Dolly Parton spills on Cowboys cheerleader outfit, her iconic look: 'A lot of maintenance'

In a new series, USA TODAY’s The Essentials, celebrities share what fuels their lives.

Dolly Parton's look is as iconic as her award-winning music.

Fans recognize her teased, bleached tendrils; defined eyes beneath an arched brow; and an hourglass figure that created quite the commotion deep in the heart of Texas clad in Dallas Cowboys cheerleader costume for a halftime performance in November.

Dressing in a bedazzled version of the cheerleader's hot pants and cleavage-barring crop top made the 78-year-old singer/songwriter a tad nervous, she admits.

"But I thought, 'Well at my age, if I can pull it off, it's going to be good. And if I don't, I can just pass it off as an old woman doing a stupid ass thing,'" she says. "I've always said my desire to do something is greater than my fear of it."

Parton's decades-long career is courage personified.

"I was silly enough to believe it could be done, and I didn't know it couldn't be done, until I did it, as they say," Parton says of the role dreaming has played in achieving her success. "I'd worked in the fields, being a country girl and I've done all that menial labor because that was just the chores and stuff we had to do back home. But I hated every minute of it. I didn't like school either."

Today, she has sold more than 100 million records and is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

"I thought, 'Well, what's the worst that can happen?'" Parton says. "'I can always go back home, study to be a beautician and still get cheap makeup and bleach and all the stuff that I was going to always do no matter what.'"

Here are Parton's daily essentials, from her typical breakfast to exactly how she achieves that signature Dolly look.

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Is Dolly Parton retiring? 'Work is everything' to the music icon

Parton begins her day with a hearty breakfast that must include coffee. She fuels up with eggs, sometimes paired with bacon or sausage. "I'm a country girl. So I'll make gravy and biscuits," she says, "and I often do and love that."

Then she's ready to dive in to a hard day's work.

"Work is everything to me," she says. "That's all I know. It's what I do. It's how all these things have come to pass."

Parton, who penned "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You," cherishes songwriting. "I felt like that was my gift, but I love to sing too, and I love to perform," she says. "So it's just all one thing to me."

"I would only retire if I was ill or if my husband was ill and needed me," says Parton, referencing Carl Thomas Dean, whom she wed in 1966. "That'd be the only thing that would make me pull back."

Dolly Parton talks new memoir, Broadway musical and being everybody's 'favorite aunt'

The requirements for Dolly Parton's signature look

Pulling Parton's age-defying look together takes time, effort, money and plenty of makeup, she says.

"If you need a nip and tuck, find the good doctors. But I've outlived so many plastic surgeons, it's kind of hard to try to find the right ones," she jokes.

"There's a lot of maintenance," she says. "My joke of 'It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,' that's so true because I like to look a certain way. I can't just put on a little bit of makeup and think I look good, because I don't look good with a little bit of makeup. I like to wear a lot of makeup. It fits my personality. Even if somebody says, 'Oh God, she was so over-made.' Well, if it fits me then I'm going to make everybody around me happy because I'm going to feel good myself."

How Dolly Parton, husband Carl Thomas Dean treat themselves on weekends

Parton is an author, actress, producer, philanthropist. You can even see her face walking down the baking aisle of your local grocery store, since Parton launched her partnership with Duncan Hines in 2022. They baked up new mixes released in January: banana nut and blueberry muffin mix, cinnamon swirl crumb cake and yellow and chocolate cake mixes. Parton's also collaborated with Duncan Hines' parent company Conagra on a pancake mix and line of frozen foods slated for stores this year.

Sweets have been a source of comfort for Parton since she grew up one of 12 children in Sevierville, Tennessee.

"You always got the biggest piece (of cake) if it was your birthday," Parton remembers. "On weekends my husband and I always have pancakes or waffles. All those things are comfort foods to me ... How much comfort you want is how much of it you eat."

What Dolly Parton relies on 'most of all'

Parton says of her necessities for life it's "my faith I rely on most of all." The granddaughter of a preacher has recorded gospel music and has expressed interest in devoting an entire album to the genre.

"I often say that I live on spiritual and creative energy," she says. "I draw from that place out there that I feel where those great energies live, and the positive stuff out there."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.