How it all came about...

OK so someone asked me how I came to be this big fan of the incomparable Dolly Rebecca Parton. Here is the story:

I was 7 years old, sitting in the living room with my mother watching something or another on TV, probably Emmerdale or something, I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday actually.

Anyway, during a commercial break an advert came on promoting a Deluxe CD of 'Fifty Years of Country Music Greats', which didn't really interest me one little bit, I was 7 year old, Country Music didn't appeal to me (and I hadn't really heard a country song at that point).

So the advert promoted 10 second clips of various country singers, Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, Patsy Cline and then the last and final Country Icon was none other than Dolly Parton (it showed a clips of her from 1978). Well the 10 second clip of her was from this segment:



And it showed her descending down the stairs in her pink frock singing 'Here You Come Again'. Like I said, only 10 seconds of each celebrity, but when she was on it seemed like a lifetime.

At about 6 seconds of her claim to fame on the CD I turned to my mother and said, "Mam, is she an Angel? She's so beautiful. I'm going to marry her when I'm older, I am, Mam."

My mother brushed it off as a childhood crush, after all, Dolly was (and still is) very appealing to the male consensus, she's beautiful, blonde, buxom and her personality is radiant, shining down on everyone lighting up the darkest days.

So, that was the end of the 'mysterious woman' that I had seen on the TV. I hadn't asked her name, I didn't need to, I just know that I loved her.

12 years old, starting Secondary School, the bus journey was filled with this infectious laugh and voice that I knew I had heard somewhere before. The presenter announced that 'Dolly' was his all time favourite singer and 'Here You Come Again' was his favourite song, the woman, Dolly, humoured the guy and sang a small segment of her famous song and then I remembered that she was the woman from the TV all them years ago.

With the Internet I was able to Google her and listen to her via Youtube, I had finally found her - much to my mother's annoyance. A boy of 12 years old liking Dolly Parton... could only mean one thing... But it really didn't, I liked her for her, not because she was some campy, gay icon, I wasn't gay, so that didn't even come to mind.

20 years old, yes, I'm 20 right this second, and I still love the woman!

But why do I like her? Her looks? Her music? Why?

Well, the main reason I liked her was because she stood out to me, she was different - and she didn't care that she was different. I could compare myself to her (not that I had/have 40DD breasts or wear big blonde wigs), I could see she was a social misfit, and I guess I was/am too, but she didn't care, and neither do I!

So yeah, that's the story of how I came to love the Legend that is Dolly Parton.

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