Dolly Parton Revealed the Musician Who ‘Always Had a Headlock’ on Her Heart
Dolly Parton has collaborated with many musicians over the years, and she says she often gets along well with them. Some, like Reba McEntire, are lifelong friends and others, like Kenny Rogers, became the subject of tabloid fodder about her love life. One artist with whom Parton sang a duet on her 1976 variety show, Dolly, always had a place in her heart.
Dolly Parton said 1 musician had a hold on her heart
In 1976, Parton welcomed country musician Tom T. Hall on her variety show, Dolly. They each performed a handful of songs and sang duets on “Sneaky Snake” and “I Love.”
The pair also played the same show at the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The venue hosted wrestling afterward, so the sign for the show read “Dolly Parton Tom T. Hall Wrestling.” Parton laughed at the photo of the sign, which implied at a glance that she and Hall would be the ones wrestling each other. She joked that it was fitting, considering their relationship.
“A sign I thought was funny,” she wrote in the book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “Wrestling was after the show, but Tom’s always had a headlock on my heart.”
The musician had a reputation as one of the only people who could describe Dolly Parton
Hall got to know Parton over the years, and he joked that he gained a reputation as one of the only people who could accurately describe the country superstar. He said that this had more to do with his college degree than the accuracy of his descriptions, though.
“I was an English major and Ms. Dixie [Hall] was a journalist too,” he told American Songwriter. “When I first got to Nashville, somebody said Tom T. Hall and Kris Kristofferson at the time were the only two people who could describe Dolly Parton without using their hands. Kris and I came into town and created this illusion of literacy, somehow.”
She felt a spark with many of her collaborators
As Parton noted, she felt a fondness for Hall. She felt similarly about many of her collaborators. She said that Rogers, who also appeared on Dolly, had electric chemistry with her.
“There was something about the combination that just worked,” she wrote. “I think it was because Kenny has a kind of cool energy that is a perfect complement to my hot energy. Whatever it was, people just instantly began to think of us as a couple.”
Willie Nelson, another one of her collaborators, has also had her heart for years.
“I think he’s a character, and when we got ready to do the song, Willie called me,” she said, per CMT. “He was doing his album, All the Girls He’d Loved Before or Made Love To, I don’t know … I was one of the girls he loved. We never had a thing going. It’s a wonder, though.”
She has spoken in similar terms about Billie Ray Cyrus, Johnny Cash, and most of her film co-stars. It seems that Parton has chemistry with nearly everyone.
