Long before becoming one of the most famous artists in the world, Dolly Parton starred in one of the most unusual anecdotes of her youth: one night, she ended up completely naked in the middle of the street simply because she wanted to win a competition against a friend.
Parton told the story during an interview with Rolling Stone conducted in 1980, when she was asked what the boldest thing she had ever done was.
It all began after Dolly went out to eat and have a few margaritas with her friend Judy Ogle. They were traveling in separate cars and began playing pranks on each other as they drove along the highway.
The competition began quite innocently, but quickly started to escalate.
Judy began lifting her blouse to surprise Dolly. The singer responded by doing the same. Then came the classic gesture of showing her backside and, according to Dolly, at that moment she thought:
What else can we do?
Dolly knew her friend would try to outdo her.
So she decided to get ahead of her.
She asked Gregg Perry, the keyboardist who was driving her car, not to look while she took all her clothes off.
When both vehicles reached a stop sign, Judy got out of hers and began taking off her pants, thinking she had managed to outdo Dolly.
But then the singer opened her car door.
And she stepped out completely naked.
Dolly recalled that she calmly walked around the vehicle under the moonlight before quickly getting back inside.
“I was so embarrassed, but I felt proud that I had done it“, she said years later.
The singer explained that this was exactly the kind of thing she could do when someone challenged her.
And although the scene took place decades before Dolly became a global icon, the anecdote fits perfectly with the personality she would cultivate throughout her career: a woman who was never too afraid to do something unexpected to surprise others.
The most curious thing is that, according to her own account, it was not a photo shoot, a performance, or a planned provocation.
She simply wanted to win the bet against her friends.