Why Dolly Parton thought she once “offended” Bob Dylan
Through no fault of her own, Dolly Parton has always been a polarising artist. In the early years, she faced scrutiny because of how she looked, until her foray outside of her trusty community gave audiences a new issue to play with in the form of being a sell-out. Among her peers, she wasn’t taken as seriously, despite her efforts to not only shake up a stale genre but to give the entire industry a much-needed umph.
But this is also something she took in her stride. Parton knew she ruffled feathers, but she still stayed true to herself, evidenced by one pivotal moment when she appeared in an interview beside the definitive savage of journalism herself, Barbara Walters. People had warned Parton against pulling such a stunt, but she walked into the fire pit anyway, on hand for any provocative line of questioning that may come her way.
And, all things considered, it paid off. When Walters prodded at her reputation as someone cultivated around appearance alone, Parton made it clear she didn’t care. When Walters implied she was a laughing stock, she regarded it with a dignified self-awareness, focusing back on the reason why she was there in the first place: her music. Parton always knew she went beyond her position as a mainstay of localised country music, and small, empty accusations of vanity would never chip at her well-maintained sheen.
But this position – both as an established musical legend and someone who’s unapologetically themself – is interesting when placed beside the legacies of other greats, and judged against the potency of other big names that earned their title in an entirely different game. Like Bob Dylan, for instance, what did he think of Parton? Would he have commended her ability to stay resilient in the face of scrutiny or turned his nose up, as others did, thinking she had nothing all that important to offer?
According to Parton, based on the few times they’ve met, she got the impression it was the latter. “I’ve met him a few times, but I never felt any warmth from him to me,” she told Daily Mail, adding, “I think I have offended him somehow by the way I looked or the way I was. I love his music, but he’s a weird buckaroo.” She also told the Telegraph, “I don’t feel like we ever connected. Maybe he just thought I was too phony or he didn’t get to know me too well.”
Dylan also once declined Parton’s request to duet with her on a rendition of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, which inadvertently influenced her decision to pull the plug on a covers record, but these instances didn’t seem to impact how she feels about the singer. He might have treated her with hostility for whatever unknown reason, but she also said she “always loved his music”, praising how his mind and melodies, and how they “lend themselves so well to harmonies.”
Parton probably disregarded Dylan’s standoffishness as something that didn’t actually concern her, knowing how others have had similar experiences and how, as unfortunate as it may be, it doesn’t really distract from the beauty of his music. And besides, who really knows what goes on inside Dylan’s mind, anyway? At least a handful of strange encounters isn’t a real metric of those he’s in the presence of, and Parton still left with a complete legacy intact.
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