Pat Benatar Honors “Sweet Friend” Dolly Parton With Emotional Performance of the Song They Reimagined Together

Pat Benatar is remembering Dolly Parton. One month after the country star died, Benatar took the stage at Kevin Costner’s One805LIVE! event.

During her set, Benatar made a point to remember her “sweet friend,” who died on Aug. 25 at age 80 after a short battle with cancer.

“Our last project that we did together was this song together as a whole combo,” Benatar told the California crowd, per People. “This is the song that started it all.”

That song, of course, was “Heartbreaker.” The track appeared on Benatar’s debut album, In the Heat of the Night, in 1979. Decades later, Benatar and Parton reimagined the tune as a duet for the latter woman’s Rockstar LP.

Pat Benatar Praises Dolly Parton

Benatar and Parton met for the first time at 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 2022. One year later, just before the release of Rockstar, Benatar told ABC News that Parton was “born to rock.”

“It doesn’t matter what avenue, which genre of music she chose to do, she always rocked at what she did,” Benatar said. “She walked so we could fly. That’s where it starts, before us, because that was her alone by herself just figuring it out and just doing it. I’m happy to have finally done something together.”

Benatar’s husband, Neil Giraldo, agreed with his wife’s assessment, praising both Parton’s talent and personality.

“Not only is she an incredible talent, she’s the sweetest thing you’re ever going to want to meet,” he told the outlet. “You just wanted to have her around, [like], ‘Hey, come over for dinner, Dolly. Lets hang out for a while.’ It’s just incredible sweetness, sweet as can be.”

In addition to Benatar and Giraldo’s contribution to Rockstar, Parton featured the likes of Elton John, Stevie Nicks, Sting, Pink, and Brandi Carlile on the LP.

“I just sent them a love note through their managers,” Parton told NPR of the stars who leant their voices to her project. “And all the people I reached out to said, ‘Yes, we’d love to,’ and I was very honored and very proud and very humbled by that.”

Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images