In March, country music welcomed a famous face to the genre with Beyoncé’s release of her latest album, Cowboy Carter. Amongst the originals on the tracklist, the 42-year-old superstar covered classics including “Blackbird” by the Beatles and “Jolene” by Dolly Parton.
Beyonce’s cover of the latter, however, had a bit of a twist different from the original — and Dolly Parton recently shared her thoughts on the matter. Keep scrolling to find out what the queen of country said about Beyoncé’s riff on a classic.
What did Dolly Parton say about Beyonce’s cover of ‘Jolene’?
In the original version, first released in 1973, Parton sang, “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/I’m beggin’ of you, please/Don’t take my man/Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/Please don’t take him just/Because you can.”
Beyoncé’s version takes a different approach: “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/I’m warnin’ you, don’t come for my man (Jolene)/Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/Don’t take the chance because you think you can.”
While some may have thought Parton would be turned off by the lyric change, the 9 to 5 star had nothing but praise for the historic Grammy winner.
“Well, I think it was very bold of her,” Parton told E! News two months after Cowboy Carter was released. “When they said she was gonna do ‘Jolene,’ I expected it to be my regular one, but it wasn’t. 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 continued, “She wasn’t gonna go beg some other woman like I did.”
Aside from Parton lending her hit to Beyoncé, she also lent her voice in an interlude titled “Dolly P.” In it, the country singer states, “Hey Miss Honeybee, it’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sing about?,” she said referencing “Becky with the good hair,” a woman mentioned in Beyonce’s 2016 track, “Sorry.”
