Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, once described how carrying a handgun may have helped her escape a frightening encounter with an aggressive man — and how the incident apparently helped inspire one of the most memorable lines in “9 to 5.”
Parton recounted the episode during a 2021 interview with Nashville Soundbite after being asked about a famous moment from the 1980 workplace comedy.
In the movie, Parton plays Doralee Rhodes, a secretary dealing with a lecherous and abusive boss. Her character memorably threatens to use a gun to change him “from a rooster to a hen.”
As Parton explained it, that line had roots outside Hollywood.
“This guy was really coming on to me and it was scary as it could be and so he just kept on and I just really, because being country girls and at that time, you know, I had a gun so I pulled it out,” Parton said.
She then recalled what she told the man.
“I said ‘Look,’ it was basically what they kind of based that [on], ‘if you touch me one more time I’ll change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot,’” she said.
Parton indicated that she had told the story before “9 to 5” was made and believed it provided the basis for the movie moment.
“That’s kind of basically where that whole thing [started], because I’d told that story years before and so, so that’s kind of where that came from,” she said.
Parton’s willingness to carry a firearm for protection was no secret.
Years before “9 to 5” arrived in theaters, she discussed the subject openly during a 1978 interview with Playboy magazine.
“I always carry a gun. A .38 pistol,” Parton told the publication. “I have a permit for it in Nashville…. I just carry it for protection. I feel safer when I’ve got it. I just don’t like the idea of knowin’ I’m totally helpless.”
The comments offer a glimpse into an era when obtaining permission to carry a concealed handgun could be considerably more difficult than it is today in many parts of the country.
Parton’s encounter occurred before “9 to 5” was released in 1980 and decades before the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
In Bruen, the Supreme Court struck down New York’s requirement that applicants demonstrate a special need, or “proper cause,” to receive an unrestricted license to carry a concealed handgun in public. The decision established that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun publicly for self-defense.
The legal landscape in Parton’s home state changed substantially as well.
According to TennesseeFirearms.com, Tennessee had restrictive concealed-carry laws before 1994, with permits difficult to obtain through county sheriffs. The state later moved toward a centralized permit system and eventually enacted permitless handgun carry for qualifying adults in 2021.
Parton, however, was talking publicly about having a permit and carrying her .38 as far back as 1978.
Her explanation for doing so was remarkably uncomplicated. She carried the pistol because she wanted a means of protecting herself and did not want to feel “totally helpless.”
According to the story she later told, there was at least one occasion when that firearm became more than a precaution.
Parton did not describe firing it. Pulling it and issuing a warning was apparently enough.
