Dolly Parton Was Packing Heat: Legendary Singer Recounts Backing Off Harasser With Gun In Resurfaced Clip

Peretz Partensky/Flickr

Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 80, recounted a time she used a firearm for self-defense in a resurfaced interview.

During the 2021 interview with the Nashville Soundbite on YouTube, Parton was asked about a famous scene in “9 to 5” where her character referenced using a gun to turn a lecherous boss “from a rooster to a hen.” Parton, who had a concealed-carry permit for decades, recounted a real-life incident that may have been the inspiration for the iconic film moment.

“This guy was really coming on to me and it was scary as it could be and so he just kept on and I just really, because being country girls and at that time, you know, I had a gun so I pulled it out and I said ‘Look,’ it was basically what they kind of based that [on], ‘if you touch me one more time I’ll change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot,’” Parton told the interviewer. “That’s kind of basically where that whole thing [started], because I’d told that story years before and so, so that’s kind of where that came from.”

Parton was open about carrying a firearm and having a concealed carry permit, discussing the matter in a 1978 interview with Playboy magazine.

“I always carry a gun. A .38 pistol,” Parton told the publication. “I have a permit for it in Nashville…. I just carry it for protection. I feel safer when I’ve got it. I just don’t like the idea of knowin’ I’m totally helpless.”

The pre-1981 incident happened decades before the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which threw out New York’s requirement for a concealed carry applicant to demonstrate a “good cause” to carry a firearm, and before many states passed “shall issue” concealed carry laws that required authorities to issue permits to those who met certain qualifications.

Prior to 1994, Tennessee had restrictive concealed-carry laws and permits were difficult to acquire from the county sheriff, according to TennesseeFirearms.com. The state shifted to a central issuing authority in 1996 and became a constitutional carry state in 2021.