As one of the biggest names in country music, you would think that Dolly Parton's friends and family would be hardcore country fans. But we just recently learned that that's not exactly the case — even if she's the one singing it.
When the "9 to 5" singer was busy promoting her new album Rockstar (out November 17) and her recently released book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones in late June, she spoke with Absolute Radio Breakfast about recording a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."
As she explained, her husband of 57 years, Carl Dean, wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of her taking on one of the most famous rock songs of all time. In fact, she disclosed he doesn't have a taste for her style of music at all.
"Country music was his least favorite," she unexpectedly revealed to host Dave Berry about Carl's music preferences. "I did a version of 'Stairway to Heaven' some years back as a bluegrass kind of thing, and he didn't think I should have done it," she added. "He said, are you sure that's 'Stairway to Heaven' or stairwell to hell?"
She went on to say that Carl is always very straight-forward with her, and eventually thought her "Stairway to Heaven" cover in 2002 "was okay," but had really warned her against doing it. "He said 'I don't think you should do that,' and I said 'why?' and he said, 'because it's a legend. It's a classic.'"
Luckily, all turned out well and, in fact, it's just one of the tunes Dolly revamped for Rockstar. Dolly said that Carl loves her new version because she "stayed true" to the original song.
She also plans to feature other iconic tracks like "Let It Be" with Paul McCartney and a mash-up of "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" from Queen.
