Dolly Parton Has Revealed Her Weird Meat Snacking Habits

We might not have Dolly Parton’s iconic bleached, feathered, and teased hairstyle (or even the budget for it), nor the bedazzled wardrobe that’s Blingee personified, nor an entire theme park named after us. But now, we can at least rest easy knowing that we’re not as far from the iconic country star’s lifestyle as we might have once thought: Sometimes, it turns out, Dolly Parton is just like the rest of us.

In honor of the recent expansion of Dollyland, Parton did an interview with the New York Times in which she shared some pretty leveling anecdotes that might make you forget for just a second that said expansion cost a solid $137 million.

Take, for example, Parton’s skincare routine, which might mirror our own after a long night of drinking. “You never know if you’re going to wreck the bus, you never know if you’re going to be somewhere in a hotel and there’s going to be a fire. So I leave my makeup on at night and clean my face in the morning,” Parton said. Skincare Internet might gasp audibly at the thought, but what if there was a hotel fire and we appeared woefully unprepared? Thank you, Dolly, for seeing these anxieties—we all know that the looks you served in Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas weren’t just magic.

Plus, like the rest of us, Dolly Parton is a budget-conscious lady who’d rather take her private bus than fly, she told the Times, and that’s where we must remember that Dolly eats like, well, a normal, blue collar person. Her preferred gas station treats while on the road? “Potted meat. Or weird things like Vienna sausage,” she said. “That and a bottle of Tabasco: If I can’t eat whatever they’re cooking, I can always have that,” she added. (Hot sauce in her bag? In this case, we’ll concede: Swag.)

Dolly’s appreciation of canned meat can perhaps be explained by her remarks from an earlier 1992 interview: “The way I see it, if the food’s too pretty, it ain’t too good.” She also revealed in that story that her relationship with meat has been way more experimental than just chicken, beef, and pork in a can. “We ate a lot of bear, rabbit, squirrel, and groundhog. See, we were country people, and when you grow up in the mountains you grow up eating whatever’s running around,” she said. Fast food mystery meat is fine by her, too, by the way. “[My husband and I] do different things, like go to the Taco Bell drive-thru,” she said in 2016—adding that just like you and I, she loves the Mexican Pizza.

But Dolly, just like the rest of us, can’t really live on just Taco Bell, Vienna sausages, and Tabasco alone; she’s got that meal prep life down, too. “I think everybody takes little special things whether it’s special chips or special little treats like things in my freezer, cooked at home. Just thaw it out on the bus,” she said, and as I reheat my week’s worth of meal-prepped sheet pan meals, I’ll think of this and feel seen. After all, Dolly knows what it’s like to be working 9 to 5, and we respect our labor rights queen.