Dolly Parton recently collaborated with pop star Sabrina Carpenter on Carpenter’s song “Please Please Please,” and she shared her conditions for performing the duet with Carpenter. “Of course, she can talk a little bad now and then. I told her, I said, now, I don’t cuss. I don’t make fun of Jesus. I don’t talk bad about God, and I don’t say dirty words, on camera, but known to if I get mad enough,” she said. Carpenter has been criticized for her more provocative style, particularly for a music video she performed at a NYC Catholic church. The video led to outrage at the parish and the demotion of one of the priests. Carpenter has said she was given permission for the video. “We got approval in advance. And Jesus was a carpenter,” she said. One change in the song from the original is that the line “I beg you, don’t embarrass me, motherf—–” is changed to “I beg you, don’t embarrass me like the others.”
Parton has collaborated with a number of high-profile singers throughout her career. “They’re a joy to do. I don’t have to worry about a record label saying, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ because I own my own music, I own my own label. So, I’m pretty independent. I can do what I please,” she said. “I love being able to have that freedom. I think freedom is a great word for everybody, anybody, in anything you do. Just having the freedom to work and the freedom to express yourself the way you want to. To do what you want to, go where you want to.”
Speaking of what it was like to work with Carpenter, Parton said, “She was so sweet.” Parton has spoken glowingly about other partnerships, including giving Beyonce the ok to do a cover of song “Jolene.” “When they said she was going to do ‘Jolene,’ I expected it to be my regular one but it wasn’t. But I love what she did to it. And as a songwriter, you love the fact that people do your songs no matter how they do them,” she said. Parton hasn’t spoken of any upcoming collabs yet, but she seemed pretty open to what might happen next. “Whoever calls me that I like,” she said. “I’ll I say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that!”