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Dolly Parton will release a rock album if she is inducted into the Hall Of Fame

The country icon says she will make heavier music if she receives the honour

By Jen Thomas

Dolly Parton
Dolly has said she will make a rock album if inducted (Pic: press)

Dolly Parton has revealed she will make a rock album to celebrate if she is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It comes after the country music legend was nominated for the accolade for the first time this year.

Other first-time nominees include Eminem, Lionel Richie and Duran Duran. The ‘Jolene’ singer has previously performed some classic rock songs, including Led Zeppelin and Bon Jovi covers.

Despite this, she said she never expected to receive a nomination for the Hall of Fame, but claims she has always secretly had the ambition to make a rock album.

Talking about the honour of being nominated, she said: “I was absolutely floored when I heard that.

“I’ve never thought of myself as being rock and roll in any sense of the word, but I guess they judge it on the music and the influence certain songs have had … I guess I’ve had songs with other people in that realm, but I don’t know how they judge that.”

She told Billboard: “I’m not expecting that I’ll get in. But if I do, I’ll immediately, next year, have to put out a great rock and roll album, which I’ve wanted to do for years.”

Dolly said she’d love to do a record like “a Linda Ronstadt or Heart kind of thing.”

Parton says the nomination might be a sign from fate to take the step into rock’n’roll: “So this may have been just a God-wink for me to go ahead and do that. It’s just nice to be nominated.”

Beck, Carly Simon and a Tribe Called Quest are also nominated, as well as Kate Bush, Dionne Warwick, the Eurythmics, Judas Priest, Fela Kuti, and Rage Against the Machine.

Dolly and her fans will have to wait until May to find out if she has been inducted, before a ceremony later on this year. To date, 351 artists have been inducted since 1986. If successful, Dolly will join the likes of Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, ABBA and The Beatles.

Parton recently teamed up with James Patterson to write a novel to accompany her new album, ‘Run Rose Run’.