Jimmy Fallon shares how Dolly Parton inspired his beard

Jimmy Fallon threw fans into a tizzy when he debuted a scruffy beard at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards in August, and the “Tonight Show” host just revealed the surprising inspiration behind his new facial hair — a trip to Dollywood.

Fallon, 48, visited Dolly Parton in Tennessee over the summer as he and the country legend collaborated on NBC’s upcoming holiday special, “Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas.”

“I’m there with Dolly Parton. She’s the coolest. And she has all these pictures of all her albums, and it’s like 200-something albums she did, a lot of them with these old cowboys (with) decent beards,” Fallon shared during a visit to TODAY on Tuesday.

“And I go, I never really tried to get a real beard — you know, like, went for it,” he added. “Because it’s patchy and it takes a long time.”

Fallon was apparently still on the fence about growing a beard when he left Dollywood, but the clincher came when he met another legendary musician while out to dinner with his wife, Nancy Juvonen.

“Who’s at the dinner? Paul McCartney, and he had a beard,” Fallon said. “And I go, this is a sign from God. God is telling me to grow a beard.”

Fallon, who recently co-authored a bilingual children's book, "Con Pollo," with Jennifer Lopez, shared on TODAY what it’s been like having a beard, saying that it was "itchy at first, and then you get over it.”

He added that when he debuted his new look, people inundated him with beard-care products.

“It happened to fall on my birthday, my beard experiment, and then everybody started buying me beard brushes, beard oil … I have stuff, I’m growing birds in my beard," he joked.

Fallon’s new facial hair has definitely been a hit with fans and his celebrity guests alike — including his good friend Drew Barrymore, who recently teased him on "The Tonight Show" about the look.

“You love it because everybody’s saying you’re so hot right now,” she joked. “You love it and now you don’t want to lose it.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com