In her long career as a country singer, powerful woman, gay icon, and nip/tuck champion, Dolly Parton has never not been colourful. And now a new animation from PBS Digital Studios Blank on Blank video series shows just how colourful the singer can be.
Adding visuals to her 1978 interview with Playboy journalist Lawrence Grobel, it’s a candid, charming, and frank look at Parton’s humble beginnings.
"In the winter time, we just had a pan of water and we'd wash down as far as possible, and we'd wash up as far as possible," Parton says of her childhood. The singer spent those early years in Locust Ridge, deep inside Tennessee in a valley overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains.
"Then, when somebody cleared the room, we'd wash 'possible.' That's the way it was."
Created by Patrick Smith, the PBS animation lends a whole new perspective to the nearly 40-year-old interview, revealing the ribald and riotous humour in Parton’s frank and honest answers about what it was like growing up without means.
"The kids peed on me every night," she says. "There were so many of us. We slept three and four in the bed. I would wash every night, and as soon as I go to bed, the kids would wet on me and I'd have to get up in the morning and do the same thing. [But] that was the only warm thing we knew in the winter time. That was almost a pleasure – to get peed on – because it was so cold. Lord. It was as cold in the room as it was outside."
Grobel interviewed Parton in Los Angeles, a world away from her country roots. He finishes his questioning by asking the starlet if she likes living in California and the hustle and bustle of Hollywood.
“What in the world are you doing walking on this concrete when you can be rolling in the grass?'" she says.
On this evening’s The Right Hook, Bill Hughes is once again in studio with George to play him some of the Essential Songs that have come to define our musical heritage. On this evening’s show, he lends his ear to 1981, including Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5.
Tune in live at 6pm, or listen back to the show’s podcasts here. You can watch the animated interview from 1978 below.
