Dolly Parton Recalls Song Her Husband Advised Her Not To Sing

Since the 1950s, Dolly Parton has entertained fans as she went on to sell over 100 million albums and helped compose over 3,000 songs. Not to mention the countless awards she holds. Still, not looking to slow down anytime soon, the singer performed during the NFL Thanksgiving Halftime Show and even released a new album, Rockstar. Continuing to prove her legendary status, Dolly recently discussed her new album and the one song her husband, Carl Dean, advised her to stay away from. 

Always a supporter of Dolly, the singer admitted that Carl was a massive fan of rock and roll. Loving bands like Led Zeppelin, apparently, he asked her not to cover “Stairway to Heaven.” She said, “My husband is a huge fan of Led Zeppelin and thinks ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is one of the classic songs of all time. So he was kind of concerned about me doing it.”

With such a promising career in music, Dolly’s husband wasn’t afraid of her butchering the song more than wanting to shield her from fanboy criticism.  She explained, “He was kind of concerned about me doing it. He said, ‘I don’t know if you need to mess with that, because I think you’ll get a lot of criticism. People don’t want other people messing around with that song.’”

While only sharing some advice with Dolly, in the end, she joked, “I did it anyhow. And he made a joke about it at first, ‘I think that was more like ‘Stairway To Hell’ than ‘Stairway To Heaven.’” 

[RELATED: Dolly Parton Reveals Retirement Plans—or Lack Thereof]

Dolly Parton Stays True To The Song

Having already performed the classic hit once before, Dolly wanted to push herself by sticking to the original. “I’ve taken some rock things off and on over my career and countrified them. I did the first ‘Stairway To Heaven’ in the bluegrass gospel field. But I decided, for this album, I wanted people to know that I could sing it in its original form. And I wanted, more than anything, for Carl to know that I could do that too. So I decided to be true to its form.”

Going forward with the song, Dolly happily announced that Carl enjoyed her version of the song, calling it good. She said, “That’s really something coming from him.” 

(Photo by Omar Vega/FilmMagic)