Olivia Newton-John’s Final Recording Was A Duet With Dolly Parton
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Listen to their "gorgeous" rendition of “Jolene" now.
Six months after Olivia Newton-John’s death, a recording she made with “good friend” Dolly Parton has been released.
The song is a duet of "Jolene," recorded just months before the Grease star died after a lengthy battle with breast cancer.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Her husband John Easterling and daughter Chloe Lattanzi recently spoke with Hoda Kotb, in their first televised interview since Newton-John's death in August 2022.
“I just thought, ‘How perfect is this?’” Kotb said in the interview that aired on Today this morning. “It’s like these two beautiful icons giving us yet another gift.”
"It's a gorgeous duet and Dolly is a wonderful person… a good friend of Olivia," Easterling said. "I think it expresses part of who she was and that she, as I do, feel like everyone has a very unique and special gift. I mean, for her it was her voice, she knew that, that was a gift, she understood it was a gift and she gave that very generously."
“She continued to (give generously), right up to the last thing she did with Dolly Parton," he added. "That was just part of her gift, part of her giving, part of her sharing, part of her loving.”
A tearful Lattanzi discussed her final moments with her mother.
"The last words she could say to me was, 'My sunshine,'" she recalled. "And right before she lost her ability to speak, she was making jokes."
"I love my mom more than anything," Lattanzi recalled. "She's my mama, you know? She's not Olivia Newton-John to me, but I'm so glad that she was Olivia Newton-John for so many people."
Newton-John, whose extensive career in music and film earned her four Grammys, revealed her first diagnosis with breast cancer in 1992. The cancer recurred two more times, in 2013 and again in 2017 as stage IV. Newton-John died on August 8, 2022, at age 73.
“So sad to have lost my special friend Olivia Newton-John,” Parton wrote on social media shortly after her death. “So happy that our lives crossed paths. I know her voice is singing beautifully with the angels.”
Singing with the angels indeed.
For more Southern Living news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Southern Living.
