Rose DommuIn the new Netflix series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, eight of the queen of country music’s most beloved songs are given new life as stories — some funny, some sweet, some romantic, and some dramatic. There’s “Two Doors Down,” “These Old Bones,” “JJ Sneed,” and of course “Jolene.”
Ahead of the series’ premiere, Out traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, where Parton grew up and where Dollywood serves as a mecca for Dolly fans around the world. There we got the chance to speak to the legend about the new series and her incredibly prolific career. One of the most pressing questions was clearing up a rumor, one Parton started herself: Did she really write her two most famous songs, “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” in the same day?
“When we were going through all of my stuff for the archives and getting all the stuff for the old cassettes that I used to use and putting them on hard drives and kinda upgrading everything, the same little cassette and I had three songs, and they were both back-to-back,” Parton told Out senior staff writer Rose Dommu during a sit down interview. “So I assume that I wrote them at the same time, it could have been a day or two, but on that same cassette, and I usually fill those up pretty quick, so I think I probably wrote those the same night.” Sounds like quite a night!
Parton also revealed which of her songs she thinks is best for drag queens to perform — and even sang a few bars — and whether or not that “Old Town Road” remix with Lil Nas X is ever happening.
“They'd asked me to do it, and I don't know that I will or won't, but I love that [song],” Parton said. “I would love to have my own version of working with them on something new, different.”
And on the red carpet for the Heartstrings premiere, which took place at Dollywood, we asked Parton a question every queer person has wondered: Exactly how many wigs does she own?
“Well, I wear one about every day,” she laughed, “so I must have at least 365.”
Watch the full interview for more from Dolly, and watch Heartstrings when it premieres on Netflix this Friday.
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Dolly Parton Told Us How Many Wigs She Actually Owns
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