Dolly Parton Speaks Of Morning Routine And Tells Of Breakfast She Prepares For Her Husband

Dec 09, 2020

Dolly Parton is the covergirl for Marie Claire’s holiday digital issue. Besides her Christmas-related ventures this year — her movie Christmas on the Square, and her Christmas album A Holly Dolly Christmas — the singer chatted with RuPaul of Rupaul’s Drag Race about everything from her morning routine to the breakfast she prepares for her husband. She also let readers in on fun little details about her life, one of which being her relationship with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. Read on to find out what else there is to know about Parton and see our favorite quotes from the interview!

Dolly Parton released her Christmas album A Holly Dolly Christmas in October. It’s the singer’s first holiday album in three decades. Parton explains the inspiration for the album title with RuPaul, saying:

“[The album’s title is] based on the old Burl Ives hit of “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas,” and I just wanted to record that song, and so Holly Dolly just seemed to be a cute title for the album. But I really like all the songs on there. One of my real favorites that I really get a blessing out of singing is a little song called “Mary, Did You Know?” And that’s one I think that’s really a special song.

One of the artists featured in her Christmas album is her goddaughter Miley Cyrus who Parton describes as “a pro.” I’ve always loved her, since she was little,” Parton said of the Midnight Sky singer. “And I knew she was special. She just had a light about her. Her sparkle, and her smile, and her eyes were always full of wonder.” Parton added that something she loves about Cyrus is that she takes chances and that she’s “true to herself.”

When you put one of the greatest country music icons together with America’s most successful commercial drag queen, you just know that there will be a discussion about wigs at some point. 

“See, you’re a drag queen. Those are like costumes to you,” she said to RuPaul. She continued:

“This is my living self. I am a living drag queen. You dress up just now and then, but for me, though, I like the wigs and I wear them almost every day. So, people ask me how many wigs I have, I say, “Well, I must have at least 365,” because I wear one almost every day. But I actually keep my own hair the same color and I just kind of pull it up in little scrunchies around the house. But I still like to put on makeup and have my hair fluffed.”

Parton is a very early riser. Unlike most people and even her hit song 9 to 5, Parton gets her best work done between the wee hours of 3 am and 7 am. 

"I’m a very, very, very early riser," she said. "I go to bed pretty early, but I’m up and down. If I wake up and I’m pretty well awake, I think, I’ve got so much to do, I’ll get up and I’ll work a little while, write a little while, and I’ll lay back down.

"But I’m always, almost always up for good around 3 a.m.," Parton said. "So I do some of my best spiritual work, some of my best writing, and some of my business work—call-ins and letters that I’m writing or whatever—between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. I get more work done during that little period of time when the world is calm, energies are down, and I just feel like a farmer. They say the early bird gets the worm. Well, they also get a lot of good ideas too."

And what else does she do so early in the morning besides work and meditate? She prepares breakfast for her husband of 54 years, Carl Thomas Dean. On the morning of the interview, Parton revealed what she whipped up: “I made some sausage patties, and I baked some biscuits, and I made some milk gravy.” And oh, she wore her high heels while making them. In fact, she tells RuPaul that she wears high heels all the time but that  “they’re not always as high as the ones [she wears] for show.”

“I’m short,” she says. “And I have to wear heels in order to reach my cabinets.” According to celebheight.com, Parton is 5ft tall.

Parton believes that you get back the energy you give out. “I’m energized by just what I do. It’s like, work begets work, energy begets energy,” she said to RuPaul when asked what she does to recharge.

“I just really stay alive because I just live on creative and spiritual energy. I’m like the little Energizer Bunny. I’m just recharged by the excitement of being able to still be active and to still be able to create stuff and to be still in demand.”

Tell us in the comments what detail about the interview surprised you the most about Dolly and be sure to pass this along to all the Dolly Parton fans in your life.