Another beautiful tribute to the late, great Dolly Parton.
Very sadly, the country icon passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee on Tuesday. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Aside from that, she understandably didn’t share more, though it has since been revealed that she suffered a “brief battle with cancer.”
She made an incredible impact on this world, and tons of artists, from country music and beyond, have been paying tribute to her timeless music over the last several days. Last night, Ella Langley delivered an awesome rendition of Dolly’s fan-favorite song “Jolene,” during her show in Auburn.
Of course, the story beyond “Jolene” is well-known, because it’s about a real life woman who was getting a little to flirty with Dolly’s husband Carl Dean at the bank. Released in 1973, it was one of her first big hit singles, and served as the title track for her 13th studio album. She famously wrote it at the same time in 1972 that she wrote her other massive hit, “I Will Always Love You.”
Dolly has talked about how the song is based on a true story many times, and in an interview with Access to talk about her new baking line several years ago, she gave a little more backstory to what really went down with “Jolene.”
She says she started to notice that Carl was going to the bank way more often than he needed to back then:
“Well, actually, it was based on a little truth. Her name was not Jolene, but she was working at the bank, and she was this beautiful girl. And that was bad enough, that he was having to go to the bank as much as he was going.
And I kept thinking, we ain’t got that kinda money, not yet anyway. He was in asphalt paving, he and his father, and I said, ‘Why are you having to talk to her all the time?’”
Carl assured her there was nothing more to it, and Dolly wanted to know why there wasn’t someone else he could talk to at the bank if that was the case:
“And he said, ‘I’m trying to get a loan, I’m trying to do this for our asphalt paving company.’ And I said, ‘Well, couldn’t you talk to one of those hairy legged boys about a thing like that?’ And he said, ‘No’.”
Dolly was gonna set him straight regardless of why he was really there, and told him he better act right or else…
“And I said, ‘Look, you better be talkin’ to one of those boys, or it’s gonna be your ** and your fault! So there’s your asphalt.’”
Spoken like a true queen… I have a feeling he never went out of his way to talk to “Jolene” again.
Ella put her own little spin on it, and I actually really love the way she did it. I wouldn’t mind at all if she kept this in her set list, or even eventually did a studio cut of it. Check it out:
@emily.these.days Last night in Auburn, @Ella Langley said, “Tonight’s show didn’t feel right without doing something like this” and proceeded to sing “Jolene” in honor of @Dolly Parton. One of my favorite moments from the night 🦋 #ellalangley #dollyparton #concert #auburn #fyp ♬ original sound – Emily 🦋
Ella previously shared a beautiful tribute to Dolly on Instagram, thanking her for standing up for herself throughout her career and paving the way for women in the industry:
“Dolly, thank you for standing up for yourself as an artist, a songwriter, a musician, a producer, an author, a creative, and most importantly a woman in this industry. You paved the way for so many to be brave.
Thank you for being unafraid to show your most authentic self. The world needed Dolly and will never see another like it. The gates of heaven just welcomed home a beautiful soul.”
“Jolene”
