Dolly Parton says disrespecting the Earth is "like being ugly to your mama"

Dolly Parton, country music star, collaborative mystery novelist, and covert Buffy The Vampire Slayer producer, has a way with words. When she received her first dose of the COVID vaccine (the development of which she helped fund), she told those who didn’t want to get the shot not to act like “such a chickensquat” about it. When asked in the summer of 2020 about Black Lives Matter, Parton said: “Of course Black lives matter. Do you think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!” When she was nominated for induction into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, she asked to be taken off the ballot, stating that she doesn’t “feel that I have earned that right.”

Basically, if Dolly Parton is asked to give her opinion about something, she will always put it in very memorable terms. This remains the case in a recent National Geographic article that sees Parton discussing the beauty of her home state and comparing climate change to “being ugly to your mama.”

The piece centers on Parton’s relationship with Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains, the area where she was raised—and which she sang about in 1972's “My Tennessee Mountain Home.” Parton calls the Great Smoky Mountains “one of the most beautiful places in the world,” saying “we got the most radiant flowers, the biggest assortment of trees,” and that “the Smokies have a heart of their own.”