Dolly Parton definitely scored a touchdown when she shocked the crowd at the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Day game at AT&T Stadium rocking a classic Cowboys cheerleader outfit. The belly-bearing uniform with the crop top and short shorts covered in rhinestones shined as the country icon performed a quick set that included her beloved songs “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and a cover of Queen’s “We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You.”
“It turned out pretty cool and my husband [Carl Thomas Dean] liked it. He said, ‘Those shorts were a little too short.’ I said, ‘Jealous?’” Parton laughed while recalling the instantly viral moment to People magazine. “And I said, ‘They weren’t as short as the other girls!’ He was just being funny. I think he thought — because everybody’s making a to-do over it — he thought, well, maybe you shouldn’t be showing your butt at that age. But anyway, he got a kick out of it too,” the 78-year-old singer said.
Parton’s manager Danny Nozell told Billboard at the time that the singer didn’t tell anyone about the cheerleader outfit until it was time to hit the stage. “It was completely her idea. She waited until right before she went to stage and came out of the dressing room to show us all. When she came out, myself, the security and my staff fainted,” Nozell said. “I couldn’t tell the difference between Dolly and the cheerleaders. That is the genius of Dolly, and people are still talking about it.”
By now Dean — who has been married to Parton since 1966 — is probably used to his wife revving up crowds, but to him she’s still just Dolly. As proof, Parton revealed to People the sweet gift he got her for her birthday last week. “It was a glass heart of Carl and I when we were younger, and it was carved into the glass inside,” she said. “You put it on a little light or a little podium and then it has a battery, and you can turn it on. We go around and around and around. I think those very personal gifts like that are always so sweet.”
