Dolly Parton shocks with story of being ‘beaten up’ by scammer with walking stick
(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Dolly Parton shocked Jimmy Fallon with a story about an old man attacking her – but it wasn’t all it seemed.
Dolly Parton started on her rise to the top while she young. As a child, she was a local celebrity in her hometown in Tennessee and would frequently sing on TV and radio, despite her family not owning a TV themselves.
Appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2019, Dolly explained how she would often use the little money earned from these appearances to take her mother and sisters to the Pancake House every week.
On one of these family outings, Dolly and her family made an unexpected friend.
“Once when I took them up there, we were in the restaurant and we were having our meal, and then this old man came over to our table,” she explained. “He sat down, and he was just talking to us and we were all laughing. We didn’t know him.”
By the time the bill came, the man had disappeared. And according to the wait staff, her “grandfather” had left his bill for Dolly to pick up, too.
At this point, the young Dolly realised that she had been scammed by the old man. Nevertheless, she paid the bill, she told Fallon.
“So when we left, I walked down the street and he was standing there at the light,” Dolly continued. “I went over to him and said: ‘I would have been happy to have paid your bill, but telling them that you’re my grandpa …’ And he took his walking stick and he started just beating me across the chest. Just as hard as he could. Just wham! Wham! Wham! Wham! And it hurt.”
Shocked, Jimmy asked Dolly what happened. In response, she rose from her chair and stood, facing the audience, with a hand on each hip.
“What do you mean what happened? These two big lumps came up and never did go down!”
The country star pointed at Fallon, who was hunched over with laughter, as she exclaimed: “Gotcha!”
However, Jimmy still held out hope that the story had been genuine.
“Jimmy! You dumbass, you don’t analyse a joke. Now where’s my water?” Dolly playfully scolded him.
The story wasn’t the only joke from the Dolly that night. Jimmy presented the country music queen with a throwback picture from her own Instagram, also featuring Oprah in the back, sticking up two fingers behind Dolly’s head like horns.
“Well, I’m still horny. I don’t know if they are! That’s a great picture!” she laughed, before clapping her hands in delight.
