Country singer Dolly Parton jumped at the chance to write the theme song for movie TRANSAMERICA, about a transsexual, because she always felt like an outsider herself.

Parton's strict religious upbringing in rural Tennessee helped her understand the main character's journey in the film, played by Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman.

The singer's ability to identify with outcasts earned an Oscar nomination for the song TRAVELIN' THRU, which she wrote for the film.

She explains, "I've always been a weird, out-there freak myself.

"My grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher. It was a sin to even pluck your eyebrows and they thought it was a sin for me to be there looking like a Jezebel."