Lil Nas X covers ‘Jolene’ — and Dolly Parton approves
Lil Nas X is taking on an iconic Dolly Parton song — just because he can.
And, indeed, the 22-year-old artist’s newly released live performance of Parton’s 1973 single “Jolene” has been sanctioned by the country queen herself, who tweeted that she was “so excited” to hear his cover.
The rapper dropped a video of his soulful version of the song, performed and recorded for BBC’s Radio 1, early last week on Twitter, where it has been streamed more than 4 million times so far. He captioned the video tweet simply, “JOLENE.”
However, it appears that Parton, 75, has just learned of X’s tribute — and loves it.
“I was so excited when someone told me that Lil Nas X had done my song #Jolene,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “I had to find it and listen to it immediately… and it’s really good.”
Graciously, Parton added, “Of course, I love him anyway. I was surprised and I’m honored and flattered. I hope he does good for both of us. Thank you @LilNasX.”
Her message, with 258,000 likes from Twitter followers, has already exceeded X’s “Jolene” video tweet, which racked up 218,000 likes since Sept. 21. The legendary singer also replied to the rapper’s video with an emoji of her signature symbol, the butterfly. (Parton, of course, has famously admitted to having a butterfly tattoo somewhere on her body.)
“HOLY S- -T,” X said on Wednesday in a retweet of Parton’s “thank you” note.
It’s not the first time that X, whose Twitter handle “Montero” also boasts a Dolly-esque blue butterfly emoji, has nodded towards the multihyphenate industry mogul. In 2019, not long after the debut of his two-time Grammy-winning “Old Town Road” remix with Billy Ray Cyrus, he asked the internet, “Y’all think i can get dolly parton and megan thee stallion on a old town road remix?”
Parton answered his missive at the time with an image of three running horses: one black, one brown and one pink. “YEE YEE GANG!” X replied.
Unfortunately, the world never got the Lil Nas X-Dolly Parton-Megan Thee Stallion single. But with this emerging interaction between the two artists, perhaps a fresh collaboration won’t be far off.
