Dolly Parton compares Beyoncé's Becky to Jolene on “Cowboy Carter: ”'That hussy with the good hair'
Your life isn't complete until you've heard Dolly call someone a 'hussy.'
"Hey, Miss Honey B, it's Dolly P," says the one and only Dolly Parton, kicking off her interlude on Beyoncé's just-released country album, Cowboy Carter.
Before Beyoncé dives into her cover of Parton's 1973 classic "Jolene" — complete with brand-new Beyoncé-fied lyrics — Parton serves up her own callback, referencing the infamous "Becky" from Bey's Lemonade era.
"You know, that hussy with the good hair you sang about reminded me of someone I knew back when," Parton says. "Except she has flaming locks of auburn hair. Bless her heart. Just a hair of a different color, but it hurts just the same.”
Parton already hinted that Bey had done a cover of "Jolene" for Cowboy Carter — before almost immediately realizing she was probably supposed to keep mum.
“Well, I think she has!" she said. "I think she's recorded ‘Jolene,’ and I think it's probably gonna be on her country album, which I'm very excited about that,” Parton told Knox News two weeks ago, clarifying, with more careful language, that she "heard" and "thinks" and "hopes" that the diva had remade her beloved song about the most famous boyfriend-stealer in music history.
Parton wrote and recorded "Jolene" in 1973, and proving that she's the ultimate GOAT, she did it on the same day she wrote another one of her gems, "I Will Always Love You." Parton claimed that the song, in which she pleads with a gorgeous redhead not to take her man, was based on the true story of a redhead who worked at a bank in Nashville who, the singer said, "was trying to take care of my man."
While country music is full of songs about the other woman, "Jolene" has always stood out because of the adoration Parton heaps on its title character, whose "beauty is beyond compare" and whose "smile is like a breath of spring." Fans have noted that Parton seems even more infatuated with Jolene than the man she's purportedly trying to steal from her.
Beyoncé has her own famous song about the other woman, though it's not nearly as fawning. "Becky with the good hair" found her way onto the track "Sorry," from the singer's 2016 cheating-husband opus, Lemonade. Fast-forward eight years, and Beyoncé's "Jolene" better watch her edges.
"Jolene, Jolene, I'm warning you, don't come for my man," Bey threatens on her new cover of the song. "You're beautiful beyond compare," she concedes, but, she adds, it "takes more than beauty and seductive stares" to break up her relationship.
As Mrs. Carter sings, "Jolene, I know I'm a queen / Jolene, I'm still a Creole Banjee bitch from Louisianne (Don't try me)" it becomes crystal clear that she's not going down without a fight.
Cowboy Carter is out now. Listen to Dolly Parton on "Dolly P" and Beyoncé's "Jolene" cover below.
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