What Happened Between Dolly Parton And Elvis Presley?

Dolly Parton once rejected a request from Elvis Presley despite describing him as her “kin.”

Dolly Parton has inspired a lot of artists and is loved by many due to her saint-like reputation. So fans were somewhat surprised when she revealed that she once rejected a creative request from the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley. Here’s what really happened between them.

Inside Dolly Parton & Elvis Presley’s Relationship

A year after Presley’s tragic death in 1977, Parton said that she could relate to the Hound Dog performer. “I always felt that we were kin,” she told Playboy, per the book Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton.

“I feel like I know exactly how he was. Every time he’d come in town, even if I was home, I just wouldn’t go, somethin’ always kept me from goin’. There were other people I liked to hear sing better, but there was nobody that I ever related to more.”

In the same interview, the Jolene hitmaker reflected on how the singer-turned-movie star had become an icon. “He was very loving, very emotional, very sensitive, very giving, very humble, thankful, grateful,” she explained. “I always felt that he was totally in awe of his own success and he didn’t quite understand why he had been so chosen and why he was such an idol.”

Both Parton and Presley struggled with money before fame. The latter grew up in public housing or low-rent homes in the poor areas of North Memphis. His father, Vernon also worked odd jobs and was sentenced to three years in prison for forging a $4 check. The “cursed” legend once told Life Mag of his rags-to-riches story:

“I don’t regard money or position as important. But I can never forget the longing to be someone. I guess if you are poor, you always think bigger and want more than those who have everything when they are born.”

Dolly Parton Refused To Let Elvis Presley Cover ‘I Will Always Love You’

Presley actually sang Parton’s 1974 hit, I Will Always Love You to his ex-wife Priscilla while they were leaving their divorce courtroom. In The Big Issue’s Letter To My Younger Self, the Grace & Frankie guest star shared: “Priscilla told me later that he sang that song to her when they were coming down the steps of the courthouse after they divorced. That really touched me.”

So it was no surprise when Presley reached out to Parton, asking if he could cover the song. The 9 to 5 alum said she was “so excited” about it that she immediately broke the news to her friends. “I told everybody. They had called me [to tell me] that Elvis was recording it. Elvis wanted to meet me and all that.”

Unfortunately, when Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker called her to discuss the terms of the collaboration, they failed to reach an agreement. “You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing, or at least half the publishing,” Parton recalled on Living and Learning with Reba McEntire.

“Well, that throws a new light on this because I can’t give you half the publishing. I’m gonna leave that to my family. I can’t do that,” she continued, noting that she “cried” over the matter. “I cried all night. Oh, I just pictured Elvis, like, singing it. And I know that Elvis loved it. And I know it wasn’t him, but it’s true. I said no.”

Dolly Parton On Whitney Houston’s Cover Of ‘I Will Always Love You’

About two decades after turning down Presley’s request, Whitney Houston recorded a chart-topping rendition of I Will Always Love You. When Parton first heard it on the radio, she almost didn’t recognize the song. At that time, only knew that Kevin Costner wanted to use the song for their 1992 film, The Bodyguard. “I knew it was something, but it didn’t register,” she later told SiriusXM.

“I thought ‘What is that? I know what that is.’ And then all of a sudden she starts that … when she goes into the ‘I will always love you’ part, honest-to-goodness, I almost wrecked. I had to pull over.”

Dolly Parton added that she’d never forget that moment. “I was afraid because I was so caught up in that by then that I had to pull over and listen to it,” she remembered. “But it was the most overwhelming feeling that little song mine could be done so beautifully, so big, so overwhelming, that it really almost just heart attack right there; I’ll never forget it.”

When asked what she felt about Houston making it a bigger hit than she did, Parton jokingly said that she’s fine with it as long as she gets her royalty checks.

In 2021, she used all that money to support a Black neighborhood in Nashville. “It was off the beaten path from 16th Avenue,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Well, I am going to buy this place, the whole strip mall.’ And thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be,’ considering it was Whitney.”

Parton added said that she “would’ve loved” performing a duet with Houston. She quipped:

“I would’ve loved that, but I don’t think I could come up to snuff with her though. She would’ve outsung me on that one for sure.”