“Mama just always said, ‘you be what you are and you don’t have to worry about nothing'”
– Dolly Parton as told to Lawrence Grobel on March 13, 1978
Dolly Parton was not your typical model to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine. But that’s just what Dolly did in 1978. She wouldn’t take her clothes off, yet that issue still became one of Playboy’s most popular issues of all time.
Inside that issue of Playboy was an amazing interview done by Lawrence Grobel. The recording of this interview has never been heard until now. Dolly was at the height of her stardom. She was in her early 30s. And what we loved hearing were her stories about growing up with 11 siblings in Tennessee. They slept four to the bed. The little ones often peed on her at night. In the summertime everybody bathed in the river. And Dolly was into tight clothes and makeup even as a little girl. It’s quintessential Dolly. There is nobody in show business like her.
