If Dolly Parton wants to take part in a Playboy photo shoot, she’s not going to let a little thing like the magazine no longer being in print get in her way.

The country music legend decided to make her own cover, recreating one she did for the publication back in 1978, to surprise her husband Carl Dean for his 79th birthday on Tuesday.

Donning an iconic Playboy bunny suit with the famous ears, Parton posted a video sharing her surprise on social media.

The 75-year-old said her husband of more than 50 years had always been fond of her cover and she had been hoping to recreate the look officially this year to celebrate her own landmark birthday. However, the famous men’s magazine stopped its print edition in March 2020.

So, Parton did the next best thing and created a homemade version.

“Remember some time back I said I was going to pose on Playboy magazine when I’m 75?” the singer said in her video. “Well, I’m 75 and they don’t have a magazine anymore, but my husband always loved the original cover of Playboy.

“So I was trying to think of something to do to make him happy. 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 sat for a photoshoot and had a new cover made to go alongside the original.

Comparing the two, she said with a wink: “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!”

The star also included a picture of her surprising Dean in the video, but only showed the back of his head – a small nod to their famously private marriage.

“It’s always #HotGirlSummer for my husband, Carl,” she captioned the post. “Happy birthday my love!”

Established by the late Hugh Hefner in 1953, Playboy’s bowtie-wearing bunny mascot became one of the most recognisable American brands in history.

The first issue of the magazine in 1953 featured nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe and sold more than 50,000 copies.

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Parton has recreated her cover following a year in which she has also been praised for “curing coronavirus” after donating $1m (£814,000) to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center – a partner of the US company Moderna that developed one of the COVID-19 vaccines.

She even reworked her famous hit Jolene “to fit the occasion” when she got her own jab, singing: “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine – I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate. Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine – because once you’re dead, then that’s a bit too late.”

Playboy bunny, vaccine funder and a country superstar – is there nothing Dolly Parton can’t do?

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