4 of Dolly Parton’s Celebrity Crushes: ‘He Was the Sexiest Thing’
Dolly Parton has been married for decades, but that hasn’t stopped her from developing celebrity crushes. She once said that she develops a crush on nearly all of her costars. Here are four celebrities Parton has admitted to having a crush on.
Johnny Cash was Dolly Parton’s first celebrity crush
While an adolescent Parton watched Johnny Cash perform at the Grand Ole Opry, she realized he was quickly becoming her first crush. Parton was also there to perform, and Cash introduced her to the audience.
“I was thirteen years old,” she wrote in her book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. “Johnny Cash introduced me, and I thought he was the sexiest thing that ever was. That’s when I first felt hormones raging. It was his charisma and me being a growing girl. It was the first time a man had ever made me feel like a woman.”
She said he was magnetic to watch.
“Back then he was all boney and skinny, but he had such sex appeal, this magnetism and it was honestly when I first felt a sense of my sensuality and sexuality,” she told The Irish Times in 2011. “He just stirred things in me, that I had never felt before.”
Burt Reynolds caused her to push for more romance scenes
Parton filmed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas alongside Burt Reynolds, and they quickly developed a close relationship. She pushed for more romance in the film.
“When they started askin’ for suggestions, I said I would like to see more of a romance,” she told Rolling Stone in 1980. “Wouldn’t you feel like you wasted five dollars if you paid to see Whorehouse and you didn’t see me and Burt kiss? I was makin’ a joke, and I stuck to it — I’m not going to miss my chance to kiss Burt Reynolds.”
Their closeness and onscreen chemistry sparked affair rumors, which Parton denied. Still, she said their relationship was “sweeter than a love affair” (via Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters With Dolly Parton).
Billy Ray Cyrus was surprised to hear Parton call him a crush
Parton grew close to Billy Ray Cyrus after he joined her on tour. She has remained close with the Cyrus family, even becoming a “fairy godmother” to Miley Cyrus. Years after they first met, Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager surprised Cyrus with a video message from Parton. He was even more surprised to hear Parton say she had a crush on him.
“Hi Billy Ray!” she said, per Outsider. “I wish I could have been there with you today, but I sure had a fun time singing a duet with you on ‘Christmas Where We Are’ on my new Holly Dolly Christmas album and singing with Miley, too. But of course, you know I’ve got a crush on you.”
Jimmy Fallon is Dolly Parton’s current celebrity crush
These days, Parton says that her celebrity crush is Jimmy Fallon. She admitted that she has always gotten along well with late-night hosts, Fallon included.
“Well, I have a crush on Jimmy Fallon now, but I’m big now, I can’t excuse myself on that,” she told W Magazine. “I think he is precious. He’s so funny. We get along so good, and sometimes you never know who you’re going to connect with, and I’ve always had really good luck with late-night guys.”
