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Dolly Parton Admits Beyonce Was ‘Very Bold’ to Put Her Own Spin on ‘Jolene’
Two months after Beyoncé released her version of “Jolene” on her Cowboy Carter album, Dolly Parton admitted it was “very bold” for her to put her own spin on the classic song.
Dolly, 78, explained that she knew Beyoncé, 42, was covering her 1973 country hit for the album, though revealed she didn’t know the “Single Ladies” singer was changing the lyrics to make the song her own.
“When they said she was gonna do ‘Jolene,’ I expected it to be my regular one, but it wasn’t,” Dolly told E! News about the song, which came out on the same day as the album on March 29. Despite admitting that it was brave of Beyoncé to change the song, Dolly insisted that she loves “what she did to it.”
The “Islands in the Stream” singer went on to note that songwriters “love the fact that people do your songs no matter how they do them.”
Not only did Beyoncé cover “Jolene” for the album, but she also recruited Dolly to record an introduction for the song. “Hey, miss Honey Bey. It’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sang about? Reminded me of someone I knew back when. Except she has flaming locks of auburn hair,” she said at the beginning of the track. “Bless her heart. Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same.”
The introduction then led into Beyoncé’s cover, in which she told Jolene she was “warning you, don’t come for my man.” The new lyrics gave the song a very different tone than Dolly’s version, which had her begging Jolene to “please don’t take my man.”
While Dolly seemed to think Jolene was a threat in her version, Beyoncé made it clear she wasn’t intimidated by the other woman in the 2024 track. “Takes more than beauty and seductive stares/To come between a family and a happy man,” she sings. “Jolene, I’m a woman too/Thе games you play are nothing new/So you don’t want no heat with me, Jolene.”
Dolly also weighed in on the new lyrics, telling the outlet that she fully approved of the “Halo” singer’s changes. “She wasn’t gonna go beg some other woman like I did,” she said. “‘Don’t steal my man.’ S–t, get out here, bitch. You ain’t stealin’ mine.”
Not only did Beyoncé enlist Dolly to be featured on her latest album, but she also worked with fellow musicians including Willie Nelson, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus to create the tracks.
