Dolly Parton doesn’t always appreciate the connotation of being called a hillbilly, though she sometimes does. Here’s how she responded when the word was used about her with an arguably “insulting” implication.
Tennessee native Dolly Parton doesn’t always mind being called a hillbilly, and it’s a label she’s leaned into with pride at times. But context is important, and the country music star doesn’t appreciate what some people mean when they say it. Read on to learn more about the word’s negative connotation and how Parton once responded to it in an interview.
Dolly Parton thinks ‘hillbilly’ and ‘white trash’ are compliments sometimes
According to the Oxford Reference, a hillbilly is “an unsophisticated country person, associated originally with the remote regions of the Appalachians.”
It can be derogatory, but Parton doesn’t always feel insulted by the name. She told Southern Living in 2014 that she’s proud to be a “white trash” hillbilly. When asked, “Is being called a hillbilly a compliment or an insult?” she replied, “Well, it’s a compliment to me.”
“People always say, ‘Aren’t you insulted when people call you white trash?’ I say, ‘Well, it depends on who’s calling me white trash and how they mean it,’” she explained.
Parton said she felt her family, in which she was one of 12 children living in a log cabin deep in Appalachia, fit the hillbilly definition. “We really were to some degree,” she shared. “Because when you’re that poor, and you’re not educated, you fall in those categories.”
But when Barbara Walters asked the singer-songwriter a similar, slightly more abrasive question earlier in her career, she responded differently while maintaining her “country class.”
Dolly Parton pushed back when Barbara Walters asked if she was a hillbilly
In a 1977 interview with Walters, the esteemed journalist asked Parton about their different upbringings. “Where I come from, would I have called you a hillbilly?” she wondered.
“If you had … it would’ve been something very natural. But I would’ve probably kicked your shins or something,” Parton responded with a laugh. Still, Walters doubled down on the question by asking, “But when I’m thinking of hillbillies, am I thinking of your kind of people?”
Parton guessed that Walters was probably thinking of her “kind of people” when she pictured hillbillies, but she clarified some misconceptions that came from stereotypes. “We were very proud people,” she shared, “people with a lot of class.”
She added, “It was country class, but it was a great deal of class.”
The “My Tennessee Mountain Home” singer told Walters, “Most of my people were not that educated, but they are very, very intelligent. Good common sense.”
Barbara Walters worded her questions for Dolly Parton in an ‘insulting’ and ‘antagonizing’ way, according to a communication expert
Communication coach and professor Alex Lyon broke down Parton’s interview with Walters and deduced the journalist wasn’t “showing any goodwill” toward her formerly poor subject.
“First, Barbara Walters’ questions here are already fairly insulting,” Lyon noted, adding she established an “us versus them” tone for the interview. He declared, “I don’t see the benefit of these questions in the first place.”
“She’s not trying to establish any common ground,” Lyon added. “Her questions seem designed to antagonize Dolly.”
So, this interview might have provided an instance where Parton’s question of “who’s calling me white trash and how they mean it” came into consideration.
And Lyon applauded the Steel Magnolias star for her reaction to Walters’ inquiries. “She stays composed,” he said about Parton. “Stays 100 percent positive.”
