Dolly Parton Praises Lil Nas X’s ‘Jolene’ Cover With Emotional Tweet
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Dolly Parton has described herself as ‘surprised’ to learn Lil Nas X was covering her song Jolene but made her delight clear as she praised the singer for taking on the popular tune.
Lil Nas appeared on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge last week to perform some of his own tracks, including Montero (Call Me By Your Name), That’s What I Want and Dead Right Now, though in true Live Lounge fashion he also chose to cover a song by another artist.
Having his own history with country music, Nas opted for a country classic in the form of Jolene, which he performed with a live band and backing singers.
The performance was shared online last week and it wasn’t long before it caught the attention of Parton, who explained someone had let her know about Nas’ cover of the tune.
She tagged Nas as she shared her reaction on Twitter, writing: ‘I was so excited when someone told me that Lil Nas X had done my song #Jolene. I had to find it and listen to it immediately…and it’s really good. Of course, I love him anyway. I was surprised and I’m honored and flattered. I hope he does good for both of us. Thank you @LilNasX’
Of course, having a cover song praised by its original singer is pretty much the best response you can ask for, and Nas made his excitement clear as he retweeted Parton’s message and responded: ‘HOLY SH*T’.
Nas discussed his decision to sing Jolene during an interview with SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live on Tuesday, according to People, explaining he was originally going to sing a Nirvana song before he began ‘goofing around and you know, like doing Jolene.’
He continued: ‘It was like, wait a minute. What if we actually did Jolene?’ And I feel like, you know, the context to it, like completely changes as you just said, I was like, ‘Oh, that’d be really cool.’ So I went for it. Hey, [I] have like my history with country. So I was like, ah, this is perfect.’
Parton is far from the only one to praise Nas for his decision, with fans describing the cover as a song they ‘didn’t know [they] needed to hear’.
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Topics: Celebrity, BBC, Dolly Parton, Lil Nas X, Music
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Dolly Parton/TwitterDolly Parton/Twitter
