Dolly Parton is sugar, spice and everything nice, but make no mistake: the country legend is perfectly capable of putting her pretty foot down if needs be. And according to Miley Cyrus, Dolly recently found need to do just that. The issue in question? Miley's hair color, of course.
When Cyrus told her "fairy godmother" that she was considering dyeing her platinum blonde hair back to brown, Parton was aghast.
"I've never seen Dolly actually scared before. She acted like I told her the worst news you can imagine," Cyrus recounted during a recent appearance on the Today show. "She clutched her pearls, gasped, and went back and she goes, 'You can't do that. You are me.'"
Miley proposed the hair transformation for her upcoming NBC special, Miley's New Year's Eve Party, co-hosted by Dolly. The pair will ring in the new year with an energetic lineup of duets (fingers crossed for a "Jolene" team-up), along with guest performances by the likes of Sia and hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd.
As for their creative partnership, it sounds like Dolly drives a hard bargain. Cyrus explained that Dolly was adamant that her Peacock musical movie, Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas, be plugged during the New Year's special, and she traded Miley a pair of shoes to seal the deal. (Iconic behavior.)
There's no messing with Dolly in business or in fashion, it turns out. When Miley arrived at a promotional shoot for the special decked out like Dolly, her godmother thought the look was a little underwhelming.
"I had everything that you need to be very Dolly Parton, and big hair, and full lip gloss. My lips were stickin' together, the whole thing," Cyrus recalled. "And [Dolly] goes, 'So you know, how va-va-voom are we going for New Year's?' And I said, 'Well, what do you think about this dress, on a scale of one to va-va-voom?' And she goes, 'Well, I think you look very conservative.'"
What Dolly wants, Dolly gets — and Cyrus is only too happy to have the music icon as her partner-in-crime. They're a match made in performance heaven.
"You can see our chemistry and I really don't think there's much to write. There's not much to choreograph. It's all right there."
Miley's New Year's Eve Party will air from Miami on NBC on Saturday, Dec. 31, beginning at 10:30 PM Eastern. It will also be available to stream on Peacock.
