BROADCASTS.com

Published: Nov. 15, 2023, 9:10 p.m.

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Dolly Parton is a music legend.

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Her career spans 50 years, 11 Grammys, countless country music awards, and over a hundred-million records sold worldwide.

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She\\u2019s released over seventy albums, and since her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she\\u2019s decided to live up to the title and release a rock album.

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So she joined Newstalk ZB\\u2019s Hosking to talk her 49th studio album, Rockstar.

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It features both original songs as well as covers of iconic hits, and on 27 of the 30 tracks Parton is accompanied by a whole cast of music stars.

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When it came to building the album, Parton told Mike Hosking that it started with choosing songs she especially loved.

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\\u201cThen you think, well, am I gonna be able to sing this song good and make the rock person that I\\u2019m stealing from proud?\\u201d

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She said that she didn\\u2019t want to be just another country artist who made a rock album.

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\\u201cIf I\\u2019m gonna do a rock album, I\\u2019ve got to do it well enough to where the rock world will think, \\u2018Wow. You know, that\\u2019s pretty good.\\u2019\\u201d

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While she didn\\u2019t get to record in person with every artist who features on the album, there were a few.

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\\u201cThat was fun,\\u201d Parton told the Newstalk ZB Breakfast host. \\u201cTo actually get to stand there, get to talk to them after, you know, behind the scenes.\\u201d

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It always seems like every famous person knows each other personally, but Parton revealed that wasn\\u2019t the case.

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\\u201cI would actually... couldn\\u2019t honestly say I knew anybody other than Cheryl Crow and even Lou Harris.\\u201d

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Dolly Parton\\u2019s genre of choice is country, so a rock album was a bit of a departure for her in terms of musical style.

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She told Hosking that Kent Wells, her musical director and guitar player of over thirty years, told her that if she was going to do this, she had to be true to the genre.

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\\u201cHe said \\u2018you really need to kind of be true to the song, as true to the melody as you can be also, and still be yourself.\\u2019\\u201d

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\\u201cI tried hard to, to try to stay in my lane so to speak,\\u201d she said.

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These days, most modern albums feature between ten to fifteen songs, with twelve being the standard length. Rockstar has thirty.

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\\u201cI always said I didn\\u2019t intend to do 30 songs,\\u201d Parton confessed to Hosking.

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\\u201cI was just doing all these songs on a demo scale, and then I just kept doing songs that I really liked.\\u201d

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With the completion of this album Parton\\u2019s done with the genre, telling Hosking that she\\u2019ll never need to do another rock album.

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Country music has boomed over the years, the genre growing and becoming more successful globally, and in New Zealand.

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\\u201cI\\u2019ve loved watching it grow too, and I\\u2019m just proud, you know, that people want to have that title: \\u2018I\\u2019m a country singer, I\\u2019m in country music,\\u201d Parton told Newstalk ZB.

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With such an extensive career, last month\\u2019s release of her autobiography, and the upcoming release of Rockstar, there is one question: where does she go from here?

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\\u201cI\\u2019m very passionate and very energetic and I have to focus that on something, but every new dream kind of spurs on another.\\u201d

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\\u201cI have all these chances now that I have my \\u201cbrand,\\u201d\\u201d Parton joked.

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\\u201cI can sell cake one day and a rock and roll record on the next.\\u201d

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Although she has plenty to look back on, Parton doesn\\u2019t dwell on the past, \\u201cI\\u2019m still looking to the future.\\u201d

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\\u201cI\\u2019m gonna go just as long as I can and I\\u2019m gonna, I\\u2019m gonna create as much as I can,\\u201d she told Mike Hosking.

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She plans to leave as much good in this world as she can, feeling that it\\u2019s her duty to make the most of herself.

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\\u201cIf I don\\u2019t, nobodies gonna do it for me.\\u201d

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Rockstar is released on November 17th.

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