Dolly Parton’s cheer and good humor seem unflappable, but she admitted to feeling lost and upset during one Las Vegas concert. The show was big and expensive, meant to be a grand introduction to the city for Parton. Instead, she felt overwhelmed and embarrassed. She shared what went so wrong when she got onstage.
Dolly Parton felt uncomfortable during a show in Las Vegas
In the 1980s, Parton and her manager, Sandy Gallin, planned to take her career to the next level with TV specials, film roles, and large concerts. One of these star-making moves was a plan for Parton to perform two weeks at the Riviera Theater in Las Vegas. She would make $350,000 a week.
“Sandy Gallin and I decided it would be fun to do a big Las Vegas show,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “Sandy was a genius at negotiating the deal. At the time it was the biggest deal in Las Vegas history. It called for two shows a night for two weeks at the Riviera for a multimillion-dollar figure. The deal was big, and that was a good thing. The show was big, and that was a disaster.”
In true Vegas fashion, the show was glitzy and oversized. While this seems like Parton’s ideal concert, all it did was overwhelm her.
“This show was an extravaganza, with big flashy sets and costumes,” she wrote. “I felt as out of place as Gomer Pyle at Harvard. I think it’s because my persona is oversized and flashy. That makes me a kind of a fish out of water in normal surroundings, but when I am surrounded by things that are just as flashy, I become a fish in water and tend to get lost in the shuffle.”
At the time, Parton was also dealing with health problems, family drama, and heartbreak. It all became too much. Per UPI, she canceled the remainder of her performances, citing vocal problems.
“I had always been a trouper who believed as strongly as anyone that ‘the show must go on,’ but this situation got the best of me,” she wrote. “I stopped the show and pulled out of Las Vegas.”
Dolly Parton made a triumphant return to Las Vegas years later
After canceling her Vegas performances, Parton avoided playing the city for years.
“I did not go back for many years,” she wrote. “When Elvis first played Vegas, he had an equally miserable experience that soured him on it for a long time.”
When she finally returned, though, she had a much better experience. She looked back fondly on these performances.
“Years later, [Elvis] returned in triumph,” she wrote. “I also returned later and had a wonderful experience working for Steve Wynn, first at the Golden Nugget and later at the Mirage.”
She admitted that her onstage persona is a character
Parton explained that one of the reasons the first Vegas shows went so poorly was because she didn’t feel that she could be herself.
“Although I look like a drag queen’s Christmas tree on the outside, I am at heart a simple country woman,” she wrote. “I am at my best in simple situations where my true personality can flow naturally.”
Though she likes her true personality to come through onstage, she admitted that she puts on a persona when she’s in public.
“I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination,” she said, per the book Dolly on Dolly, adding, “I always think of ‘her,’ the Dolly image, like a ventriloquist does his dummy. I have fun with it. I think, what will I do with her this year to surprise people? What’ll she wear? What’ll she say?”
