In a recent sit-down conversation ahead of Dolly Parton‘s new album Rockstar, she and Hayley Williams discovered they have something in common other than their home base in Nashville: Their love for Miley Cyrus.
Arriving Nov. 17, Rockstar is a 30-track compilation of both new songs and covers of classic rock songs, featuring a long list of collaborators spanning Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Elton John and more. Also included on the project’s guest list is Cyrus, Parton’s real-life goddaughter; last month, the pair shared a duet version of the 30-year-old pop star’s 2013 hit “Wrecking Ball,” which will appear on the album.
“Yours and Miley’s voices are perfect together,” Williams told Parton of the collaboration in their interview, published by Consequence Monday (Nov. 6). “You on this song, it feels like a song that you could have written.”
“Well, I wish I had written that song,” replied the “9 to 5” singer. “Miley, I’m crazy about. I don’t think people even know how talented she is.”
“I think what, unfortunately, people do is really underestimate based on presentation or based on the fact that she came from Disney,” agreed the Paramore frontwoman. “And she’s already proven that she’s got the chops: She’s a great singer, a writer.”
“Her comedic timing I think is unbelievable,” Parton added. “She’s a great writer and that voice… I think she’s the new, modern day rock chick. That thing that’s got the grit and the soul and the sex appeal. She’s got that voice when she can go down in that bourbon and cigarette voice, but she can also sing a song so delicate. I mean, she’s just got everything she needs.”
The pair also spoke about politics, songwriting, philanthropy, shifting genres and the event that inspired Parton to make Rockstar in the first place: Her 2022 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which she was initially hesitant to accept as a country artist. “I still didn’t feel like I’d earned it,” she explained to Williams. “And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I’m also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I’m ever gonna do it, I’m doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.”
Another star known for pivoting away from country music — albeit much more permanently than Parton — is Taylor Swift, who recently opened up about why she admires the “Jolene” musician. “She’s never stopped challenging herself to clear new hurdles and explore new territory artistically, and I think that speaks to her great curiosity about the human condition,” Swift told the Hollywood Reporter last week. “She’s a legendary empath and the storyteller for the ages. She’s also having the most fun doing it.”
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