Dolly Parton Shouts Out 'That Hussy with the Good Hair' on Beyoncé's “Cowboy Carter” in Nod to “Lemonade”
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Beyoncé included a cover of Dolly Parton's classic "Jolene" on her new country album 'Cowboy Carter'
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Dolly Parton, BeyoncéAfter weeks of playing coy about her knowledge of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, Dolly Parton surprised fans with a cheeky guest appearance on the star’s new country album.
The country legend, 78, appears on an interlude called “Dolly P,” in which she speaks on what sounds like a voicemail about “that hussy with the good hair” Beyoncé, 42, famously sang about on her 2016 Lemonade track “Sorry.”
“Hey, miss Honey Bey. It’s Dolly P. You know that hussy with the good hair you sang about?” she says 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.”
The interlude leads into Beyoncé’s cover of “Jolene,” the 1973 classic Parton wrote about a red-haired bank clerk in Nashville putting the moves on her husband Carl Dean while she was touring.
Beyoncé’s version, though, is a reimagined version of the song with new lyrics; instead of pleading with Jolene to lay off, the Grammy winner warns the “desperate” Jolene not to mess with her, as her attempts at seduction will be futile.
“I’m warnin’ you, woman, find you your own man,” she sings on the chorus. “Jolene, I know I’m a queen, Jolene. I’m still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisianne (Don’t try me).”
Beyoncé — who has been married to JAY-Z since 2008 — later tells Jolene that she has the full support of her man, with whom she’s “been deep in love for 20 years.”
The star’s cover of “Jolene” has been a dream of Parton’s for many years. In 2022, she told Trevor Noah on The Daily Show she thought Beyoncé’s take on the track would be “killer.”
“I think she’s fantastic and beautiful and I love her music,” Parton said. “I would just love to hear 'Jolene' done in just a big way, kind of how Whitney [Houston] did my ‘I Will Always Love You.’ Just someone that can take my little songs and make them like, powerhouses. So that would be a marvelous day in my life if she ever does do ‘Jolene.’”
Weeks before Cowboy Carter’s release, Parton teased the “Jolene” cover, telling Knox News that she’d “heard” Beyoncé may have recorded it.
"Well, I think she has! I think she's recorded ‘Jolene’ and I think it's probably gonna be on her country album, which I'm very excited about that."
Last month, when Beyoncé became the first Black woman to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Chart with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” Parton congratulated the star on Instagram.
“I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album. So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single,” she wrote. “Can’t wait to hear the full album!”
Willie Nelson and Miley Cyrus also appear on the new record, as does Linda Martell, the first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry.
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