"When I called her, I was going to do “'I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.' And I called her and I said, 'Would you sing ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ with me?' And she said, 'No, but I'll sing ‘Hate Myself for Loving You.' 'Everybody can sing 'I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.' She said, 'Oh, that one’s more you. Let’s sing that one, because it’s really got some meat to it,'" Parton recalled of her conversation with Jett.
Parton added: "So I thought, 'Well, cool!' I mean, she's telling me what to do and I was glad! ‘Cause I was open to that. I love how it turned out. And she used her band, the Blackhearts."
The two Nashville residents share a greeting before Parton is whisked away for final preparations. Williams finally releases that breath and takes a seat. She’s well primed for the day’s events, her notebook filled with thoughtful, detailed questions about Parton’s enormous new record, Rockstar, arriving November 17th, as well as her life and career.
Parton returns and sits across from her day’s interviewer, a large silver star between them. Williams flips open her notebook and begins.
Hayley: One of my favorite things that I read about this record was that when you got nominated you were kind of like, “Oh, I don't feel like I've earned it.” And then you went and made the record. Did it really happen like that?
Dolly: It really did. Because I have so many friends in the rock business that would die to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – people that really spend their whole life doing that.
I'll take anything you give me in country music because I feel like I will have earned it, because I've worked my whole life in it. But I felt like this was something they voted on and I did not want to take votes away from anybody, like a Pat Benatar. You know, the girls that were in the business.
I just said I did not want to do it. It caused a bit of a controversy, and I did not want to stir up controversy. I'm always trying to keep things as calm as I can.
dolly-parton-hayley-williams-paramore-rockstar
So anyway, they went ahead and put me in it anyhow. [Laughs] They explained why they do it – it's people's music that had influenced other people's music, or whatever. So I said, “If they put me in, I'll accept it gracefully,” but I still didn't feel like I'd earned it. And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I'm also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I'm ever gonna do it, I'm doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.
Hayley: I love that. It really speaks to how you have such a way of honoring people, and how much you believe in equity. I think about this all the time with my band — there are so many bands that are still touring in a van, touring in their cars, trying to make it. People just want to feel seen and heard.
Dolly: And appreciated for what you do. There’s people where that's their world, like country music has been mine. Although I've done covers of rock songs through the years, and I've done some rock songs on different albums and all that. But I had never said blatantly, “I've got to do it and be true to it – really do a true rock and roll album.” That was the other thing that was important to me: not to half-ass do a record that's a country girl singing some rock.
Hayley: You did it! Does Carl like it, your husband?
Dolly: Yes, Carl likes it.
Hayley: He does?! Yes!
Dolly: You know about my rockstar, my rock husband. Yeah, that's his music.
The track will be featured on the “Grease” singer’s album, “Just the Two of Us: The Duets Collection,” out May 5, which she recorded before her death.
