Dolly Parton Calls Beyoncé 'Bold' For Changing 'Jolene' Lyrics In Cover Song
Dolly Parton recently shared her thoughts on Beyoncé’s cover of her classic song “Jolene” and why she thinks the Queen Bey is bold.
In a Friday video clip promoting an upcoming E! News interview, the country music icon revealed that she did not know beforehand that Beyoncé’s rendition of her hit 1973 tune would have different lyrics than the original.
The “Texas Hold ’Em” singer released her country music album, “Cowboy Carter,” in March. The record features her spin on “Jolene,” with Parton appearing in an interlude for the song.
“I think it was very bold of her,” the country icon said about the cover. “When they said she was going to do ‘Jolene,’ I expected it to be my regular one but it wasn’t.”
Parton continued: “But I love what she did to it. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people do your songs no matter how they do them.”
She then joked that Beyoncé offered a much more fiery take on “Jolene,” after Parton’s version told the story of a narrator who fears that her lover will be swept off his feet by another woman.
“She wasn’t going to go beg some other woman like I did,” Parton said with a laugh.
In one verse of Beyoncé’s “Jolene,” she sings: “Jolene, I’m a woman too. Thе games you play are nothing new. So you don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene.”
Parton later said that she was “very proud” of Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album and that she did a “great job in country music.”
Beyoncé has also received praise from founding Beatles member Paul McCartney for her cover of the band’s 1968 song “Blackbird.”
The “Cowboy Carter” version of the tune features Beyoncé and four other artists: Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts.
McCartney wrote in an Instagram post in April that he was “so happy” with Beyoncé’s take on the song.
“I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” he wrote.
