Dolly Parton has been talking about the trouble she had being taken seriously as a songwriter in her early career, due to her distinctive looks. "When I first came [to Nashville] I really was the backwoods Barbie: too much make-up, too much hair, the big boobs, country girl straight out of the mountains", she said. "It's hard to take somebody looking like that serious, I guess, so I had to work doubly hard to try to prove myself".
Coincidentally, Dolly's latest album is called 'Backwoods Barbie' and is out now. In a recent interview with Billboard, the singer talked about setting up her own label to release the album: "I just wanted a fresh, clean start - just go ahead and hire independent record people, hire somebody to run the label and really sink some money into it, invest in myself. The majors are all going down the tubes. They're all has-beens like they all thought I was. So, why not just do it? If it does well, than I make all the money, and if it don't, nothing ventured, nothing gained".