Dolly Parton describes her attempt to reunite Led Zeppelin for her new album Rockstar in a new interview on Kyle Meredith With.
The beloved country icon sat down to discuss her new book, Behind The Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, which explores her iconic sense of style through personal stories, and her recent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which served as the inspiration for her latest album, Rockstar, out Friday.
“I was inspired by the fact that I got put into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and I had felt I had not done enough to deserve that. So I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, you gotta say, at least Dolly had a rock album, not just a song here and there.'”
When the conversation turns to her legendary fashion sense, Dolly describes being inspired as a young girl by a beautifully dressed woman who others called trashy.
“When we would get a chance to go to town … there was this woman they called ‘the town tramp,’ and I thought she was the prettiest thing I had ever looked at because she had all the big pile of yellow hair, red nails, red lipstick, and eyelashes and high heels and short skirts, and man, I mean, that made an impression on me. And so, people said, ‘Oh, she’s just trash,’ and in my mind, I just thought that was a word for how she looked. And so, in my mind, I thought, ‘Well, that’s what I’m going to be when I grow up. It’s trash.'”
She goes on to explain that despite her glamorous look and the reputation it gave her, she was always a woman of class.
“I was not a loose girl. A lot of the parents in high school didn’t want their daughters running around with me because they thought that I was a bad influence, [but] I wasn’t doing anything. Their beautiful little daughters were the ones going around sleeping with people, not me. So, there’s a lot to be said about the company you keep. But sometimes they can be wrong in what you’re wearing. I got a reputation that I did not earn in that respect, but I did want to look trashy. I just wasn’t living trashy.”
Related: Dolly Parton To Play Halftime Show At Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Game
Dolly then discusses the process of making Rockstar, including her failed attempt to reunite Led Zeppelin members Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for the project.
“I tried,” she explains. “I got Ringo [Starr] and Paul [McCartney], at least I’m proud about that,” she says, referring to her cover of “Let It Be” featuring the two living Beatles. “But I didn’t get them. I liked them. But I did ask them!”
Watch Dolly Parton’s full interview on Kyle Meredith With below.
Rockstar will be available on all streaming platforms November 17th. Pre-order/pre-save the album here. Dolly’s new book, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, is out now. For more information, visit her website.
Kyle Meredith With… Dolly Parton