Cher is mourning the loss of her longtime friend Dolly Parton.
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The “Believe” singer appeared on CBS News on August 25 after Parton’s death, giving insight into their 50 year friendship.
While talking to Gayle King, Cher shared that she was just as surprised as everyone else was to hear about Parton’s sudden death. And while she initially said she was fine, she began tearing up as she spoke about her friend.
The two first met in 1978 at the home of their mutual manager, Sandy Gallin. However, the Mamma Mia 2 star didn’t know they shared a manager.
“I walked in, and I see this chick with this major hair, white pants and white, not exactly a shirt but a jacket-y shirt, and I looked up and she had buttons on, not the lapel, but you know the part that goes down your chest — a yoke, a yoke. I looked at it and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never seen so many buttons in my life,’” she explained.
Like so many of us, Cher was instantly intrigued. “I said, Sandy, ‘Who is that girl?’ And he said, ‘You know what, Cher, you’re gonna love her and she’s gonna love you.’ And it was the truth, and we did.”
They became so close, that Cher featured Parton in her 1978 television special.
“She just had a spirit, and it was a spirit that was always thinking the best was happening, the best was gonna happen. Her friends loved her. Her life was good. That’s who she was,” Cher said of her friend.
Speaking about Parton’s stage presence, the “If I Could Turn Back Time” singer said “You can either do this thing or you can’t, and she did it.”
“When she walked across the stage, every once in a while she would bend over to reach out, she reached out to the audience, and she reached out to the people that were closest to her, and she smiled,” she said, adding that it was “a gift.”
According to Cher, the thing she’ll miss most about Parton is “her laugh.”