Dolly Parton Credits Husband Carl for Inspiring Her New Album: He’s ‘A Real Rock’n’Roll Freak’

Dolly Parton is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but when it came to making her first rock album, she needed some help from her husband, Carl Dean.

Parton, 77, told The Guardian that when picking songs for her first rock album, Rockstar — out on November 17 – she looked to Dean, 81. Her husband of more than 50 years is “a real rock ‘n’ roll freak,” said Parton, and the playlist consists mainly of his favorite tunes. Because these songs are near and dear to Dean’s heart, the country icon said recording these songs has been “a big deal for me.”

“I felt very responsible,” she added. “I didn’t want to maim them up, and I tried really hard to sing them well and stay as true as I could to the form, but with my voice.”

Parton also had plenty of help in making her rock ‘n roll fantasy come true, as Rockstar boasts more features than a DJ Khaled album. Elton John (“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”), Debbie Harry (“Heart of Glass”), Linda Perry (“What’s Up?”), Melissa Etheridge (“Tried to Rock and Roll Me”), Joan Jett (“I Hate Myself for Loving You”), Peter Frampton (“Baby, I Love Your Way”), Miley Cyrus (“Wrecking Ball”) Sting (“Every Breath You Take”) and Lynyrd Skynyrd/Artimus Pyle Band (“Free Bird”) help Parton cover their signature songs.

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On top of that, she got Rob Halford, Nikki Sixx, Simon Le Bon, Sheryl Crow, Pink, Steven Tyler, Lizzo and Brandi Carlile to lend their vocals on this album. Parton even got the two surviving Beatles – Paul McCartney and Ringo Star – to play on her version of “Let It Be."

“I’ve been grateful for every good thing ever happened,” Parton told The Guardian. “God has always blessed me, surrounded me with good people. I pray that every day God will bring all the right things, all the right people, into my life.”

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Parton met her heart’s other half when she moved to Nashville in 1964. They wed two years later, and when she became a global icon, he kept out of her spotlight. “He just don’t have any desire to be in show business,” she would explain to Playboy in October 1978. “He don’t want to have his picture in the paper. He don’t want to go out to the supermarket and have people say, ‘That’s Dolly Parton’s husband.'”

Dean made a rare statement when the couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2016. “That was the day my life began,” he said of the first time he saw his wife-to-be. “I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”