Bob Dylan has always kept people on their toes. He’s guarded, clever, unpredictable, and seemingly lives life on his terms and nobody else’s. In reality, a very few number of people truly live this way, so it is not at all surprising to hear fellow musicians call Dylan “weird,” “crazy,” or “bizarre.”
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Someone who contrasts most of these things is the friendly, selfless, and ever-so approachable Dolly Parton. She is seemingly one of the most upbeat and sincere performers to ever grace the world. In other words, she and Bob Dylan contrast each other like day and night. However, that has not stopped Parton from having a deep affinity for Bob Dylan. Matter of fact, Parton’s love of Dylan’s music almost resulted in a Dolly Parton Bob Dylan cover album titled Dolly Does Dylan. Though, as we all know, that never came to fruition, and here is why.
Parton Wanted Bob Dylan For One Song—He Refused
In her career, Dolly Parton has covered three Bob Dylan songs: “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”, “Knocking on Heaven’s Door,” and “Blowin’ In The Wind”. Parton released her cover of “Blowin’ In The Wind” on her 2005 album, Those Were The Days. The album is a collection of cover songs featuring decorated musicians such as Kris Kristofferson, Roger McGuinn, Keith Urban, Norah Jones, and several others. Given the collaborative nature of this album, Dolly wanted Dylan to duet on her rendition of “Blowin’ In The Wind.” Unsurprisingly, he refused.
Dolly Parton revealed Bob Dylan’s refusal in a 2005 interview with the Irish Times. “To be fair, I didn’t actually speak to him personally,” stated Parton. “I’d sent a message to him because I wanted him to say at least one line on ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’. I got the message back that he didn’t want to do it, so I got (country group) Nickel Creek… to sing on it, so, in a way, it worked out better.”
Not that odd of a story. However, what is an odd story is the comment that Parton said next in the interview, which was: “I was going to do a whole album of his (songs), and I was going to call it Dolly Does Dylan. Now I’m having second thoughts.”
Now, this very well could have been a joke on Dolly Parton’s part. Though, what if it wasn’t? Well, there is truly no way to know unless Parton wants to reopen the topic 20 years after the fact. Also, this doesn’t seem like something Dylan would sign off on. So, the likelihood of this happening was probably not too high. Nevertheless, Parton was seemingly entertaining the idea for a fleeting moment.
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