Dolly Parton reveals why she turned down tea with Kate Middleton

Dolly Parton is candid about the hysterical reason she turned down an invitation to tea with Kate Middleton.

The legendary country singer, 77, revealed that she received the highly sought-after invitation from the Princess of Wales, 41, while visiting London for work.

Whilst gushing about the British capital, the Jolene songstress confessed to almost rubbing shoulders with the royal, but unfortunately “couldn’t go” to the proposed sit-down.

Parton told the BBC Radio 2 hosts: “This time, Lordy, I even got invited to have tea with Kate but I couldn’t even go.

“I thought it was very sweet and nice of her to invite me and one of these days I’m going to get to do that – that would be great.”

Then, in true Dolly Parton fashion, she joked that the reason she turned down the invitation was due to her promotional tour. She said: “But she wasn’t going to promote my rock album so I had to say no.”

She went on to express her regret at not having explored more of London while on her tour, but added that she didn’t have enough time to play tourist during her stay.

The 9 to 5 singer expressed her love of the English capital to presenter Claudia Winkleman.

Parton said: “I love the people, the feel of London. I don’t unfortunately [get time to sightsee]. I have in the past, me and my band, in a tour bus when we have it planned.”

The confession comes after the songstress said she would rather “drop dead” while singing on stage than quit music in her latest interview.

Despite nearing a six-decade-long career in the industry, Parton has no plans to hang up the microphone.

“I would never retire. I would hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday – and hopefully one I’ve written – but that’s how I hope to go,” she shared with Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio.

“I don’t have much of a choice in that but in the meantime, I’m going to make hay while the sun shines.”

Parton owns a large catalogue of around 3000 songs and is responsible for writing iconic hits such as Jolene and I Will Always Love You.

While the country music icon is determined to keep doing what she loves, she has made some adjustments to her work schedule and cut down on a few aspects of the job.

“I’m not touring anymore but I will continue to do special shows here and there now and then like a long weekend or festival shows,” she said.

“But as far as touring I think those days are pretty much behind me... you have to stay gone so long on a tour to make it productive and prosperous and that’s a lot of time at my age – I ain’t got no years to waste.”

Instead of living on the road, Parton hopes to host more television shows and feature in more films.

“I want to have my own story called The Life of Many Colours where I have a whole TV series of my life,” she shared.

“Stuff that people haven’t seen or heard about me and where I come from and how I got to be how and who I am. The bad, the good and the ugly!”

“So that’s one thing I want to do and then just host more TV shows, do more movies. I want to have my own line of makeup, own line of wigs and clothes.

“Once you get to a certain place in your career you get a lot of offers and some of them are just really hard to turn down.”

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission. 

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