Dolly Parton defends Kid Rock collaboration on new album: ‘I just accept and love’
Dolly Parton is defending her duet with Kid Rock on her new album, “Rockstar.”
The 77-year-old country music icon teamed up with Rock on the song “Either Or” on hew new set, due out Nov. 17, but despite backlash to the collaboration, she told the Hollywood Reporter it isn’t her place to judge others.
“Somebody was talking to me the other day, ‘How could you do this (song) with Kid?’ I said, ‘Hey, just because I love you don’t mean I don’t love Kid Rock. Just because I love Kid Rock don’t mean I don’t love you.’ I don’t condemn or criticize. I just accept and love.”
Parton said she did the song “before the controversy that he had,” although it was unclear which controversy to which she was referring. (Odds are it was this year’s Bud Light flap, after he shot up a couple cases of beer following the brand’s partnership with transgender rights activist Dylan Mulvaney.)
“I’d have probably still done it, because he is a gifted guy, and that song was about a bad boy; it was about a boy that was cheating and mistreating her,” Parton said. “But like I say, I love everybody. I don’t criticize, I don’t condone nor condemn. I just accept them. But anyhow, just because I love you don’t mean I don’t love Kid Rock in that God way.”
When asked about cancel culture, Parton called it “terrible.” “We all make mistakes. We don’t all get caught at it. But also when somebody makes a mistake, it depends on who they are,” she said. “That’s what God is there for. Now, I happen to believe in God; I’m a faith-based person, so therefore I am able to see it like that. A lot of people don’t, but even still, everybody deserves a second chance. You deserve to be innocent until you’re proven guilty. Even when you’re proven guilty, if God can forgive you, so can I. If God can forgive you, we all should forgive one another.”
Parton’s “Rockstar” also features collaborations with Steven Tyler, Sting, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Debbie Harry, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Elton John, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Stevie Nicks and more.
Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, after threatening to withdraw herself from the nomination block because she didn’t feel she was rock and roll enough for the distinction.
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