From Kylie Minogue’s long-awaited performance to Lionel Richie leading thousands in a synchronised dance routine, Glastonbury’s Legends slot has become known for providing some of the most memorable moments in the festival’s history. But it wasn’t always this way.
For almost two decades, the Sunday afternoon spot had varying success. Until a certain five-foot-nothing southern trailblazer charmed the farm and raised the bar. Who? Dolly Parton, of course.
As I packed for Glastonbury in 2014, I counted myself as a slightly above-casual Dolly fan: excited for her set and aware of her obvious cultural significance, but with no proper grasp of what was to come. By the time we were dismantling the tents on the Monday morning, like many of the 100,000 people who saw Parton perform that weekend, I was a born-again, fully paid-up member of the Dolly fan club.
As Glastonburys go, it was a blokey one. The festival was headlined by indie faves Arcade Fire (who do have one female member out of five), the heavy metal band Metallica and Leicester lads Kasabian. But the rhinestone-clad Parton outshone them all.
open image in galleryAfter years of inviting veteran acts to grace the Pyramid Stage on Sunday afternoons, Glastonbury made the Legends slot an official occasion in 1998 when the jazz crooner Tony Bennett stopped by at Worthy Farm.
In the years that followed, the likes of Godfather of Soul James Brown(!), Dame Shirley Bassey – wearing diamanté wellingtons and a £50k dress, naturally – and Beach Boys visionary Brian Wilson performed in the mid-afternoon spot.
But when Parton, then aged 68, was announced for Glastonbury in February 2014, you got the sense that something special was brewing. The festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, threw aside any concerns of picking favourites and tweeted: “We are delighted to say that Dolly is coming to Glastonbury … It really doesn’t get much better than this!”
Fast forward four months and by the time soundchecks were underway and the tinnies opened, there was only one act anyone at Worthy Farm wanted to talk about. Just as her death has sparked genuinely heartfelt tributes from an eclectic range of musicians, figures from across the political spectrum (Trump and Obama!) and institutions including Nasa, Parton’s Legends appearance was the ultimate Glastonbury leveller.
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Whether fellow festival-goers were most hyped for Metallica, itching to hear Lana Del Rey perform from the newly released Ultraviolence, or hoping to catch a secret Fatboy Slim set, every conversation with a stranger ended in the same agreement: country powerhouse Parton was the act you simply couldn’t miss.
The singer was midway through a global tour at the time, and even performed at London’s O2 Arena the night before her Glastonbury set, but of course, she understood the assignment – and provided a blueprint for all of the Legends who have performed at Worthy Farm since.
Rather than trotting out a slimmed-down version of her tour show, Parton carefully constructed a special, one-time only gig. On paper, her custom-made outfit (head-to-toe white and sparkles, topped off with an astonishingly tall, platinum blonde wig) was wildly unsuitable for the muddy Somerset fields, but this is Dolly Parton we’re talking about. Obviously she pulled it off with ease.
Arriving on stage to the biggest cheers of the weekend – and in front of the biggest crowd ever recorded at the festival – Parton kicked off her 70-minute set with a fiery medley of “Baby I’m Burnin’”, “Great Balls of Fire” and “Girl on Fire”, before the catchy “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ like That” and “Jolene”, one of Rolling Stone’s picks for the greatest country song of all time.
open image in galleryParton’s unrivalled storytelling abilities were displayed both in her performances and the anecdotes she told between. “I got rid of that redheaded woman in a hurry!” she quipped after “Jolene”, before adding: “But had it not been for her, I wouldn’t have written ‘Jolene’ and I wouldn’t have made all that money… so thank you!”
I am not ashamed to say that, having had minimal sleep for four nights, I sobbed through both her explanation of “Coat of Many Colours” and the rendition of it that followed, before Parton switched the mood up again, by delighting the crowd with “Mud Song”, which she’d written especially for Glastonbury.
She aced it with her choice of special guest too, going for something a little different by welcoming the former Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, who assisted with a cover of “Lay Your Hands on Me”. By the time she closed her set with an emotional rendition of her power ballad “I Will Always Love You”, even the hardiest of naysayers would have been won over. Parton herself was pretty pleased, too. “They seemed to enjoy it,” she later said of the crowd. “And that made me feel good because I’ve never done the festival before.”
As well as winning over thousands of new fans, Parton made the Legends slot “cool”, paving the way for the likes of fellow country legend Shania Twain and Rod Stewart to follow in her footsteps.
The rest of that Sunday at Glastonbury is a blur to be honest. I know I interviewed Kasabian in the run-up to the festival, but I couldn’t tell you whether I saw them perform or not (sorry, Serge). What we do know is this: the Legends slot hasn’t been the same since. As she did through so much of her career, Parton effortlessly raised the bar and set the standard for those who would follow her. Thank you, Dolly.