Never doubt Dolly Parton when she says she’s going to do something. Take, for example, when she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 and promised to make a rock and roll record. A little more than a year later, the album “Rockstar” is here.
“I still thought I had to earn it,” she told , referring to her introduction. “So I thought, ‘Well, the timing is perfect.’ For me there is a real reason to make this rock and roll album. Here I am, at 77, a rock star.’”
As a country icon, Parton could have made a record that focused on genres like Southern rock or Americana. However, she told she wanted to avoid the easy route: “I don’t want it to be half a country.”
To quote one of Parton’s most famous songs, “Rockstar” reflects a lot of ambition. The 30-track album is bursting with star power – to name just a few: Elton John, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Steve Perry, Peter Frampton, Michael McDonald, Debbie Harry and Joan Jett – and offers a healthy mix Cover versions and originals.
Best of all, “Rockstar” doesn’t skimp on the fun – it’s clear Parton has fun channeling her not-so inner rock star. Here are five takeaways from “Rockstar”
One of the album’s highlights is a seductive cover of Heart’s 1975 single “Magic Man,” featuring two members who performed the original song: singer Ann Wilson and guitarist Howard Leese.
Thematically, “Magic Man” feels like a classic Parton film, as it’s about a young woman who becomes enchanted by an older (and dangerous) man. Vocally, Parton makes the song her own, adopting the perspective of a wise-beyond-her-years narrator looking back on her youthful self. Musically, it sounds wonderfully like 1975 – with a new bridge where Parton and Wilson create a mystical atmosphere that is transcendent.
Elsewhere, she teams up with fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Class of 2022 Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo to perform a hard-hitting version of their breakout hit “Heartbreaker,” while joining those bands on the epic power ballad “Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon performed by singer Kevin Cronin is a delightful surprise full of emotions.
Parton enjoyed major mainstream pop success in the 1980s with tracks like “Islands in the Stream” and her Kenny Rogers duet “Islands in the Stream.” So it’s perhaps no surprise that she sounds amazing collaborating with this decade’s icons.
Of particular note is an inspired cover of the Police’s 1983 hit “Every Breath You Take” featuring Sting, reimagined as a meditative country smolder with rippled pedal steel, shadowy vocals and icy grooves. It also features one of Parton’s best vocal performances: She harnesses the obsession at the song’s heart and infuses it with deep, guttural longing – transforming “Every Breath You Take” from a menacing stalker anthem into a song for heartbroken outsiders who want to be forced Watch an ex move on without them.
Parton also sounds tender in a faithful version of Journey’s 1981 hit “Open Arms” – not least because former Journey frontman Steve Perry provides smoky vocal contributions throughout. He emphasizes certain lines to emphasize the song’s pleading tone (“This empty house seems so cold,” “Please stay”) and harmonizes perfectly with Parton.
Quite different: Parton goes vocally on par with Joan Jett on a snarling cover of 1988’s “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” which begins with a brief interlude in which the two argue back and forth about dealing with frustrating love .
Dolly Parton’s “Rockstar” (Vijat Mohindra/Courtesy Butterfly Records)
The definition of rock ‘n’ roll is notoriously malleable—and Parton leans into that idea, with explosive results.
She and Melissa Etheridge team up for the wild heartland rocker “Tried to Rock and Roll Me,” while their Michael McDonald duet “Bittersweet” is brimming with beautiful acoustic guitars and anguished vocal performances.
Elsewhere, Parton teams up with Trio collaborator Emmylou Harris to honor her troupe’s third member, Linda Ronstadt, with a stunning cover of Ronstadt’s signature song “You’re No Good,” which also features Sheryl Crow participates.
And she’s collaborating with another 2022 Rock Hall inductee, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon, to reimagine her 1971 song “My Blue Tears.” The song focuses on Celtic folk – tin whistle and all – before majestic electric guitars storm into the mix. In the tune, both Le Bon and Parton demonstrate a deeply moving vocal vulnerability.
Given her decades-long track record of writing indelible tunes, it only makes sense that Parton also wrote some original rock songs for Rockstar. The incendiary “Bygones,” which features Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, Parton’s rock hall friend, on venomous vocals, is a wild hard rock-metal hybrid that works wonderfully.
The haunting single “World On Fire,” driven by harsh guitar riffs, also pulls no punches and criticizes the state of today’s world: “Greedy politicians of the present and past / They wouldn’t know the truth if they bit them in the ass would have** .”
In an interview with TODAY, Parton clarified who she was talking about: “All of them (the politicians). All of them. I don’t think any of them are trying hard enough. I’m sure we all try, but I just think a lot of times they’re more worried about their party than they are about the people.”
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The internet lost track when Stevie Nicks shared a photo of her and Parton together in the studio. The resulting collaboration, “What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You,” exceeded all expectations. The song has been around for years as a demo from the sessions of Nicks’ 1985 solo album Rock-a-Little, and the modern version is bluesy hard rock with lazy honky-tonk guitars and lots of attitude.
Rockstar, Dolly Parton’s 49th solo studio album, is out now.
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