Dolly Parton’s Preacher Grandpa ‘Whipped’ Her for Dressing Like the ‘Town Tramp’
Dolly Parton is one of the biggest names in country music. Her big personality and even bigger hair are iconic, and there’s not a single person who wouldn’t recognize Parton for her style. In October 2023, she spoke about developing her personal style through the years, and she even mentioned that her preacher grandfather would physically hurt her for the way she dressed. Here’s what Parton said about idolizing the “town tramp.”
Dolly Parton said her grandfather would physically hurt her for dressing like the ‘town tramp’
Dolly Parton is known for her music and philanthropy just as much as her iconic style. From an early age, she modeled her look off of the “town tramp” — someone she looked up to from a distance.
“She was flamboyant,” Parton told The Guardian of the woman whom she’d look for when heading into town. She had bright red lipstick, long red fingernails. She had high-heeled shoes, little floating plastic goldfish in the heels of them, short skirts, low-cut tops, and I just thought she was beautiful.”
Parton said people around her would comment on how the woman was “nothing but trash,” but the country stay would say, ‘Well, that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up.’”
She talked about the “town tramp” again while speaking on the WorkLife With Adam Grant podcast. “I didn’t know anything about that part then,” Parton said about the woman’s explicit business she performed. “I just knew she was beautiful. She had all this beautiful blonde hair, red lipstick, and makeup, tight short skirts, and high heel shoes. I just thought she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen, so, I kind of patterned my look after that.”
Parton’s father and grandfather hated the look of the “town tramp.” And they hated that Parton emulated the look. Years later, she wrote a song, “The Sacrifice,” about seeing the disapproval and following her heart regardless.
“I was willing to pay for it,” she said. “I’m very sensitive. I didn’t like being disciplined — it hurt my feelings so bad to be scolded or whipped or whatever. But, sometimes, there’s just that part of you that’s willing, if you want something bad enough, to go for it.”
Executives of record labels also asked Parton to change her look, as they thought it was too much. But Parton never followed the rules. And she took her style very seriously.
“That’s how I thought I looked best,” she added. “Sometimes, that’s worked for me; sometimes, it can work against you. It took me probably years longer to be taken serious, but I wasn’t willing to change it, and I figured if I had the talent, it’d show up sooner or later.”
The country star’s mother said the ‘devil’ was responsible for how she dressed
It wasn’t just Dolly Parton’s grandfather and father who disapproved of her look. Her mother also didn’t like Parton’s style. The country star spoke on the WorkLife With Adam Grant podcast about her mother’s reaction to her look after she moved to Nashville.
“The first time my Mama saw me all done up with blonde bleached hair all piled up, and my lips, cheeks, and nails as red as I could get them, she screamed to the Lord, ‘Why are you testing me this way?’” Parton said. “And she told me the devil must have made me do it.”
Parton rejected the idea. “‘Heck no,’ I told Mama,” she added. “‘Let’s give credit where it’s due: I did this all myself.’”
Fans should feel relieved that Parton never listened to the naysayers in her life, as her iconic style goes down in history.
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