By the late 1980s, Dolly Parton received some cool reception to her more pop-leaning albums including Dolly, Dolly, Dolly (1980) and Rainbow (1987). On her 29th album, White Limozeen, in 1989, Parton returned to a more country form.
Produced by Ricky Skaggs, White Limozeen featured new songs written by Parton, including a duet she co-wrote and sings with Mac Davis, “Wait ‘Til I Get You Home,” her rendition of Don Francisco’s 1980 hit “He’s Alive,” and another cover of an early REO Speedwagon single.
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“Time for Me to Fly”
Parton opened White Limozeen with a bluegrass song, a genre she’d give more attention to a decade later on The Grass Is Blue (1999). “Time for Me to Fly” sounded like a song Parton may have written, but it was a minor hit from REO Speedwagon’s 1978 album You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can’t Tuna Fish. Filled with banjo, accordions, and all the bluegrass fixings, Parton’s rendition is an animated diversion from the original song of heartbreak.
Written by REO Speedwagon vocalist Kevin Cronin, while living in Colorado, “Time for Me to Fly” was a song about moving on from a relationship and took him 10 years to complete.
“I had been in love with my first love, a girl that I met in high school,” recalled Cronin. “But there was a point where I knew that I had to move on, but didn’t want to, because I was attached to her. I knew that it wasn’t working, so I went to Colorado to put some distance between me and her, even though that wasn’t what I consciously did.”
I’ve been around for you
Been up and down for you
But I just can’t get any relief
I’ve swallowed my pride for you
I’ve lived and lied for you
But you still make me feel like a thief
You got me stealing your love away
‘Cause you never give it
Peeling the years away
And we can’t relive it
Oh, I make you laugh
And you make me cry
I believe it’s time for me to fly
You said we’d work it out
You said that you had no doubt
That deep down, we were really in love
Oh, but I’m tired of holding on
To a feeling I know is gone
I do believe that I’ve had enough
I’ve had enough of the falseness
Of a worn-out relation
Enough of the jealousy
And the intoleration
Oh, I make you laugh
And you make me cry
I believe it’s time for me to fly
The Song That Almost Didn’t Make the Cut
‘Time for Me to Fly” was also inspired by the Rocky Mountains, and Cronin originally had the song ready as a demo for the REO Speedwagon’s 1976 album Keep Pushin’, but the band’s producer, John Stronach, wasn’t a fan of the track.
“And the rest of the band agreed with him,” said Cronin. “It blew my mind that they judged it so harshly because it only had three chords. Their attitude was that it didn’t sound like an REO song. For me, that was crazy. I was the singer and the writer, so that should have been enough to make it a song we could record, but it was still turned down.”
He added, “But for the next album, this song came up again, and I convinced Gary [REO guitarist Gary Richrath], who co-produced it with me, that if it was arranged differently, then it would be very powerful and a proper REO track. And it’s become the fulcrum of our live set. You can feel people’s hair standing up whenever we start to play this. It sent shivers down my spine because it means so much to all of us.”
Once released, “Time for Me to Fly” was a moderate hit for the band, peaking at No. 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was also featured in the 1984 romantic comedy Vision Quest and Adam Sandler’s Grown Ups (2010). It later climbed up to No. 40 on the Digital Songs chart after appearing in the 2020 episode of the Netflix crime drama Ozark, “Kevin Cronin Was Here.” In the episode, Laura Linney’s character, Wendy, sings along to the song in her car.
Missing Girl
Years later, “Time for Me to Fly” resurfaced in an unexpected way for Cronin when he received a call from a reality TV series about the girl he wrote the song about. They claimed that she had been missing for three decades and wanted to interview Cronin for an episode.
“I literally just got a call from this mystery TV show, kind of a reality TV show, that the girl that I wrote ‘Time for Me to Fly’ about went missing,” recalled Cronin in 2017. “Literally, went missing like 30 years ago. And they were calling me. I declined to be filmed for the show. … So the girl that I wrote ‘Time for Me to Fly’ about mysteriously disappeared, and has not been heard from since.”
“Keep on Loving You”
In 2023, Parton returned to REO Speedwagon on her Rockstar album with a cover of the band’s chart-topping 1980 hit “Keep on Loving You.” To make the cover more special, Cronin sang it with Parton.
Originally released on REO Speedwagon’s 1980 hit album Hi Infidelity, “Keep on Loving You” was the band’s first single to break through the Top 50 when it went to No. 1.
This time around, there were no inflections of bluegrass on this REO cover, and Parton remained faithful to the original with this rendition.
Photo: Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images
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