(LOS ANGELES) Despite her wishes, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year.
On Friday, she will release her debut rock ‘n’ roll album, appropriately titled “Rockstar,” almost precisely a year later.
Parton stated in 2022 that she did not believe she had “earned” the right to be nominated, but the Hall inducted her anyway.
“I just didn’t think I had done enough in the rock world to be considered, to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when there were so many great rock artists who aren’t even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Parton said over the phone to The Associated Press.
“Because they were going to put me in anyway, I just accepted it gracefully.” “But I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to work for a living,'” she adds. Parton had considered recording a “Linda Ronstadt-type rock album,” but she felt she was getting too old. This opened up new possibilities.
“I jumped on that like a duck on a Junebug,” she giggles.
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She began performing covers of some of her favorite rock ‘n’ roll songs. “Every Breath You Take” features Sting, “Baby, I Love Your Way” with Peter Frampton, “Heart of Glass” with Debbie Harry, and “Heartbreaker” with Pat Benatar. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” features Pink and Brandi Carlile, “Night Moves” has Chris Stapleton, and “Stairway to Heaven” features Lizzo on flute.
She desired Mick Jagger and Lionel Richie, but the timing could have been better. She did, however, succeed in reuniting the Beatles. In a way. Long before the release of “Now and Then,” Parton approached Paul McCartney and requested him to perform on a cover of “Let It Be.”
“He said, ‘Yeah, I’d be happy to play on it, too, if you want me to,” she adds, “and I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’ve died and gone to heaven.'” Ringo Starr then replaced the drums recorded on the tune.
Starr informed the Associated Press earlier this year that he’s working on a country music EP, to which Parton responds, “I’ll join them if they want me to!”
“I’d definitely do some country singing for some of the rockers going country,” she says.
“Rockstar” also includes nine new songs. Some have been discovered, such as the lovelorn “My Blue Tears,” written when Parton was with “The Porter Wagoner Show” in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the cheeky “I Dreamed About Elvis,” penned more than two decades ago. It contains Jordanaires, a 1950s vocal quartet that broke up in 2013, and Ronnie McDowell, who plays the Elvis role in the song.
“I had him come in and do the Elvis voice on it, just to kind of sum up that whole story about Elvis,” she recalls. She’s alluding to the now-famous incident in which Elvis Presley expressed interest in recording her hit “I Will Always Love You.” She declined because Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted 50% of the publishing rights to the song.
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Those beautiful tunes stand in stark contrast to the album’s lead single. “World on Fire” is theatrical arena rock at its finest, with large drums and even louder power chords that are both musically ascendant and thematically frustrated.
“I’m very sensitive,” she admits. “I care about people, human suffering and all of that.”
“World On Fire,” she claims, was written after the album was finished. But after watching so many natural disasters last year, she adds, “I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got to write this song, and I’ve got to call another session because I think the song needs to be heard. This is something I must say. People who are feeling that way but don’t know how to articulate it need to hear it. And I just feel like it’s my place to do that sometimes.”
With lyrics like “Greedy politicians, present and past / They wouldn’t know the truth if it bit ’em in the ass,” many felt Parton was going political, even though she had spent her whole career remaining apolitical.
“I’m not a politician.” “I despise politics,” she declares. “This has nothing to do with politics.” It is about protecting the world rather than destroying it.”
For the time being, Parton declares “Rockstar” to be her first and final rock album. She is developing her life narrative into a Broadway musical and hopes to branch out into other genres.
“I’d like to do an R&B album,” she explains. “As well as blues.” I want to record a blues album. So, who can say? There are numerous activities available.”
SOURCE – (AP)
