Dolly Parton says she starts her day at 3 am: ‘I don’t need a whole lot of sleep’
The '9 to 5' singer says her secret to success is getting a really early start to the day
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Forget working from 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton starts her day at 3 a.m.
On Monday, the country music icon revealed that her secret to success is having a very early morning routine.
"I don’t need a whole lot of sleep," the singer insisted to Insider. "I go to bed pretty early, but even if I’ve been up late – it’s just kind of like a little clock inside of me that says, ‘It’s 3 o’clock!’"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I do some of my best work there, but I get enough sleep," the 76-year-old continued. "I don’t require as much sleep as a lot of other people do. That’s kind of a Parton family trait."
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton performs during the 2022 SXSW Conference And Festival on March 18, 2022, in Austin, Texas. (Rick Kern/FilmMagic)
The crooner told the outlet that her late father, Robert Lee Parton, was also an early riser. The patriarch passed away in 2000 at age 79.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’m like my daddy," she explained. "He was always up early, even if he had to go to bed late."
On weekends, Parton likes to cook up a big breakfast for Carl Dean, her husband of 55 years. According to the outlet, the crooner likes to make fluffy scrambled eggs, French toast and bacon or gravy with biscuits.
Parton first met the Nashville businessman when she was 18 and he was 21. In September 2020, Parton told People magazine the two still carve out time for date nights.
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Dolly Parton in a scene from the film "9 to 5," 1980. (20th Century-Fox/Getty Images)
"We still have our little times, like in the springtime when the first daffodils come out," said Parton. "... My husband always brings me a bouquet. And he’ll usually write me a little poem. Which to me, that’s priceless. That’s like a date in itself."
According to the outlet, one of their first dates was at McDonald’s. But these days, Parton does the cooking for two.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’ll cook the stuff that I know we love," she explained. "And I pack it up in a picnic basket. And then we’ll go find some riverbank somewhere with our little camper, park, have a picnic. Or we’ll pull up to some little Davis Inn motel, go in as long as the bed’s clean and there’s a bathroom. We just do our little things like that."
"Or I’ll do a candlelight dinner," she continued. "We don’t make an issue of it. It’s like certain days, you feel a certain way. And I’ll say, ‘I’m going to surprise him. And we’re going to have real cloth napkins and real crystal. I’m going to put the real china out instead of the paper plates we usually eat on because we don’t want to have to wash dishes.'"
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Dolly Parton revealed the secret to her success and lasting marriage. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Netflix)
Parton also revealed that the secret behind her decades-long marriage is surprisingly simple – being comfortable in her own skin.
"And that's sexy," she said. "You may not want to dress or look like me, you can take from that to be yourself. I'm a very passionate person in everything that I do, and I think passion has great sex appeal. I think people are drawn to that because it's magic. It's an energy. And I've always been a great lover because I'm passionate. I just feel my sensuality, my sexuality, my passion, and I don't have to apologize for any of that. I've never been offensive in any way, never tried to be. Or I've never tried to be anything other than just what I am."