Dolly Parton is giving new meaning to the term old-school, when it comes to communicating with the country music icon.
Earlier this month, during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, fellow musician and friend Reba McEntire revealed that the only way she can get in contact with Parton is through fax.
‘You don’t call Dolly, you fax her,’ McEntire, 68, said. ‘You fax your people and your people talk to her people. That’s the only way I know to get ahold of her.’
She continued, ‘Dolly doesn’t text. I don’t have her telephone number, and I asked Kenny Rogers one time, I said, “Do you have Dolly’s number?” He said, “No.”‘
Appearing via satellite for Wednesday’s episode of The View, the legendary singer-songwriter set the record straight about her view on technology, and the use of a fax machine as her main form of communication.
Old school: Dolly Parton, 77, set the record straight about her view on technology, and confirmed she prefers to use fax machine over more modern forms like texting and emails
‘Actually, I don’t want to get into that world,’ Parton, 77, told co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, in a reference to more current forms of communication like cell phones, text messages, emails and social media platforms. ‘I’m surrounded by enough people.’
It turns out McEntire isn’t the only friend of Parton’s who expressed their frustration with her penchant for using a fax.
‘Kenny Rogers used to aggravate me about it,’ the Jolene star recalled of the late country music singer. ‘I said, “Look, I’ll send you a message by carrier pigeon if I need to get in touch with you. You always seem to know how to reach me when you want something!”‘
The rural Tennessee native went into more detail about her reasons for shunning all those modern forms of IT like texting and emails.
‘So I actually, I never did get into getting involved in all that because it’ll take up too much of my time if I tried to get in touch with everybody who is trying to get in touch with me,’ she explained. ‘So I just say, “Fax me! Fax me or call me and I’ll call you back.”‘
Parton’s love of faxing has long been corroborated by her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.
The Plastic Hearts star recalled how Parton sent her a fax asking to collaborate on her holiday album during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in October 2021.
‘She gets upset when you don’t respond,’ Cyrus, 30, said, adding that she herself doesn’t even own a fax machine. ‘It’s like, “I’m sorry, I don’t even know. Half the people watching your show might not even know what a fax machine is!”‘
Dolly’s way: Appearing via satellite on The View, Parton set the record straight about her preference to use a fax: ‘Actually, I don’t want to get into that world,’ Parton told co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, in a reference to cell phones, text messages, emails and social media platforms. ‘I’m surrounded by enough people’
Faxing Dolly: ‘You don’t call Dolly, you fax her. You fax your people and your people talk to her people. That’s the only way I know to get ahold of her,’ Reba McEntire, 68, said of Parton earlier this month during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live
Fax me: Parton’s goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, confirmed the legendary singer-songwriter’s preference of fax by sharing how she once sent her a message via fax when asking to collaborate on her holiday album
For the people who don’t have any experience with a fax (short for facsimile), basically it’s a telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other output device.
Fax machines were a mainstay in offices in the 1980s and into the 1990s, but they have gradually been rendered obsolete by Internet-based technologies such as email and the World Wide Web; although they do remain particularly popular in medical administration and law enforcement.
Parton is about to make her first foray into the rock n’ roll genre with Rockstar, her 49th solo studio album of her career that dates back to 1956 when she was just 10-years-old.
Kenny’s complaints: ‘Kenny Rogers used to aggravate me about it,’ the Jolene star recalled of Rogers’ complaints about communication. ‘I said, “Look, I’ll send you a message by carrier pigeon if I need to get in touch with you. You always seem to know how to reach me when you want something”‘
Ready to rock: Parton will make her first foray into the rock n’ roll genre with Rockstar, her 49th solo studio album of her career that dates back to 1956 when she was just 10-years-old
Rockstar, which includes a cover of the song Wrecking Ball originally recorded by Miley Cyrus, is scheduled to be released on November 17.
During her storied career the Queen Of Country has 44 Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles during her storied career.
She has also had 25 songs reach number one of the Billboard country music chart, which is a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire).
With more than 100 million records sold worldwide, Parton is among the best-selling female artists of all time.
