When Dolly Parton struts into the room in bubblegum pink studs and six-inch high silver thigh boots, it’s fair to say that all jaws drop.
At 77 years old, the country music icon looks more incredible than ever.
Telling us the secret of her youthful looks is “good doctors, good make-up and good lighting” she laughs, “I try to stay young in spirit and I think sometimes that kind of spills over a little bit. I’ll never be as old as I am.”
Funny and energetic, Dolly’s in town to talk about putting her heart and soul into her forthcoming album, Rockstar, which she says is “one of the most fun things I’ve ever done”. It’s also taken the legend in a new and unexpected direction.
“I feel like a rock star!” she tells us, as she reveals how she’s teamed up with a host of famous friends to embrace her rock’n’roll side for the first time, and has recorded new hard-hitting numbers as well as classics like Free Bird, Purple Rain and We Are The Champions.
“I wanted to see what I could do, and I had to work hard to keep up,” she says, admitting that her loyal country fans may have worried she would leave them behind for good. Instead, she tells us she was proud to debut her storming rock anthem World On Fire at the Academy of Country Music Awards in May so they “could feel like they were part of the journey”.
The star is also bringing a favourite collaborator along for the ride – goddaughter Miley Cyrus, who she’s known “since before she even got here”, has joined her for a very special duet.
“I’ve been Miley’s fairy godmother all her life and we have a true bond,” says Dolly, who previously sang and toured with her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus. “She is like a daughter, or a sister to me. I said, ‘I want to do Wrecking Ball and you’re going to sing it with me, right?’ and Miley said,‘Well duhhh.’ So that’s one of my favourite tracks on the whole album. I love that song. I think our voices really blend well.”
Other superstar singing partners include Sting, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Sheryl Crow and Debbie Harry. But there was one rocker Dolly couldn’t quite pin down.
“Mick Jagger!” she smiles, when she remembers ‘the one that got away’ from the album. “I wanted to sing Satisfaction with him. I kept missing him and I ran around him like a high school girl, but we ran out of time. But in the end I did it with P!nk. I am really proud of all the people I have on the album.”
Sadly, the man she admits was her all-time favourite collaborator, the late Kenny Rogers, is no longer around to get involved, but Dolly remembers him fondly. “We had a wonderful, wonderful bond and our voices were great. We were a really lovely team,” she sighs.
“But I’ve loved working with everyone on this album and getting to know who they are as people. Some of them are buggy and odd and quirky and weird, but I love variety being the spice of life.”
The inspiration for this new turn in Dolly’s long career may have been her beloved husband of 59 years, Carl Dean. “All my life – in the car, in the truck, on the tractor or in the house, he’ll always blast out rock’n’roll music,” she smiles, adding that he warned her not to attempt Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven “because that’s a classic”. She did it anyway, and brought Lizzo along for the ride.
“I sat him down to listen to the whole thing and he said ‘it’s really good’,” she beams. “He’s kind of a quiet person, so to me that was like somebody else jumping up and down saying it was the best thing they ever heard. He was proud of it, so that made me feel good. I wanted to please him more than anybody else.”
At a time when anyone would forgive her for hanging up her mic to sit on the porch with Carl at home in Nashville, Dolly continues to be the driving force behind her Foundation and The Dolly Parton Imagination Library. The literacy scheme has donated books to the public since it was set up 28 years ago.
“It’s a programme I started years ago with my dad,” she explains. “My daddy couldn’t read and write but was so smart and so special and dear to me.
“We started the programme thinking it might be in our home county but it caught like fire and now we’ve given away 200 million books. Dad was proud of me and every time I talk about it I feel close to him.”
Musically, Dolly tells us her own story has not ended. Asked if she’d like to live on forever through AI technology, she quips, “Well, any intelligence I have is artificial,” before revealing that she hopes, instead, to leave a very personal musical legacy.
“I want to do a great gospel album and make it spectacular and uplifting – I’m all about that now at my age. You think ‘I’m not going to be around here that long’ so I want to leave some kind of message so that people will have something to lean on.”
Meanwhile, her style book Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones is set to be published in October, but while we’re waiting for that, Dolly advises that anyone can copy her iconic look. “I’m so easy to do,” she jokes. “You can buy a cheap wig anywhere and you can pad your boobs if you ain’t got none of your own.”
Rockstar by Dolly Parton is out on 17 November.
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