5 Things You Might Not Know About Dolly Parton
Nov. 12, 2009— -- Dolly Parton once said, "If you don't like the road you are walking, pave another one," which is exactly what the country music singer has done.
In a career spanning nearly 50 years, the queen of country has garnered 25 No. 1 hits, 41 Top 10 albums and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
"I still feel like I'm rolling right along, and I really admire a lot of the new folks as well," Parton told Robin Roberts today at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the morning after the Country Music Association Awards.
Although Parton is a country music legend, there are also many legends about her. Roberts asked Parton a series of questions to find out what is true and what is merely folklore.
"True or false," Roberts said. "You once lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest."
"True," Parton said. "At a Halloween contest years ago on Santa Monica Boulevard where all the guys were dressed up like me and I just overexaggerated my look and went in and just walked up on stage. … I didn't win. I didn't even come in close, I don't think."
"Your hit song, 'Jolene,' is about your husband's high school sweetheart," Roberts said.
"That one's kind of a true and false," Parton said. "We did have a girl that worked at a bank that he did have a crush on and that had a crush on him early on," Parton said. "But the actual song was not about her. Her name was not Jolene."
"Miley Cyrus, true or false, you're her godmother," Roberts said.
"I'm her honorary godmother. I've known her since she was a baby," Parton said. "Her father's a friend of mine, and when she was born, he said, 'You just have to be her godmother,' and I said, 'I accept.' We never did do a big ceremony, but I'm so proud of her, love her and she's just like one of my own."
