Dolly Parton explains the origins of her collaboration with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford
Following the release of her new album Rockstar, which marks her first venture into the realm of rock, Dolly Parton has explained the origins of her collaboration with Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford on ‘Bygones’.
During a conversation with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM, Parton shared her love for Halford and recalled how they first got talking about the collaboration. “I did love Rob Halford,” she stated, “We got to talk a lot ’cause he went in the [Rock and Roll] Hall of Fame when I did. And so I got to visit a lot of these people that are on the record… that were put in the Hall Of Fame at the same time I was.”
While they were talking, Parton gauged his interest in appearing on the record, “I asked him if he would be willing to sing on my record if I called on him. He said, ‘I sure would, ’cause my mom, my grandma, my kids, we’ve all loved you through the years.'”
With this knowledge, Parton recruited Halford for one of the album’s original tracks ‘Bygones’, which also features Nikki Sixx and John 5. “It just turned out to be something really, really special, I thought. It was a really a good piece of music, I thought,” Parton concluded.
The Judas Priest frontman is just one of the Parton’s star-studded collaborators on Rockstar. The new record also features Stevie Nicks, Miley Cyrus, Joan Jett, Sting, Elton John, Paul McCartney and more.
In a four-and-a-half star review of the record, Far Out‘s Lucy Harbron wrote, “Rockstar feels like an alternative timeline, soundtracking what would’ve happened if, somewhere down the line, Dolly Parton picked up an electric guitar and waltzed on down a different path. Proving what we all already knew, that she has one of the greatest voices in history regardless of genre, Rockstar is Parton finally playing out her daydreams.”
“Dolly Parton has always been a rock star, but now she really is a rock god,” she concluded.
Listen to ‘Bygones’ by Dolly Parton featuring Rob Halford below.
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