Celebrity
Dolly Parton was reportedly always polite when someone flirted with her. When she was finished with the interaction, though, she made her frustration clear.
Dolly Parton said that people don’t flirt with her all that often. She admitted that when it did happen, she tried to brush off any romantic attention with a joke. According to her guitarist, though, Parton found it frustrating when people propositioned her, though. He shared how she reacted to unwanted attention.
Dolly Parton became irritated when people flirted with her
Parton’s guitarist, Tom Rutledge, said he often witnessed people flirting with Parton. While she was always polite, she made it clear afterward if she was irritated.
“I’ve never seen a man get physical with her, but I’ve seen men get very suggestive after one too many drinks,” Rutledge said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “I know it really, really tees her off, but you’d never know it until afterwards, when she says, ‘That son of a b****.’”
Though she didn’t let her frustration shine through, she still would make it clear that she wasn’t interested.
“But she handles it well,” Rutledge said. “She’ll put him down to where he’ll lose his passion pretty quick. She’s good at making her feelings known to someone.”
She said she often brushed off flirtation
Parton said her personality was flirtatious, but this didn’t mean she wanted to pursue anything romantic with a person.
“You’d think I would get more propositions, because people are always askin’ me about it,” she said. “I think that people know I’m not out for anything. I’m super friendly. I love everybody, you know, and I’m such an emotional person. I think people can read through all of my conversations and my personality that I’m not tryin’ to play up to nobody as far as in that sort of way.”
She explained that she was able to dodge other people’s interest with jokes.
“I think I could handle it, though, because the way I’ve always been able to get in or out of anything is to joke in a playful way,” she said. “If somebody asked me that, I would pretend it was a joke and that they were kidding. I’d say, ‘Oh, sure, I’ll meet you out back!’ in a playful way. But I think they always know.”
Dolly Parton admits she often has celebrity crushes
While Parton said she typically dodged flirtatious attention, there were some people she might have loved to flirt with. Parton has spoken openly about her celebrity crushes over the years.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever been starstruck,” she told InStyle. “I’ve had a lot of star crushes, usually with every male co-star I’ve ever had.”
