Dolly Parton insists she and Sir Paul Mcartney will never “retire”.
The 80-year-old country icon, who recently reassured fans she is on the mend after cancelling her Las Vegas residency due to ongoing health issues, joked she and the Beatles legend will always have another song in them.
She told Mojo magazine: “I’m sure neither of us will ever retire.
“They’ll have to know us over the head with somethin’ to make us stop. If they do, I’m pretty sure a song will fall out.”
The 9 to 5 hitmaker has long been an admirer of Sir Paul, and she has always loved his performance on Let It Be.
She added: “I was so impressed and uplifted by it – a great arrangement, great production, and, of course, Paul’s voice.”
The pair met in 1974, when Sir Paul took his band Wings to Nashville for the first time, where Johnny Cash was their guide.
The Folsom Prison Blues star took them to the Grand Ole Opry’s new home, and it was there the 83-year-old star, who turns 84 next month, heard Dolly sing.
Sir Paul recalled: “While we were there, the band of Porter Wagoner played, and the girl vocalist he had with him was this girl called Dolly Parton.
“She was very young and very sort of innocent, very sweet. She was very vivacious and full of bubbly joy, like she still is.”
The pair would eventually work together in 2009, doing backing vocalists on Cat Stevens’ protest song Boots and Sand.
And in 2023, they reunited when Dolly asked Sir Paul to be part of her 2023 record Rockstar, and it was an easy decision for the songwriter.
She said: “She’s one of the greats. She has a great voice, and that was a plus, but she’s a really great writer.
“If Dolly’s asking me to do it, how can I say no?”
Dolly recently told fans she had “some good news and a little bad news” about her ongoing health struggles.
She said in an Instagram video: “he good news is I’m responding really well to meds and treatments, and I’m improving every day.
“Now, the bad news is that it’s gonna take me a little while before I’m up to stage performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a little swimmy-headed, as my grandma used to say.”
Dolly – who was due to perform at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in September – subsequently likened her health and recovery to restoring a classic car.
She said: “When they raised the hood on this old antique, they realised that I need to rebuild my engine and that my transmission is slipping, my oil pan is leaking, my muffler’s busted and my shocks and pistons need to be replaced. And for sure, my spark plugs need to be changed, because you know, as well as I know, that I can’t lose my spark. I know I’m still crazy, but they didn’t mention anything about my mental health.”