She’s a singer, songwriter, actress, author, philanthropist and all-round sweetheart, and if Dolly Parton really wanted to, she could add comedian to her resume, too — especially after her recent “Tonight Show” routine.
On Wednesday night, the entertainment icon paid a visit to pal Jimmy Fallon, and regaled him with a story about the early days of her fame and how she acquired her biggest assets.
According to Parton, she first gained local fame as a teen in Tennessee, and while she didn’t make much money in those days, she liked to take her mom and sisters out each week for a meal at the Pancake House.
“Once when I took them up there, we were in the restaurant and we were having our meal, and then this old man came over to our table,” she recalled. “He sat down, and he was just talking to us and we were all laughing. We didn’t know him.”
She said the man was gone by the time she went up to pay her bill. That’s when she was informed that her grandfather had left his bill for her, too.
“I said, ‘My grandpa?’ So that old man had come over and kind of scammed us,” Parton continued. “I said, ‘That was not my grandpa,’ but I paid it, of course.”
Fallon was fascinated with he story, and shocked when he thought it had taken a dark turn.
“So when we left, I walked down the street and he was standing there at the light,” Parton said. “I went over to him and said, ‘I would have been happy to have paid your bill, but telling them that you’re my grandpa …’ And he took his walking stick and he started just beating me across the chest. Just as hard as he could. Just wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! And it hurt.”
Horrified, Fallon asked, “Well, then what happened?!
“What do you mean what happened?” the buxom star asked as she stood up and put her hands on her hips. “These two big lumps came up and never did go down!”
Fallon collapsed in laughter, the audience cheered, and the prankster just giggled as she said, “Gotcha!”
Fans who want to hear more tales from Parton can tune into her new Netflix anthology series, “Heartstrings,” on Friday. Each installment covers a different story based on one of her hits.