the publishing rights to. “It had nothing to do with Elvis, because hopefully he was disappointed too, but I just wouldn’t let him have the publishing,” said Parton.

8. Famously said of her distinctive appearance: "It takes a lot of money to make a person look this cheap."

9. She has donated 45 million+ books to her own child literacy organisation.

10. Reportedly written over 5000 songs.

I love Dolly and I know everyone has a special place for her in their hearts; and who doesn't know the words to 'I Will Always Love You' or '9 to 5'?! She never seems to stop; she either has a movie, a CD, a tour or an appearance somewhere. Long live Dolly Parton.

“I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren't in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.” 

― Dolly Parton

“I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb - and I'm not blonde either.” 

― Dolly Parton

“People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don’t know, I’m never there.” 

― Dolly Parton

“I was the first woman to burn my bra - it took the fire department four days to put it out.” 

― Dolly Parton

“Figure out who you are. Then do it on purpose.” 

― Dolly Parton