Dolly Parton Was ‘Scared to Death’ About Curtsying to Queen Elizabeth — and the Queen Was ‘Very Sweet’ About It
In 1977, Dolly Parton met Queen Elizabeth II after performing at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. She said that while the queen was kind to her, she worried about following proper protocol. Parton said that Queen Elizabeth put her at ease.
Dolly Parton was terrified before meeting with Queen Elizabeth
Parton performed at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, which marked the 25th anniversary of her ascension. Parton said she’d long had a fascination with royalty, but Queen Elizabeth wasn’t what she expected.
“I remember as a child being fascinated with the kings and queens and all their flamboyant clothes, people living in another world with riches and crowns and jewelry and all that,” Parton told Business Insider. “But when I actually got to meet her, she was very sweet.”
She didn’t think that the queen placed too much emphasis on protocol.
“Even though you have to do the protocol, you have to bow and all that, I could tell that she didn’t care about that. That’s just something she had to do,” Parton said. “And if somebody made a mistake, it was OK.”
Still, Parton admitted that she worried about performing a proper curtsy. Queen Elizabeth put her at ease, though.
“I was scared to death that I was not going to know how to curtsy, that I wasn’t going to bend right, but she was just very warm, very sweet, and I could tell she was a very giving person,” she said. “And just meeting the Queen of England, just to meet a queen, it was amazing.”
She cracked a joke to Prince Philip
Parton also met Prince Philip at the Jubilee. She showed him the rhinestones on her gloves and joked about how they compared to the real diamonds the royal family would own.
“There was some remark made — I guess it was actually Prince Philip who said it, but Dolly went to shake his hand and she had on a diamond glove — I guess that’s what you call it — and she withdrew her hand and said something about her diamonds being fake and knowing that he was used to real ones,” her backup singer Mary Fielder recalled in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “And he laughed.”
Dolly Parton posted a tribute to Queen Elizabeth after her death
After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 2022, Parton posted a tribute to her on social media. She shared a photo of their 1977 meeting.
“I had the honor of meeting and performing for Queen Elizabeth II on my trip to London in 1977,” she wrote on Instagram. “She carried herself with grace and strength her entire life. May she rest in peace. My thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time.”
