Dolly Parton didn't understand "sex appeal" until she met Johnny Cash

Dolly, 79, told People: "I was starstruck with Johnny Cash - that was when he was young.

"I was a young girl, and that was the first time I ever knew or understood what sex appeal was, or that feeling that made you just feel all kinds of things all over your body."

The country music icon explained that she had "had little crushes on boyfriends" when she was young, but her hormones truly started to "rage" when she met the Ring of Fire hitmaker.

She said: "That's when my hormones (were) beginning to rage, and I just felt all those feelings for him, because he was very charismatic.

"I thought about it years later. That's the first time I understood what they call charisma. Or whatever that thing is that people have. Well, he had that thing, and it worked its magic on me."

Dolly explained that she became firm friends with Cash and even joked about her crush on him with his wife June Carter Cash.

The 9 to 5 singer recalled: "I told June that years later. I told her, 'I had him first. I loved him before you did.'"

Parton admits that her first meeting with Cash remains a happy memory as it was a landmark moment in her extraordinary career.

She said: "Having him introduce me that night as a very young girl - I was just a teenager, and I got to sing on the Grand Ole Opry - that was a magic night. I felt special that night, too."

Dolly - whose husband of 58 years Carl Dean passed away in March aged 82 - will celebrate her 80th birthday in January but has no intention of slowing down.

She explained: "People say, 'Well, you're going to be 80 years old.' Well, so what? Look at all I've done in 80 years. I feel like I'm just getting started.

"I know that sounds stupid, but unless my health gives way, which right now I seem to be doing fine... I think there's a lot to be said about age. If you allow yourself to get old, you will. I say, 'I ain't got time to get old!' I ain't got time to dwell on that. That's not what I'm thinking about."