Bad Wolves will release a heavy metal rendition of Dolly Parton’s classic song “Jolene” on Monday, August 31, following the singer’s passing.
In an unexpected turn of events, the band had been in discussions with Parton’s management about having the country music icon contribute vocals to their version of the song. According to Bad Wolves founder John Boecklin, Parton had heard the recording, loved the band’s take on “Jolene” and was planning to record vocals for it.
“Our singer is a big fan of Dolly and had posted a bunch of videos of her covering ‘Jolene,’” Boecklin explained. “So, we decided to make a Heavy Metal cover version for our next album.”
Boecklin said Bad Wolves’ label CEO Dan Waite sent the finished demo to Parton’s manager, Danny Nozell, with a request for her to appear on the track.
“We heard back that Danny had played the track to Dolly, and that Dolly loved our version, and that Dolly was going to go into the studio and add her vocals very soon,” he continued. “We then sent over the stems for Dolly’s studio engineers to work with.”
Following Parton’s passing, Bad Wolves have decided to move forward with the release and will donate proceeds from the song to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“Like everyone, we were devastated of this week’s news of Dolly’s passing,” Boecklin said. “We will honor Dolly’s incredible legacy by donating proceeds from ‘Jolene’ to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.”
Founded by Parton in 1995, the Imagination Library provides free books to registered children from birth to age five. According to the organization, the program has gifted more than 300 million books and currently mails more than three million books to children each month.
“With ‘Jolene,’ we are proud to help deliver critical funding to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library,” Boecklin added. “We know that we can contribute to Dolly’s vision of giving access to books and improving literacy.”
Boecklin closed with a message of condolence on behalf of Bad Wolves: “Our thoughts are with Dolly’s extended family, manager Danny Nozell, and all of the many thousands of people she touched in her extraordinary life who are grieving her passing.”
Bad Wolves’ version of “Jolene” will be released Monday, August 31.
Photo by Evan Aparicio
