Dolly Parton Was Surprised Beyoncé Changed “Jolene’s” Lyrics And Reveals How She Felt About It (2024)

Dolly Parton is in “love” with the Beyoncé-ed version of her song Jolene, which appeared with a spicy spin on Queen Bey’s new country-flavored album, Cowboy Carter.

About five decades have passed since the legendary country icon released the hit song, in which she begs “Jolene” not to steal her man. After hearing the Single Ladies singer’s version of her 1973 classic, the 10-time Grammy winner said she was “surprised” and had no idea she was going to change things up, including the lyrics.

“Well, I think it was very bold of her,” she told E! News. “When they said she was gonna do ‘Jolene,’ I expected it to be my regular one, but it wasn’t. But I love what she did to it. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people do your songs no matter how they do them.”

The Tennessee-born singer was deeply impressed by how Beyoncé changed up the lyrics to sound less like a plea and more like a warning.

Beyoncé included her own version of Dolly Parton’s 1973 classic, Jolene, in her country-flavored album, Cowboy Carter

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“Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/I’m beggin’ of you please don’t take my man/Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/Please don’t take him just because you can,” Dolly sang in her five-decade-old version.

The pop diva, on the other hand, did not intend to make requests to “Jolene.”

“Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/I’m warning you, don’t come for my man/Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene/Don’t take the chance because you think you can,” she sang.

During her conversation with E! News, Dolly spoke about Beyoncé’s new lyrics and said, “She wasn’t gonna go beg some other woman like I did. ‘Don’t steal my man.’ ‘S–t, get out here, b—h. You ain’t stealin’ mine.'”

Another portion of the song that received some refurbishment to the lyrics was: “Your beauty is beyond compare/With flaming locks of auburn hair/With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green/Your smile is like a breath of spring. Your voice is soft like summer rain/And I cannot compete with you, Jolene,” as sung by Dolly in the original.

Beyoncé chose to sing it differently with: “You’re beautiful beyond compare/Takes more than beauty and seductive stares/To come between a family and a happy man. Jolene, I’m a woman too/Thе games you play are nothing new/So you don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene.”

The 78-year-old singer also gushed with praises over the entire Cowboy Carter album, which was described during its release as a “Beyoncé album” and not a country album.

“I was very proud of her album,” she said. “I thought she did a great job in country music, and I thought it was great. And I was just happy she did ‘Jolene.’ I, of course, would have loved to have heard how she would have done it in its original way. But of course, you know, it’s Beyoncé. Yeah, her life is different than mine.”

“She wasn’t gonna go beg some other woman like I did,” the country legend said about the pop diva’s changes to the lyrics

Image credits: beyonce

Image credits: beyonce

Cowboy Carter not only features a cover of Dolly’s classic hit Jolene, but it also has the country icon’s voice appearing twice on the album. Her vocals are heard in the song Tyrant, and she is also heard speaking in the interlude called Dolly P, which precedes Beyoncé’s version of Jolene.

In Dolly P, the country legend is heard speaking to the hitmaker about that “hussy with the good hair,” referring to the lyrics of the 42-year-old singer’s Sorry track from her 2016 album Lemonade.

“Hey, miss Honey Bey. It’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sang about?” she said on the track. “Reminded me of someone I knew back when. Except she has flaming locks of auburn hair. Bless her heart. Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same.”

Dolly Parton is heard twice in the Cowboy Carter album — she sings in the track called Tyrant and is also heard speaking to “miss Honey Bey” in Dolly P

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“We communicated when the album came out, when I was doing some of the little things to put on the album,” the country queen told E! News. “And we were sending each other flowers and little love notes and all that. So, yeah, it’s all good.”

Not only is she happy with Beyoncé’s latest tunes, but she’s more than ready to sing alongside the Houston-born artist at the 2025 Grammys if the opportunity arises.

“Why of course I would—if I’m available, if I’m not caught up in something I cannot get out of, yeah, that’d be wonderful,” she told the outlet. “I mean, who wouldn’t wanna sing ‘Jolene’ with Beyoncé?”

Even before the creation of Cowboy Carter, the Tennessee-born singer revealed that she wanted Beyoncé to cover her five-decade-old song

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Years before Cowboy Carter even materialized, Dolly revealed in an interview with Trevor Noah on The Daily Show that she wanted the Run the World singer to cover her popular song Jolene.

“I don’t know if she’s even got the message, but wouldn’t that be killer?” she told the talk show host in the 2022 interview. “I would just love to hear ‘Jolene’ done in just a big way, kind of like how Whitney [Houston] did my I Will Always Love You. Just someone that can take my little songs and make them powerhouses.”

The 9 to 5 singer also mentioned wanting Beyoncé to cover the song while speaking to The Big Issue in 2020.

“It has been recorded worldwide over 400 times in lots of different languages, by lots of different bands,” she said about Jolene. “The White Stripes did a wonderful job of it, and many other people.”

“But nobody’s ever had a really big hit record on it,” she added. “I’ve always hoped somebody might do someday, someone like Beyoncé.”

“Who wouldn’t wanna sing Jolene with Beyoncé?” the country icon said about singing with her at the 2025 Grammys if the opportunity arises

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Despite her wish to have the music mogul cover her song, many have not been welcoming of the idea of Beyoncé doing country music.

In March, Dolly praised the R&B sensation’s version of the song with an Instagram post that said, “Wow, I just heard Jolene. Beyoncé is giving that girl some trouble and she deserves it! love, Dolly P.”

Not everyone in the comments section was happy, with one fan saying, “She does BUT your original version has class, intelligence and subtlety. The beauty lies in the relationship between the ‘I’ and Jolene. In B’s version, that relationship is gone. It’s aggression.”

“It’s fine that she sings it, just don’t call it ‘country’ because it’s definitely not,” another said, while one wrote, “Love you Dolly but this version just doesn’t do your song justice.”

“What a world, when the original artist can quite LITERALLY give full approval, and fans decide to come along and spew negativity. Just silly…🤦🏽‍♂️ We LOVE Queen Dolly P and Queen Honey B!” another wrote.

Not everyone was welcoming of Beyoncé doing country music or covering the Dolly Parton classic

During the March release of Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé opened up in a social media post about how she didn’t feel welcomed in the country music scene in the past and how that experience further pushed her to conceptualize the new album.

“This album has been over five years in the making. It was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed…and it was very clear that I wasn’t. But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of Country music and studied our rich musical archive,” she said. “ … The criticisms I faced when I first entered this genre forced me to propel past the limitations that were put on me. act ii is a result of challenging myself, and taking my time to bend and blend genres together to create this body of work.”

“Love how Beyoncé flipped the script on the classic,” one said about the new version of Jolene

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