Alternative metal outfit Bad Wolves have now officially released their cover of Dolly Parton‘s 3x platinum 1974 track “Jolene“. As revealed last week, Parton herself had been set to provide guest vocals on this cover, though her unfortunate battle with cancer that claimed her life last week left her unable to follow through on that.
Bad Wolves founding drummer John Boecklin commented of the plans for this cover, which will see proceeds from the song going towards Parton‘s Dolly Partons’s Imagination Library, offering
“Our singer is a big fan of Dolly and had posted a bunch of videos of her covering ‘Jolene.’ So, we decided to make a rock cover version for our next album. On hearing our version, our label CEO Dan Waite sent the finished record 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 last week’s news of Dolly‘s passing.”
Parton‘s manager Danny Nozell went on to say:
“Dolly was a champion of artists pushing musical boundaries. She listened to the Bad Wolves arrangement of ‘Jolene‘ weeks ago, gave it her full blessing, and was incredibly excited to collaborate on it. Releasing this track on Monday as a tribute—with proceeds directly supporting her beloved Imagination Library—is exactly what Dolly and her team wanted.”
Of course, Bad Wolves previously struck it big in a similar situation years ago with their cover of The Cranberries‘ “Zombie“. Their take was originally set to feature the late frontwoman of the latter outfit, Dolores O’Riordan. However, she would pass away before laying down her parts on Bad Wolves‘ rendition.
Bad Wolves would go on to release their cover in tribute, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds from it to her family. That cover became Bad Wolves‘ biggest track, last being certified 3x platinum in 2023.
Don Burton, who was married to and managed O’Riordan, commented of the parallels here:
“When Dolores died, prior to recording with Bad Wolves on Zombie, Better Noise Music’s Allen Kovac and Dan Waite reached out say that with our blessing they would like to continue with their plans to release ‘Zombie,’ but wanted to donate the proceeds to Dolores‘ children.
As a parent, I was touched, and also very surprised when the label and band were true to their word and presented our kids (aged 12, 16, 20, 27 at the time) with hundreds of thousands of dollars. A very gracious gesture, which helped with their college costs, and we will always remember the band’s kindness in honouring their pledge and Dolores‘ memory.
The similarities here with Dolly Parton loving Bad Wolves version of Jolene, and sadly passing before recording, is tragic, but once again the Bad Wolves have agreed to donate their proceeds to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, and based on the ‘Zombie‘ track record, this could provide a lot of books for young children around the world.”
Boecklin added:
“We will honor Dolly‘s incredible legacy by donating proceeds from ‘Jolene‘ to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. We know that we can contribute to Dolly‘s vision of giving access to books and improving literacy.”
Not noted in the new press release announcing the arrival of this cover is the new round of controversy that erupted surrounding it last weekend. Bad Wolves guitarist AJ Rebollo publicly stepped down from the band, claiming that the last straw was band’s label Better Noise Music had ignored opposition from the band to release the cover without the intended contributions from Parton. He stated in part this past Friday, August 28th:
“I have been at odds with one too many decisions being made for the band for quite some time, but the final nail in the coffin was the label’s decision to move forward with the upcoming Dolly Parton cover, after we blatantly expressed our opposition. We, as an entity, told the label we had no interest in releasing the cover after learning of Dolly‘s unfortunate passing as her collaboration on the song was no longer a possibility, and we felt it would (understandably) be interpreted as somewhat of a capitalization on her passing from an outside perspective. They went ahead and posted that we were releasing it anyway, despite efforts from more than one member, myself included, to oppose it.
With the label completely disregarding numerous decisions we make out of passion, and ultimately just unknowingly exhausting the band’s attempts to fully enjoy being here, I am no longer happy here. The amount of hate, negativity. and harassment we receive on a daily basis due to decisions made outside of our control has taken a massive toll on our sanity.”
