09 October 2023 , 15:25
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Dolly Parton said she was “scolded and whipped” by her granddad for the way she dressed when she was younger.
The 77-year-old country singer discussed her childhood in her upcoming new book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, in which she documents the extensive clothes and costumes she’s worn throughout her hugely successful career. Growing up alongside her 11 siblings in Tennessee, Dolly began dressing up when she was a child, and said her mother made her dresses from sacks, including a “coat of many colours” that was fabric scraps sewn together.
However, her grandfather, who was a local preacher, hated the way she dressed, and she recalled being physically punished by him over the clothes she chose to wear. “I was willing to pay for it. 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,” Dolly told the Guardian.
READ MORE:Dolly Parton reveals the poignant reason she never had children with husband of 57 years
The country icon is well known for her colourful outfits (Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
She revealed she was whipped by her grandfather over her clothes when she was younger (Getty Images)The Jolene hitmaker revealed she wrote a song about the cruel punishment which featured on her 2011 album Better Day, and she said it “summed up” her feelings on her rough childhood. “I was gonna be rich no matter how much it cost / And I was going to win no matter how much I lost / Down through the years I’ve kept my eye on the prize / And you ask if it’s worth the sacrifice,’” she recalled.
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During the interview, Dolly also spoke about choosing not to have kids with her husband Carl Dean, and admitted growing up with a mother who had 12 kids by the time she was 35 was not something she aspired to. “I did not want that for myself. My mum and my aunts – I grew up with women knowing how to be good mothers, but that was just not what I felt God had in mind for me,” she explained.
Dolly also spoke about the harassment she faced when starting out in country music (Getty Images)The country icon said she knows how to “write a song as if I had a house full of kids, I can write a song as if I’ve got a cheating husband” because she grew up around it, and claimed there was nothing in the world that she didn’t understand. Dolly touched upon the difficulties she faced during the 60s and 70s as a young country singer starting out, and said she had to fight men off to stop them assaulting her.
She said she knew how to put a man in his place “without making him feel bad”, but was also prepared to use force if they refused to listen. “If sometimes that don’t work, I’m also strong as a boy – I know how to push you off and get the hell away from you,” she candidly revealed.
Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones is released on 19 October