10 Things You May Not Know About Dolly Parton

Even though Parton has owned her own theme park, Dollywood, for over 30 years, she still refuses to go on any of the rides, due to severe motion sickness. She explained: "My daddy used to say, 'I could never be a sailor. I could never be a miner. I could never be a pilot.' I am the same way. I have motion sickness. I could never ride some of these rides. I used to get sick on the school bus."

Growing up in the backwoods of Tennesse’s Great Smokey Mountains, Parton, who is fourth in line, has said that they would only have running water when they’d run and fetch it themselves. She also admitted: “We didn’t have any electricity … if fireflies were out, we’d catch them in a mason jar and put them in our bedroom!”

After Parton purchased the tiny mountain home she grew up in, she spent a fortune on restoring it to make it look like it did when she was a kid. However, she wanted it to be functional. “I spent a couple million dollars making it look like I spent $50 on it! Even in the bathroom, I made the bathroom so it looked like an outdoor toilet,” she recounted on The Nate Berkus Show.

After Parton released the famous “I Will Always Love You,” Presley showed interest in doing his own version of the hit. The King’s manager tried to cut a deal, but it would have forced Dolly to surrender half of the publishing rights to the song. Parton has said that she just didn’t feel in her heart that it was the right decision at the time. And it wasn’t. She later allowed Whitney Houston to cover the track for 1992’s “The Bodyguard” soundtrack. The song was a massive hit and has been an huge payoff for Parton.

As the popularity of LBGT celebrations rose in the mid-2000s, many amusement parks participated in “Gay Days” – an event where families with LBGT members could celebrate together in a welcoming environment. Parton has said she still receives death threats to this day: “I'm in business. I just don't feel like I have to explain myself. I love everybody."

Well, kind of. Parton and Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus, are good friends. When Miley was born, he said “You just have to be her godmother.” Parton says it isn’t technically official, but she is more of an “honorary Godmother,” since there wasn’t an actual ceremony. “I'm so proud of her. I love her and she's just like one of my own." Parton also made a few cameos on Cyrus’ Disney show Hannah Montana as Aunt Dolly.

At a Halloween drag contest years ago in Santa Monica, CA, Parton decided to take a stab at competing against all the guys dressed up like her. Parton explains: “I just over-exaggerated my look and went in and just walked up on stage…I didn’t win. I didn’t even come in close, I don’t think.”

When scientists were thinking of a name for their prized cloned sheep, they apparently were inspired by Parton’s famous big bust. The English embryologist working on the experiment stated that the sheep is derived from from a mammary gland cells, and they couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.

At the time of her birth, Dolly’s parents, Robert and Avie Lee Parton, were so poor that the only thing they had to give the physician who delivered her was a sack of oatmeal

Parton has always considered writing to be her first passion, with singing and performing coming second. According to dollyparton.com, she writes a song every two or three days. Her very first song was about her favorite corn-cob doll.