Dolly Parton shares the worst piece of business advice that she repeatedly ignored: 'Change my look and to go simpler with my hair and the way that I dressed'
- Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton recently appeared on the podcast WorkLife with Adam Grant.
- Parton shared with Grant the one bad piece of advice she received throughout her early career.
Throughout her career, country music star Dolly Parton also became famous for her signature look, which features large blonde wigs, lots of makeup, and a style that she describes as "a country girl's idea of glam."
But when she was first starting out, the singer-songwriter received a lot of unsolicited fashion advice from critics — advice that she decided to ignore, to great success. Parton recently discussed the topic on an episode of the podcast "WorkLife with Adam Grant." Grant is an organizational psychologist and a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
"The main advice that people wanted to give me was to change my look and to go simpler with my hair and the way that I dressed," Parton told Grant. "Not to look so cheap. Nobody was ever going to take me seriously."
Speaking with Grant, Parton shared that her style has always been a part of her artistry. She said that she wanted her appearance to match her "outgoing personality," and that she modeled the style after the "town tramp" from her hometown. Parton got her starting writing songs in Nashville in 1964. In 1967, she released a debut album, "Hello, I'm Dolly." But not everyone was sold on her look in those early years.
"Everybody said she was trash and in my little girl mind I thought, 'Well that's what I'm going to be when I grow up,'" she said. "It's really like a look that I was after."
Parton referenced her song "Backwoods Barbie," where she sings about having "too much makeup, too much hair," adding that "I'm as shallow as I look, 'cause I run true and deep."
Despite the harsh criticism she received over her style, Parton stuck with her look and went on to win 11 Grammy Awards and 10 Country Music Association Awards.