Credit: Far Out / Butterfly Records / Big Machine

Dolly Parton says new Stevie Nicks collaboration was originally meant for Fleetwood Mac

Wed 8 November 2023 6:24, UK

American country music superstar Dolly Parton has revealed that her upcoming collaboration with Stevie Nicks was originally meant for Fleetwood Mac.

‘What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You’, which appears on Parton’s upcoming rock music project Rockstar, was originally written by Nicks during an unspecified time during her tenure in Fleetwood Mac. Parton revealed the song’s origins in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

“She stayed in Nashville for four days, which was great. Getting in the studio with her was great,” Parton explained. “We talked a lot. She stayed over with Sheryl Crow; they’re friends. She would come in down the studio, and we did get a chance to talk about the business.”

“We talked about before she started with Fleetwood Mac,” Parton said. “We did talk about the business. We talked about our backgrounds. In fact, our song, ‘What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You’, she said, ‘This a song I wrote back when we were in the heat of our stuff.’ She said, ‘It’s a song I love, but they didn’t think it was good enough to be on a record’.”

Parton added: “She said, ‘I have an old demo of it. Can we do this one, because I wrote it about someone I was involved with that was also in the rock ’n’ roll field when we had an affair?’ She wrote that about their relationship because they had fun about it. ‘What has rock ’n’ roll ever done for you?’ They said, ‘Well, everything’, because they were both famous and rich. She just said, ‘I just love this song. I’d like to do it just to commemorate that time in my life and that person.'”

Along with Parton, Nicks recorded ‘What Has Rock and Roll Ever Done for You’ with guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who was Nicks’ main guitarist and musical director throughout her solo career.

Rockstar is set for a November 17th release.