Inside Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley’s Unforgettable Bond: ‘I Always Felt That We Were Kin’
Plus, details on how Parton's decision changed the fate of "I Will Always Love You" forever
Key Takeaways
- Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley never actually met in person during their lives.
- Parton refused to let Elvis record ‘I Will Always Love You’ over publishing rights.
- Whitney Houston's 1992 cover of the song later became one of the most iconic ever.
One of the most talked about friendships in all of music is that of Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton. But, what if we told you that the King of Rock and Rock and the “Jolene:” singer never met. Instead, they shared more of a spiritual bond that almost resulted in Presley almost singing a song written by Parton before it was given to someone else. To learn more about Parton and Presley’s relationship, keep scrolling!
A look at Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley’s friendship
One of the biggest questions about Parton and Presley’s friendship is if they actually ever met. The short answer is no, but that didn’t stop the two from discussing their relationship with one another.
“I never [met Presley],” Parton told Playboy in October 1978, “but I always felt that we were kin. 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.”
“He was very loving, very emotional, very sensitive, very giving, very humble, thankful, grateful. 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,” the “Jolene” singer continued. “How he felt about God and religion was always somethin’ I related to a lot, because I know he was brought up with his mother in the Assembly of God. It was a real free-spirited, shoutin’ church. I watched and heard how he reacted to Gospel music and how he loved that the best of all and how he almost seemed to feel he had a callin’ to do somethin’ different and maybe more spiritual than what he actually was doin’, but you know, he never got a chance to try.”
How Dolly Parton and Elvis Presley changed music history
In 1974 Parton released her version of “I Will Always Love you.” It was a farewell message to longtime business partner and mentor Porter Wagoner and turned into her final song at concerts.
Shortly after releasing it, Presley’s team asked Parton if he could record his own version of the song. When she was asked, Parton said in 2006 that it was “the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me as a songwriter,” but after it was revealed that she would have to give up the publishing rights by Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker—meaning that she would have to split the royalties she would earn from her song—Parton’s feeling changed.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t give you the publishing.’ I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart—I cried all night,” Parton told W Magazine in October 2021. “But I had to keep that copyright in my pocket. You have to take care of your business! Everybody’s going to use you if they can. These are my songs—they’re like my children. And I expect them to support me when I’m old!”
“Priscilla, Elvis’s wife, told me that when she and Elvis divorced, Elvis sang my song to her. That touched me so deeply,” she continued.
Eventually, Parton let Whitney Houston re-record the song in 1992 for her movie The Bodyguard, which also starred Kevin Costner. To this day, Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” remains one of the most popular songs of all time.
How Dolly felt about Elvis after his death
Elvis died in 1977 from a cardiac arrhythmia. He was 42 at the time and, according to Parton, there would never be another King of Rock and Roll.
“I don’t think it will be anythin’ you and me will ever see,” she told Playboy. “I would never be an Elvis, and I would never want to be Elvis. But I would like to be a person truly loved enough to be able to have that much of an impact on people as far as bein’ able to guide them or help them or let them see that you’re caring.”
“He touched people’s lives in a lot of ways. He was the sex symbol of the world and when he started gainin’ weight and gettin’ fat, he lost a lot of his glamor to a lot of people. I always thought his manager was brilliant as well. They built that mystery up about him. When he started losin’ his glamor and doin’ those concerts, he became more ordinary,” she continued. “That’s when they started publishing all the things about him. Thin people realized that he was not a god of any sort, but he was just an extraordinary human bein’. I think if he hadn’t died when he did, within the next five years he wouldn’t have been a hero at all, because he was talked about too much, seen too much. That’s how cruel the public can be.”
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