This year, Dolly Parton will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside musicians such as Harry Belafonte, Eminem, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie and Judas Priest. In March, the country music icon asked those responsible to remove her name from the list of nominees – she was “extremely flattered” but did not feel that she “deserved this right,” she said at the time.
However, the organization later clarified that despite her request for disqualification, Parton would still be eligible for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame if she received enough votes. The singer already revised her position last week: “I will gratefully accept it,” she said in an interview with the US public radio station “NPR”.
Parton thought she was out of place
In a new interview with Billboard Parton spoke in more detail about the recognition: “I feel great. I’m honored that all the people who voted for me did. And I’m grateful to the folks in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for having my back.” The 76-year-old never wanted to cause trouble or spark a controversy. “I’ve always believed – and I think millions of other people out there do too – that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was only created for the greatest people in the rock ‘n’ roll business,” she told the online music magazine. She continued, “I just didn’t feel like I was doing it justice, and I don’t want to take anything away from the people who worked so hard.” She later realized there was a lot more to it than that. She feels very honored; the admission makes them humble. “I’ll try to live up to that,” said the American.
“I don’t know when, but I’m going to record a rock album”
Over the past decade, the Hall of Fame’s genre spectrum has expanded beyond rock ‘n’ roll conventions. In the past decade Donna Summer, Joan Baez, Nina Simone, Whitney Houston, The Notorious BIG, Jay-Z and Carole King have been added. When asked if she’ll be attending this year’s induction ceremony on November 5 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, Parton replied, “I don’t know. If I do, I’ll sing the heaviest rock ‘n’ roll song I could ever find just to show I can do it.” Incidentally, the musician has toyed with the idea of recording a rock album for a long time – she doesn’t know when, but she will release a rock ‘n’ roll record.