Dolly Parton is a Rockstar?
In 2022, Dolly Parton was elected and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She had some misgivings about receiving the honor.
“I just felt like I was kind of betraying someone else. But, they explained it to me and they said I was getting it anyway. So I thought I’m going to accept it graciously.”
But, she decided if she was going to be a rock Hall of Famer, she was going to do it right.
“I’m going to go all the way. If I’m going to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I’m going to earn it.”
Parton’s way of earning was to record a rock album. And she certainly went all the way. “Rockstar” is a record of thirty-cover classic rock tunes. You read that right…30 songs. It's about two hours and twenty minutes of Dolly doing rock. The amount of songs and time is more than a little self-indulgent but Dolly does so much good work for others that she’s entitled to do something for herself.
In those thirty tunes, she has brought out some of the biggest names in the rock world to help out. Among her collaborators were Stevie Nicks, Elton John, Pink, Brandi Carlile and Emmylou Harris with Sheryl Crow. And she saved the biggest for the end by getting the two living Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to work on “Let it Be.” Oh yeah, if that wasn’t enough she enlisted Mick Fleetwood to play some percussion and Peter Frampton for some tasty guitar solos.
When you combine these legends with other classic songs such as “Satisfaction”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Night Moves” and “Free Bird”, you would think you’d get something special. But, it seems more like a night of overly produced karaoke.
So Dolly, congrats on the Hall election, but maybe stick to what you do best because that is really good. Listening to this only reminds us how good these songs are by the original musicians. Thanks for that.