Dolly Parton opened up about how she’s known Keanu Reeves since he was a child, as she worked with his mother, costume designer Patricia Taylor.
The 77-year-old music legend appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show Monday, where she was asked about her work with Taylor, who helped put together the outfit she wore on the cover of Playboy for its October 1978 issue.
‘Yes, she did a lot of sewing for me,’ the Jolene artist said of Taylor. ‘She did a lot of my clothes for me, but I remember Keanu when he was just little.
‘And she would bring him over to my house for the fittings or I would go to the shop where she worked.’
Parton, who made headlines last week performing during the halftime show of the Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game at at AT&T Stadium, told Barrymore that Reeves connected with her years later backstage at one of her concerts.
Dolly Parton, 77, opened up about how she’s known Keanu Reeves, 59, since he was a child, as she worked with his mother, costume designer Patricia Taylor, 79
The celebs were reunited in January of 2019 in a post Parton shared on her Instagram page
‘I was doing a show somewhere and somebody knocked on the door,’ the 9 to 5 singer said. ‘And he said, “Do you remember me? I’m the little boy that used to sit at your feet while my mama was [working].”
‘And I said, “Oh my God!” I knew he had become a star, but it didn’t connect to me that that was who that was.’
Parton said of Reeves, the staple of action franchises such as The Matrix and John Wick, ‘He’s great – he’s the sweetest guy.’
Reeves two years ago opened up about how he paid homage to his mom’s work, saying his favorite-ever Halloween costume was the year he dressed as Dolly Parton on the cover of Playboy in 1978.
Reeves spoke about the costume appearing on Red Table Talk in December of 2021 with his The Matrix Resurrections costars Carrie Ann Moss and host Jada Pinkett Smith.
‘I was Dolly Parton as the Playboy Bunny,’ Reeves said. ‘My mother was a costume designer and she made some costumes for Dolly Parton and she once did the cover of Playboy.’
On the cover, Parton wore a black and pink sequined costume which was initially designed by the late Zelda Wynn Valdes, who was the first ever Black designer to have a shop on Broadway Street in New York.
The music legend appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show Monday, where she was asked about her work with Taylor, who helped put together the outfit she wore on the cover of Playboy for its October 1978 issue
Barrymore held up a copy of the issue which the future A-lister’s mom had worked on
The 9 to 5 singer told Barrymore that Reeves connected with her years later backstage at one of her concerts, asking her if she remembered him.
‘Somehow I guess [Dolly] didn’t take that home, so we had it, and it was Halloween,’ Reeves said. ‘So I put on the ears, then the bustier, I wore sneakers with fishnet stockings and a bowtie. I had some pretty long hair.’
Reeves had past chat about the costume in two media appearances: In 2019 on The Talk and during a 2003 appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Reeves said in the 2003 Letterman appearance, ”My mother did a thing for Dolly Parton for Playboy magazine when Dolly Parton did the cover. She was in this kind of outfit and I wore that when I was 16.’
Reeves donned ‘the bustier’ and ‘the ears’ as part of the costume, but was unsure of the cuffs.
‘I didn’t do the cuff,’ he said. ‘Or did I do the cuffs? I don’t remember – and I wore sneakers and like these fishnet things.’
In the January 2019 appearance on the CBS chat show, Reeves went into detail about the circumstances behind the costume.
‘There was one year, I was in performing arts high school, and Dolly Parton had done the cover of Playboy and so you know she had the bunny’ ears, he said. ‘I wore that for Halloween.
‘Thank you Dolly! Yeah so I was on a streetcar in Toronto in 1983 wearing that.’
Reeves two years ago opened up about how he paid homage to his mom’s work, saying his favorite-ever Halloween costume was the year he dressed as Dolly Parton on the cover of Playboy in 1978
Reeves appeared on the program with his The Matrix Resurrections costars Carrie Ann Moss and host Jada Pinkett Smith
On the cover of the issue, Parton wore a black and pink sequined costume which was initially designed by the late Zelda Wynn Valdes, who was the first ever Black designer to have a shop on Broadway Street in New York
Parton in 2021 recreated the Playboy look to celebrate her husband Carl Dean’s birthday in a clip she posted on social media.
‘He still thinks I’m a hot chick after 57 years and I’m not going to try to talk him out of that,’ Parton said. ‘I was kind of a little butterball in that one. Well, I’m string cheese now, but he’ll probably think I’m cream cheese, I hope.’
Parton is on the promotional trail for her new book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.