Dolly Parton Wants To Reunite Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant & Jimmy Page On Her Forthcoming Rock Album
Next month, Dolly Parton will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame — something she initially pushed back against because she felt she hadn’t yet made a great rock record. Well, the Rock Hall still went ahead with the nom, and since her February nomination Parton has confirmed that she will officially make a rock record (Steve Albini even offered to produce it at one point). Now, in a new interview with Pollstar, Parton is laying out some hopes, dreams, and concrete plans around said album. One of those hopes is to reunite Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant on it.
“When I got nominated for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, I thought ‘Well, no better time to do it,'” Parton says. “I had always wanted to do it. My husband is a big hard rock ’n’ roll fan, and for years I thought, “One of these days I’d like to do an album mainly just for him, just to kind of do it.” When I got nominated, I thought, “Why not just go ahead and do it while the iron’s hot? Maybe have some of the greats, the legends of rock ‘n’ roll sing along with me.
I’m gathering all that stuff and notifying a few people. When I get leveled out from finishing the movie [“Run, Rose, Run”], hopefully I’m going to have a real good album. I’m looking forward to it.”
About Plant and Page, Parton adds that she’d like them to join her on “Stairway To Heaven”: “I’m trying to see if Robert Plant might sing on it. Maybe Jimmy Page might do the pick-up part on it. I’m looking forward to dragging in some of the great classic people, girls and boys, to sing on some of the songs. I’m not far enough along to discuss who and what, but I am going to do an album.”
Plant and Page were last on a studio track together in 2001 when they sang “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” from the Good Rockin’ Tonight – The Legacy Of Sun Records compilation. They last performed together when Led Zeppelin reunited at a 2007 Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert. If anyone could get Plant and Page back in a room together, though, it would be Dolly Parton.