Dolly Parton debunks popular myth about two of her biggest hits

Dolly Parton has set the record straight on rumours she wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day.

Fans of the country music legend have long been under the impression that she penned both massive hits in one day.

But when she was quizzed about it on the Chris Evans Breakfast show on Virgin Radio, Parton suggested it could actually have been more like “within the same period of time”.

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“I don't know that I wrote them on the same day, but they are on the same cassette,” said the 77-year-old of Jolene and I Will Always Love You, which was a big hit for the late Whitney Houston.

“I'm always writing songs, I always keep my cassette handy and available, but they actually wound up on the same Jolene album.

“And so that in itself is a feat, but I really wrote them within the same period of time, either that week, and since I write all the time, something almost every day, I've always kind of believed that they very well could have been on the same day that I wrote them, because they were back to back on the cassette.”

Parton has been in the music industry for more than 50 years but she insisted she would “never retire”.

However, she suggested that she wasn’t in a hurry to tour again any time soon.

“The touring is a little too much for me now, because you have to spend at least six months preparing for a tour,” she explained.

“And in order for it to make the money that you hope it will you’ve got to commit yourself to a year and a half or so of a show. And I'm just not willing to do that any more.”

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The star said she would continue to do special shows.

Parton's album Rockstar is released on 17 November and her book, Behind The Seams: My Life In Rhinestones, is out on 17 October.

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