Dolly Parton Defends Only Being Reachable By Fax Machine – ‘I Don’t Want To Get Into That World’

The country music legend Dolly Parton is speaking out to defend the surprising fact that she can only be reached by her friends via fax machine, as she has no interest in using a cellphone for things like texting or social media.

Parton Still Uses Fax Machines

“Actually, I don’t want to get into that world,” Parton, 77, said while appearing on “The View” last week, seemingly referring to cellphones. “I’m surrounded by enough people.”

Parton went on to admit that she’s gotten quite a lot of grief for this from her friends over the years.

 “Kenny Rogers used to aggravate me about it,” she recalled of the late country music star, who died in 2020. “I said, ‘Look, I’ll send you a message by carrier pigeon if I need to get in touch with you. You always seem to know how to reach me when you want something!'”

“So I actually, I never did get into getting involved in all that because it’ll take up too much of my time if I tried to get in touch with everybody who is trying to get in touch with me,” she added. “So I just say, ‘Fax me! Fax me or call me and I’ll call you back.’”

Check out Parton’s full comments on this in the video below, with the relevant portion starting at around the 5:08 mark.

Related: Dolly Parton Reveals She Was ‘Whipped’ By Her Preacher Grandfather For Her Clothing Choices

Miley Cyrus Communicates With Parton Through Fax

Parton’s goddaughter Miley Cyrus discussed the “Jolene” singer’s affinity for fax machines back in 2021.

“She gets upset when you don’t respond,” Cyrus, 30, said at the time, according to People Magazine. “It’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t even know. Half the people watching your show might not even know what a fax machine is!’ ”

“Every time I coordinate and kind of communicate with Dolly, it’s still through fax,” she added in a separate interview. “We do use the phone, but she does a fax and then someone scans the fax and then they put it into a text message. And then that gets sent to me, and it’s always signed.”

“She has a phone — she just doesn’t use it, I don’t think,” Cyrus continued. “I think someone uses it for her and does the fax machine through the phone.”

Watch Cyrus talk more about this in the video below.

Related: Dolly Parton, 77, Defiantly Refuses To Retire – Would Rather ‘Drop Dead In The Middle Of A Song Onstage’

Reba McEntire Talks Parton Faxing

Parton’s longtime friend Reba McEntire, 68, has also addressed this in the past.

“You don’t call Dolly, you fax her,” McEntire said last year. “You fax your people and your people talk to her people. That’s the only way I know to get ahold of her.”

McEntire discussed this once again earlier this month while appearing on “Watch What Happens Live!”

“Dolly does not text,” McEntire explained. “I don’t have her telephone number. And I asked Kenny Rogers one time, I said, ‘Do you have Dolly’s number?’ He said, ‘No.'”

“You know what, maybe he said that because he didn’t want to give it to me,” she added with a laugh.

Check out McEntire’s full comments on this in the video below.

Longtime fans of Parton’s know that she has always been a down-to-earth country gal who marches to the beat of her own drum. Once Parton finds something that works for her, she sticks with it, so it’s not surprising that she’s stubbornly continued to use fax machines even while much of the rest of the world has moved on to other pieces of technology.

In the end, that’s Dolly Parton, and we wouldn’t have her any other way!