Dolly Parton maintains that she never wants to be cloned

British outlet The Guardian runs a fun series called “The Reader Interview,” where their readers submit questions in advance for the famous people who eventually grace The Guardian’s pages. Granted, it’s not an idea that is wholly unique to them, but it often does generate some very fun responses from its guests, like last week, when Isabelle Huppert claimed she never learned anything from anyone, or when Nelly Furtado recalled her speakers exploding while recording “Maneater.” Or today, when Dolly Parton revealed that she never wants to be cloned. 

This was in response to a question about Dolly, the sheep who became the 20th century’s most famous ungulate in 1997 when the public found out that she was born a clone. The sheep was named after Parton because the cells they cloned her with came from the mammary glands, the singer recalls in The Guardian interview. “That’s what they call them … glands … the boobs. They said: ‘Oh, we have this sheep, Dolly …’” Parton recalls. “Everybody always played up to these [points to her chest], so that’s why we had Dolly the sheep.” A slightly crude, but not too uncommon, joke. 

But then Parton sounds slightly more serious: “I was sorry when she died, though I don’t want [to] be cloned myself. I want to get on out of here when I can.” She explains, “We already get a lot of Dolly lookalikes, a lot of Dolly drag queens. I can just send them down to the store instead of me.” This does beg the question: what is Dolly Parton buying from the corner store that they will only sell to (someone who looks like) Dolly Parton? 

Of course, Parton is kidding. Regardless, Dolly the sheep was born from the same cells, but (presumably) did not share a consciousness with the sheep she spawned from. Today, Dolly the sheep is taxidermized and stationary at the National Museum of Scotland; we can hardly fault Parton for wanting to avoid the same fate.