Dolly Parton Is Now A Classic Rock Queen
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
When you think of classic rock music, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Fleetwood Mac immediately come to mind. But now it’s time to add another name to that list: Dolly Parton.
Yes, the queen of country who brought us hits like “Jolene” and “9 to 5.” At 79 years old, Dolly has reinvented herself again, but this time as a bona fide classic rock queen.
Dolly Parton Can’t Write Songs Anymore
Dolly Parton is more than just a singer or an actress. Her first love has always been writing songs. In fact, most of her biggest hits were written by Dolly Parton herself. She’s also written other songs for other people, including “I Will Always Love You,” which Whitney Houston turned into a massive hit.
After decades of writing songs, Dolly Parton revealed that she’s taking a break. She was a guest on Khloe Kardashian’s Khloe In Wonder Land podcast this week. She said that a huge personal loss has made it impossible to write songs right now.
Her husband of nearly sixty years, Carl Dean, passed away in March after a long illness. Dolly Parton has put all of her energy into keeping busy, including with an upcoming Las Vegas residency.
She doesn’t have the emotional bandwidth to pen songs while grieving her late husband.
“I can’t do it right now because I’ve got so many other things that I can’t afford the luxury of getting that emotional right now. So there are times like that, things like that that will start here a little bit, but I’ll write something else, though, if it comes. So I’m just putting that all on hold,” she said about taking a break from songwriting.
Country Queen Is Now A Classic Rock Queen
One of the many projects Dolly Parton did to keep her mind off her husband’s death was to collaborate with a rock band. She previously released an album of rock covers in 2023.
The queen of country music lent her vocals for a re-recording to Motley Crue’s 1985 hit “Home Sweet Home.” The new version had two purposes – to celebrate the song’s 40th anniversary and to raise money for the Covenant House, which helps house homeless youth.
The Dolly Parton/Motley Crue version of the popular song soared to the top of the Mediabase Classic Rock Songs charts. It was the country singer’s first time reaching number one on the classic rock charts.
She previously shared her thoughts about the unexpected collaboration. “It was an honor and a joy working in the studio on Mötley Crüe’s 40th Anniversary re-release of ‘Home Sweet Home’. I was so pleased that they would ask me to sing on such a classic,” she said.
What music chart will Dolly Parton take over next?
