Stella parton professional#
Stella parton tv#

‘I called those sessions “sister fixes”. Dolly was our drug of choice and we were hers.’įor all that, if you believe half of what you read, there have been many fallings out down the years. When Dolly moved on her own to Nashville aged 18, she did miss her family so Stella and her younger sibling, Cassie, would go by coach to stay with her. She had a bathtub, indoor plumbing, electricity and a telephone. ‘From then on, Dolly was never without a pay cheque.’ And she didn’t mind being away from home? ‘She loved it.

Stella parton tv#

And she was always more extroverted than me.’ Aged ten, Dolly went to live with their aunt Estelle, 40 miles away, to be nearer local TV and radio stations. ‘But it became obvious that music made her happy and that made us happy, too. We were storytellers and singers and songwriters who happened to grow up on a farm.’ Bridge Mahalikĭolly’s talent crept up on her gradually, says Stella. ‘Daddy was a good singer, my mother was a great one he played the banjo, she played the guitar. The family had to make their own amusement. That taught me the art of being a survivor.’ ‘I had to drag a chair up to the stove so I could reach to stir the pot. There were just too many of us.’ The result for Stella was that she became a de facto mother to the children younger than her, helping to cook for them from the age of seven. So there is no doubt that, emotionally speaking, we were neglected. It was like having a parent who checked out every so often. ‘She’d spend months over the dreary winter with a pillow over her head. Stella’s mother, Avie, was prone to seasonal affective disorder. Hot water came via kettles boiled on the wood-burning stove. The family home had no electricity until Stella was eight and no indoor plumbing until she was 15. It was a loving but tough upbringing in the mountains of East Tennessee. I’m not sure about asking that of a young child – I was five – but my parents were of the view that we should be exposed to life, both its beauty and its harshness.’

‘I remember seeing him in his open coffin.

She is number six in a family of six boys and six girls, although her brother Larry died at four days from a lung disorder contracted in the womb. But then, like her myriad siblings, she is a graduate of the school of hard knocks. ‘You run your own race.’ The twinkly-eyed woman sitting opposite me in London’s Ivy Club is clearly at peace with herself. That said, it has sometimes been put in the shade by the extraordinary success of her sister Dolly, three years her senior at 72. She’s about to release her 40th album, so Stella’s career could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as disappointing. For me, cooking is like theatre it’s a celebration you lay on for your audience.’ Michael Price In my time, I’ve compiled three charity cookbooks featuring Southern country food with a healthy flair. ‘I’ve long been a keen cook so of course I want to win. They are real characters and they are supportive of all of us.’ And she was thrilled with judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode.

Stella parton professional#

She loved the other contestants in her first heat which include actress Lisa Maxwell and Strictly Come Dancing professional A J Pritchard. So how is she finding it? ‘I liked the format from the get-go,’ she says. When we meet, she has already started the recording process. Simon pitched the idea of this enthusiastic amateur cook being part of the 2018 Celebrity Masterchef line-up – it took the BBC less than 24 hours to give her the green light. The man to thank, she says, is UK-based publicist Simon Whittam who wrote to praise her 2013 album Resurrection and ended up becoming her friend and now manager. But how on earth did Stella, 69, make the leap from Nashville into the bosom of so British an institution? Admittedly, the US ex-Pussycat Dolls singer Kimberly Wyatt triumphed on the cooking contest in 2015 and her fellow countryman Jimmy Osmond got into the final the following year. An American country singer, Stella is also well known as Dolly Parton’s kid sister. So it’s something of a surprise to find Stella Parton in this year’s line-up alongside celebrities including actor Keith Allen, cricketer Monty Panesar, The Only Way is Essex star Gemma Collins and Made in Chelsea’s Spencer Matthews. Down the intervening years, comedian Ade Edmondson and actress Sophie Thompson have been among those carrying off the much-coveted trophy – all familiar names to a home-grown TV audience. When Celebrity Masterchef debuted in 2006, its surprise winner was former rugby player Matt Dawson. She opens up to Richard Barber about those rivalry rumours, their tough childhood and why cooking is more satisfying than marriage. Stella Parton, the country-singing sister of superstar Dolly, is a surprise contestant on this year’s Celebrity Masterchef.