Singer/actor Dolly Parton speaks onstage during the 23rd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show at The Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. [AFP]
Back in 2008 at age 62, Dolly Parton released a single proclaiming she was "just a backwoods Barbie, too much makeup, too much hair."
In her six decades recording and defining country music, she was so much more.
The American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist didn't seem to mind being mistaken for a ditzy blonde all too eager to play up her looks, after growing up poor in rural Tennessee.
But Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, was an immense and gifted talent who started writing serious music, what she called "sad-ass songs" about heartbreak and tragedy, at the tender age of 10.
By her own reckoning, she has penned 3,000 tunes in all, including enduring country standards like 1973's "Jolene" and the iconic ballad "I Will Always Love You," which became an international smash for Whitney Houston.
The "queen of country music" released 49 studio albums and more than 100 compilation and collaboration albums over a decades-long career that saw her sell more than 100 million records and top the charts more than any woman in the genre.