Watch: Dolly Parton Hilariously Reveals How She Lost A Lookalike Contest

Dolly Parton’s hairdresser “talked me into” entering a Dolly lookalike contest with a group of drag queens paying tribute to the legendary artist’s signature look.

She lost.

Parton, 79, appeared on Elvis Duran and the Morning Show on Thursday morning (May 22). The beloved country star, fashion icon, actress, author and philanthropist spoke about the music and the cast of her soon-to-debut Broadway musical. That’s when Duran noted that “this is not a new thing, people pretending to be Dolly.” He laughed as he said his favorites are the “Dolly drag queens,” who have long been known for dressing as Parton.

“I get a kick out of those drag queens,” she said. When asked whether it’s true that Parton once entered a lookalike contest and lost, she told the story on air. “But that was years ago when my — I have my little gay hairdresser at the time lived up there near Santa Monica Boulevard where a lot of the gays hang out. And every Halloween, of course, they all dress up. And he said, ‘well, let’s go down,’ and he’s like, ‘they give free drinks for, you know, for the people that participate.’ So, they would just walk them across the stage, and whoever got the most applause, you know, got free drinks for the rest of the night or whatever.

“So, he talked me into just kind of over exaggerating myself, if that’s possible,” Parton continued. “You know, bigger beauty mark, bigger hair, bigger whatever. So — all these big drag queens (are) going across the stage as Dolly, and then I walked across the stage, you know, just traipsing across … nobody applauded, like a little trickle that was probably David, my hairdresser. But we laughed so hard. So I always told the story that I entered a Dolly lookalike contest and lost.”

Throughout the conversation on Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, Parton also spoke about her new Southern-inspired single-serve meals (including beef pot roast, shrimp and grits and more), Dollywood’s 40th anniversary, her globally-successful Imagination Library, and her upcoming production, DOLLY: An Original Musical. Parton recently introduced the three actresses playing Dolly — Katie Rose Clarke, Carrie St. Louis and Quinn Titcomb — during the world premiere. The autobiographical, Bartlett Sher-directed show will make its debut this summer at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, before heading to New York City in 2026. DOLLY: An Original Musical will run in Nashville from July 18 through August 31, 2025.

Watch Parton’s full interview on Elvis Duran and the Morning Show here: