11 Things We Learned at the Linda Perry and Dolly Parton Grammy Museum Chat
This week the Grammys are honoring the "Backwoods Barbie" herself, Dolly Parton.
The Recording Academy announced that Dolly will be recipient of MusiCares', the Academy's charity, annual person of the year prize. The queen of country will be receiving the honor for her "considerable creative accomplishments and her longtime support of a number of causes through her Dollywood Foundation."
Not only will Dolly be honored during the Grammys ceremony, but a new exhibit of her costumes opened today, February 5, at the Grammy Museum in L.A. To honor the occasion Parton sat down with her Dumplin' producer, Linda Perry, for a conversation about all things Dolly.
Scroll through below to see some of things we learned during their lively chat.
Dolly had never worked with a female producer before Linda Perry
The "9 to 5" songstress has released dozens of albums over the past 50 years, but had never worked with a female producer (aside from herself) before working with Linda on the Dumplin' soundtrack.
She also had never recorded a duet with another female singer
Dolly's duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands in the Stream," is one of her biggest hits, but she had never recorded a duet with another woman before Dumplin'. We're guessing she isn't counting her Trio and Trio II albums she made with two other country legends, Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt.
Her embarrassing TV memories
During her time on The Porter Wagoner Show, the syndicated series was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, and at one point Dolly had to appear in a commercial for "Midol-like" medication that helped with period bloating.
Why Jane Fonda wanted her to be in 9 to 5
The workplace comedy was Dolly's first movie, and she revealed Jane Fonda—who was a producer on the film—wanted her as one of the stars because of Dolly's popularity in country music will help them sell tickets "in the South."
She swears!
Even though Ginger Minj thinks that Dolly has the mouth of a saint, Linda Perry knows that's not true because when she asked the country queen if she cursed she responded with "F*ck yeah!"
Her music career started young
Dolly started playing guitar—one given to her by her uncle—at the age of seven.
She lost her friend and costume designer to AIDS
When Dolly started wearing more beaded gowns she worked with closely with celebrated designer Tony Chase, who made her wardrobe for the 1990 Oscar ceremony. He died from complications due to AIDS back in the early '90s.
Which movies' costumes she enjoyed the most
9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias might be Dolly's more famous movies, but it was her role as Miss Mona, the owner of the Chicken Ranch brothel, in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, featured her favorite costumes from any of her films.
She didn't like doing her variety show
Back in the day Dolly had a variety show that ran for two seasons, but she didn't like doing it. She told Linda that she knew the show "wasn't good" and that she "wasn't happy doing it."
Get ready for more Dolly on Netflix
In addition to Dumplin', Dolly will be back on Netflix later this year with her eight-episode series, Heartsongs, based on tracks from her catalog. This isn't news, but she did reveal that she will introduce each episode, and will act in couple of them too.
An all-star Grammys salute
Dolly will be honored at this year's Grammys with a medley of her songs sung by some of today's biggest pop and country stars including Katy Perry, Kacey Musgraves, Miley Cyrus, and Little Big Town.