Dolly Parton puts her own twist on 'Wrecking Ball' in new duet with Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton have teamed up on a classic that pays tribute to another classic.

Parton has released a cover of goddaughter Cyrus’ smash “Wrecking Ball,” which also features a wink to Parton’s iconic tune “I Will Always Love You.”

The cover starts off as a ballad, with a different arrangement. Parton sings the first two verses, before Cyrus chimes in on the chorus and takes the third verse, with Parton in the background, as the guitar picks up.

Parton makes a subtle but key change to a line in the song. Instead of saying, “I can’t live a lie, running for my life/ I will always want you,” she changed it to, “I can’t live a lie, running for my life/ I will always love you,” seemingly a reference to her hit song “I Will Always Love You.”

She repeats the line again later in the song when she sings, “Don’t you ever say I just walked away/ I will always love you.” She quietly sings the “I always will love you” line a third and final time right as the song draws to a close.

The cover appears on Parton’s upcoming rock album, “Rockstar,” due out Nov. 17. It features nine original songs and 21 covers and sees the country icon perform with such stars as Cyrus, Sting, Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks, Pink, Brandi Carlile and Elton John, among others.

Parton, who performed a combination of “Wrecking Ball” and “I Will Always Love You” during Cyrus’ New Year’s Eve celebration last year, says it felt natural to tackle “Wrecking Ball” on her album.

“I thought, well, I have to do ‘Wrecking Ball’ because I love Miley and I love the song,” she told Billboard.

“So I said, ‘Will you come and do this with me?’ She said, ‘Of course.’ Well, it actually came from the fact that we had done the song on NBC for her New Year’s show that she does every year from Miami.

“And we got such response in how we did ‘Wrecking Ball’ and combined my song ‘I Will Always Love You’ with that one. So, since everybody loved it, and we loved it, I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I just do that combination and have her sing it on my rock album?’ So I love my Miley and I love the song and I’m very proud of it — my version, and hers, and ours.”

Cyrus celebrated the release of the duet on X on Oct. 20, writing, "I’ve grown up covering my Aunt Dollys music & it’s an honor to hear her singing one of my songs. I love you Aunt Dolly! I’m so happy to add another collaboration under our bedazzled (studded leather) belt!"

This article was originally published on TODAY.com