Dolly Parton Reveals Who Wasn’t Able to Appear on Her Rock Album
Dolly Parton’s upcoming rock album, Rockstar, is a behemoth. It consists of 30 songs, mostly covers and a few Parton originals, performed by Parton and an incredible roster of guests. While most people wouldn’t say no to Parton, a few artists couldn’t appear on Rockstar, but it wasn’t because they didn’t want to.
Dolly Parton said Mick Jagger wasn’t able to appear on her rock album
After being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, Dolly Parton made her first rock album. However, she wasn’t going to do it without some help. She is covering many classic rock songs with the help of rock legends and modern stars such as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, P!nk, Elton John, Steven Tyler, Miley Cyrus, Chris Stapleton, Lizzo, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, and Sting.
There were a few other musicians who Parton wanted on the album but weren’t able to make it work. One artist was The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who Parton wished to perform on her cover of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”. In an interview with Lorraine, Parton said Jagger did want to feature on the record but didn’t want to do “Satisfaction”. So, she tried to work on something else for him, but they ran out of time.
“I wanted Mick Jagger so bad, and I ran him everywhere. He was in LA, he wanted to do it. We never could work it out,” Parton explained. “I wanted him to sing on ‘Satisfaction’. He didn’t want to sing on that one ‘cause he wanted something else, you know, to have something new. So, I kept coming up with these things, and he was going to do it, and we ran out of time, but I really just wanted him ‘cause I love Mick Jagger and my husband loves especially ‘Satisfaction’.
Parton still recorded “Satisfaction,” but with P!nk and Brani Carlile, which she said gave it some “girl power.”
Parton also wanted Ed Sheeran and Cher to perform on the album
There were plenty of other artists who Dolly Parton wanted to appear on her rock album. A few others she names are Ed Sheeran and Cher. Parton is a fan of both artists, and she once selected Sheeran as a modern musician she would love to work with. Unfortunately, these pairings didn’t work out, but maybe they’ll work on something together down the line.
“There was a few people that couldn’t do it,” Parton shared. “I was gonna have Ed Sheeran. He was in the middle of his album. Nobody said no. Everybody I asked. I wanted to do something with Cher. We never could find the right song in time. We were looking, then I ran out of time…’cause I was doing all those vinyls. You have a deadline. You have a six-month wait. So, some people we just ran out of time because of the vinyls.”
Another artist who wanted to do the album but couldn’t was Lionel Richie.
“He was gonna sing on one of the songs, ‘cause I love Lionel,” she added. “We go back a long way. And he was gonna do it, but he was involved in his show. We just never could get our schedules together.”
