{"id":329505,"date":"2026-08-25T19:42:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329505\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:42:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:42:45","slug":"rip-dolly-read-our-2011-interview-about-drag-queens-dance-floors-honky-tonk-preaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329505\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP, Dolly: Read our 2011 interview about drag queens, dance floors, honky tonk preaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton\u2014Queen of Country, tireless philanthropist, and eternal style icon\u2014has passed at 80<\/a>, and hearts around the world are broken. It\u2019s going to take a long time to process this loss, especially for members of the queer community, of which she was particularly supportive. Below is an interview conducted 15 years ago<\/a> in which we could not have vibed harder about drag, dancing, and the power of a good look. I refuse to apologize for gushing. RIP! <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, hi, Marke! This is Dolly calling you from Nashville. I hope you\u2019re doin\u2019 well out there in San Francisco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you freaking kidding me?\u00a0There are no better gifts for a little gay boy on Pride weekend than a call from Dolly Parton. After the squee-squee squealing subsided on my end, we got down to business: discussing what she was going to wear on the tour supporting her latest (41st!) album,\u00a0Better Days\u00a0on Dolly Records. Would she be pitching any wardrobe curve balls to throw off the legions of Dolly impersonators when she comes to the Concord Pavilion on Sunday, July 24?<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I know you\u2019ve seen me before,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI couldn\u2019t really get much gaudier \u2014 unless maybe I walked out with a beaver on my head!\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaaaah, I adore her.<\/p>\n

\"\"Eternal SF drag icon (RIP) Cookie Dough led a wild night of Dolly impersonation at her Monster Show in 2011. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, though, I love the drag queens,\u201d Dolly continued, \u201cand all my gay fans, too. I\u2019ve always loved all my fans equally. We just have so much fun together when I\u2019m up on the stage. I always look forward to seeing what the impersonators are gonna wear. It cheers me right up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolly has never been lachrymose, exactly, but she does have a famous way with homespun bluegrass melancholy \u2014 something that\u2019s put to use only sporadically on the new album. Instead,\u00a0Better Days\u00a0is meant to be a rootin\u2019, tootin\u2019 shot of inspiration in these dark economic times. Like\u00a0Backwoods Barbie\u00a0before it, it doesn\u2019t shy away from sharp power anthems and those unmistakable Dollyisms (\u201cI\u2019m quite content with who I am\/And if you ain\u2019t, well, kiss my ham\u201d).<\/p>\n

Now playing the honky-tonk preacher\u2014rolling chords and gospel choir included\u2014Dolly\u2019s determined to lift spirits. Her melodies here, including a sparkling solo redo of her great 1974 duet with Porter Wagoner, \u201cTogether You and I,\u201d are as infectious as always. And at points her bootstrap-tugging lyrical confidence almost crosses into televangelistic materialism or even classic gangsta rap territory (albeit with killer banjos), unabashedly boasting in \u201cThe Sacrifice\u201d about how leaving family, friends, and fun behind has been worth it to be rich and famous. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was an important song for me to write,\u201d Dolly said. \u201cI get a lot of comments on it. But I wanted to be honest. If you want something bad enough, like I did, you need to have faith, work hard, and you can get it. You just need to be prepared to pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of\u00a0Better Days\u2018 razzy boosts might help keep the ever-ambitious musician and businesswoman herself in a positive state of mind, especially now that she\u2019s navigating the current industry with her own label, launched in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople may think I\u2019m crazy to start my own thing like this now, but I love calling the shots and being able to release my own material. And to tell you the truth, there just aren\u2019t the big record contracts out there for established performers anymore \u2014 those multimillion-dollar deals are mostly for the young people on the rise. And this way, with Dolly Records, I can adapt faster to all the changes going on in the music business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can also be a lot more flexible in what I do, try some new things,\u201d she continued, a mischievous spark lighting up her voice. \u201cI\u2019m even thinking about doing a dance record. I wrote this song just the other day called \u2018Just a Wee Bit Gay\u2019 that I think would go really well on the dance floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her that the extended version of her 1983 stomper \u201cPotential New Boyfriend\u201d has been ruling certain parties lately, and she sounded tickled. \u201cI never thought that would be what everyone\u2019s into! I\u2019ll have to look into re-releasing that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I can\u2019t wait to get back to the Bay Area. The people are so warm and friendly,\u201d she concluded. \u201cNow you just make sure to grab all your drag queen friends, fluff up that tutu of yours, and come down and see me, you hear?\u201d Yes, ma\u2019am!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton\u2014Queen of Country, tireless philanthropist, and eternal style icon\u2014has passed at 80, and hearts around the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-329505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}