PHOTO CREDIT Evan Aparicio
Bad Wolves announced that at the end of August they are releasing a metal version of Dolly Parton hit song, “Jolene” They were actually in talks with Dolly’s management and have her iconic voice included in the song, but due to the recent passing of the queen of country they instead will donate they proceeds from the release of the song on August 31st, to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in her honor.
Bad Wolves founder John Boecklin says, “Our new singer is a big fan of Dolly and has posted a bunch of videos of her covering “Jolene.” So, we decided to make a heavy metal cover version for our next album. On hearing our version, our label CEO Dan Waite sent the finished demo to Dolly’s manager Danny Nozell with a request for Dolly to guest feature on our version. We heard back that Danny had played the track to Dolly, and that Dolly loved our version, and that Dolly was going to go into the studio and add her vocals very soon. We then sent over the stems for Dolly’s studio engineers to work with. Like everyone, we were devastated by this week’s news of Dolly’s passing.
Dollys Imagination Library has given over 300 million to children around the world. Founded by Dolly Parton in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of The Dollywood Foundation; a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a love of reading in children around the world. The program provides free, high-quality, age-appropriate books to registered children from birth to age five, regardless of family income, mailing each book directly to the child’s home. Boecklin continued, with ‘Jolene,’ being able to use our platform to help deliver critical funding to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. We know that we can contribute to Dolly’s vision of giving access to books and improving literacy.”
In closing, Boecklin offered condolences on behalf of the band: “Our thoughts are with Dolly’s extended family, manager Danny Nozell, and all of the many thousands of people she touched in her extraordinary life who are grieving her passing”.