After her initial hesitation, the country queen is looking forward to accepting rock music’s highest honor and then making an album that her rock-loving husband is sure to love
Dolly Parton is looking forward to her Saturday induction into the 2022 class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but don’t think that means she’s let go of her initial doubts about deserving this new honor.
“When you talk about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” the 76-year-old country legend tells PEOPLE, “wouldn’t you think that should be for the people in rock ‘n’ roll?”
Granted, in her next breath, she vows she’s “gonna accept gracefully,” and she plans to address the issue in the way she knows best. “I have written a song just for [the ceremony], based on the whole story,” she reveals. “I’m gonna get to perform that.”
But don’t think Parton will be done there.
“I’m gonna have to live up to it if I’m gonna be in the Hall of Fame,” she adds, “so I’m gonna go ahead and do a rock ‘n’ roll album, and I’m gonna pull people from the rock ‘n’ roll field to sing with me on it. … I’m gonna actually pull on some of the greats and do a lot of the great rock songs.”
The Hall of Fame honor, she also reveals, was the final nudge she needed to record a rock album as a gift to her husband of 56 years, Carl Thomas Dean, a lifelong rock fan (who, she adds, joined her in her initial incredulity).
“I’m doing the rock ‘n’ roll album because of him,” she says. “I had often thought about doing a rock ‘n’ roll album for him with his favorite songs. And so when this all came about, I decided that I am gonna go ahead and do it. … It was just the perfect storm. OK, it’s time.”
No doubt a rock project only underscores Parton’s massive influence across musical genres, not to mention the perpetually fuzzy lines between the genres. In the late 1970s and early ’80s, Parton was a fixture on the pop chart with such crossover hits as “Here You Come Again,” “Baby I’m Burning,” “9 to 5” and “Islands in the Stream,” her duet with crossover king Kenny Rogers. She’s also made significant marks in bluegrass, gospel and Christian music.
Parton’s ultimate crossover song, “I Will Always Love You,” has been recorded by artists from practically every genre, including, most famously, the late pop diva and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Whitney Houston.
In inimitable Dolly fashion, Parton notes that her initial quibble over her eligibility was actually based on her concern for others in the music community.
“I appreciate any accolades that are thrown in my direction,” she allows, “but I still, at that time, felt like I was gonna take votes away from somebody else that really had been working hard in that field. I’ll take all of what I can get in the country field or whatever I’m doing, but I just didn’t want to take votes away from somebody else that had spent their life counting on that.”
Parton also allows that it’s since been pointed out to her she’ll be joining an illustrious group of artists who are in both the country and rock halls of fame, including Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, the Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Floyd Cramer. For that matter, in the 2022 class alone, she’ll be among several artists best known for music that also doesn’t fit neatly into the rock category, including new wave band Duran Duran, rapper Eminem, pop duo Eurythmics, pop-R&B star Lionel Richie and 1970s pop icon Carly Simon. The class is rounded out by two straight-up rockers, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.
Parton’s latest trophy will be added to a vast array of honors that Parton has already received, including numerous Grammy, CMA, ACM, CMT, BMI and Billboard awards; a primetime Emmy; a Living Legend award from the Library of Congress; a Kennedy Center honor; a National Medal of Arts from the U.S. Congress; and an honorary doctorate from the University of Tennessee.
Which ones mean the most? Parton doesn’t have to think long on that.
“I think probably being in the Songwriters Hall of Fame — the big one — and the country music songwriters hall of fame,” she says. (Parton was inducted into the national Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986.)
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Parton calls songwriting “my favorite thing. I mean, I love to sing. I love to perform, but I feel like my gift — or that very personal gift — is being able to write songs, to write about my feelings and the feelings of other people that don’t know how to write.”
She also adds that her Imagination Library is her other favorite achievement; since 1995, the nonprofit she founded has given away more than 170 million books to children around the world.
“Although it’s not like an award that I’ve won,” Parton says, “I take great pride in being the ‘Book Lady.'”
Parton also is quick to say she doesn’t measure her success by awards or honors.
“I used to wonder how people would remember me when I was older if I was lucky enough to be successful,” she says, “and now I am older, and I take such pride in feeling that I’ve done something meaningful that has been appreciated.”
She adds: “I equally appreciate the fact that it took a lot of people to help me see the success that I’ve had. I love what I’ve done, and I love the people that’ve allowed it to happen.”
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