Dolly Parton was just a little girl in the Tennessee mountains when she decided that no one was going to tell her how to dress.
Her grandfather, a strict preacher, did not feel the same way. Whenever he saw her wearing flashy makeup or clothes he considered indecent, he would scold or whip her. She herself told it that way, without mincing words: she was willing to pay that price. Her inspiration did not come from a magazine or Hollywood, but from a woman in her town whom everyone contemptuously called ‘the town tramp’ — the only one who dared to look different in that place where everyone dressed alike.
Years later, that punished little girl became one of the world’s most beloved artists, with the huge hair, long nails, and low-cut necklines her grandfather criticized so much as her trademark. She told all of this at 77, while promoting her latest book and album, as if finally making peace with the girl she had been.
