Dolly Parton may be the queen of country music, but even she was nervous on the day she met Queen Elizabeth II.
After performing for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, Parton got to chat with her backstage.
And the country singer — who sat down with Insider on Zoom to discuss her new line of Southern desserts with Duncan Hines — said it was a night she'll always remember.
"I remember as a child being fascinated with the kings and queens and all their flamboyant clothes, people living in another world with riches and crowns and jewelry and all that," Parton said. "But when I actually got to meet her, she was very sweet."
Parton said she was scared she wouldn't know how to curtsy properly, but the Queen put her right at ease.
"Even though you have to do the protocol, you have to bow and all that, I could tell that she didn't care about that. That's just something she had to do," Parton told Insider. "And if somebody made a mistake, it was OK."
"I was scared to death that I was not going to know how to curtsy, that I wasn't going to bend right, but she was just very warm, very sweet, and I could tell she was a very giving person," she said. "And just meeting the Queen of England, just to meet a queen, it was amazing."
The Silver Jubilee marked Queen Elizabeth II's 25th year on the British throne. Parton performed for the Royal Variety Show in Glasgow, Scotland, alongside the Jackson 5, Scottish vocalist Sydney Devine, and English comedian Frankie Howerd, according to The Tennessean.
It was Parton's first time in Scotland, and she didn't know she was going to perform for the Queen until she was on a flight to the UK, the Glasgow Evening Times reported.
"When they told me on the plane I was appearing in front of the Queen, I just jumped up and down telling everyone," Parton told the paper at the time. "It's just one of the biggest thrills of my life."
After news broke of Queen Elizabeth II's death in September, Parton shared a black-and-white photo of their meeting alongside a tribute to the monarch.
"She carried herself with grace and strength her entire life," Parton wrote in the Instagram caption. "May she rest in peace."
Parton told Insider that Queen Elizabeth was loved "all over the world."
"When she passed, I kind of felt it," Parton said. "Like it was someone I kind of knew."
