Dolly Parton Tells the Rock Hall She’s ‘Not Worthy.’ Huh?
Dolly Parton has asked the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to withdraw her nomination for induction in the Class of 2022.
She’s not the first person with that impulse. She joins a modest but vocal chorus that, ever since this year’s nominees were announced, has been saying, “Dolly Parton? Rock ’n’ roll?”
On the surface it’s a good question, and one that occurs even to those of us who recognize Dolly Parton as a wonderful artist, a terrific singer, an engaging personality and a first-rate songwriter.
She’s also a marvelous gender-equity role model and a shrewd businesswoman. But let’s put that aside for a moment, because this particular situation is complicated enough when we just stick to the music.
For starters, there are two possible explanations why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominating committee put Parton on the ballot in the first place. We’ll start with the more appealing possibility.
- The nominators acknowledge her skill, success, contributions and influence. Yes, she’s primarily been a country artist, and proud of it, but she also has a strong pop thread in her music, with songs like “I Will Always Love You,” “Nine to Five” or the Trio sessions with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt.
The Rock Hall has always acknowledged how rock ’n’ roll draws on many musical roots, including blues, folk, R&B, country, gospel and pop. While most of the honorees from these fields have been earlier pioneers, like Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Hall has also inducted the likes of Johnny Cash and ABBA, whose hits were no more rock ’n’ roll than Parton’s “Here You Come Again.”
Without even getting into the way many old-time rock ’n’ roll fans feel about hip-hop, this is the aspect of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that often inspires the most controversy — that at times it seems to have evolved into a Contemporary Popular Music Hall of Fame.
2. The second possibility for Parton’s inclusion is that the Rock Hall, once an industry event, has become a television production, indistinguishable from two dozen other entertainment awards shows. To maximize potential viewership, a TV production needs stars. Musically worthy as some of this year’s other nominees may be, Parton would bring the ceremony another level of glamour.
And yes, Door #2 would reflect an element of calculation, suggesting the Hall has become less about the music and more about the institution. This wouldn’t be the first time that’s been postulated, either.
Meanwhile, as for the practical implications of Parton’s note, there may be none. Since it arrived weeks after the nominations were announced and ballots distributed, many of the votes are presumably already in — and there’s no mechanism to discount them or ignore future ballots that still include her.
In that sense, her statement is mostly just puzzling, and more so because her primary reason for seeking withdrawal seems to be that “I’m not worthy.” Has Parton been sitting up nights for weeks weighing her rock ’n’ roll worth? Would that not seem odd for an artist who, to her total credit, knows exactly what she’s worth?
In any case, Parton joins a motley crew of artists who have pushed back against the Rock Hall — including Motley Crue itself, whose members seem to think they’ve been excluded because they used to behave badly. They clearly haven’t looked at who else has been inducted.
For the record, Parton’s letter was by far the nicest “decline” RSVP the Hall ever received.
Some artists have rejected the whole idea of a Hall of Fame on principle, including David Bowie, Jerry Garcia and Axl Rose. That group also includes the Sex Pistols, and the Hall would have been crushed if they had reacted any other way. The Pistols sent an ungrammatical rejection letter that Hall honcho Jann Wenner gleefully read on stage, and it provided a good coda to the Sex Pistols’s legacy: maximum attitude and not a lot of music that most of the world would ever listen to.
Most of the other declines were less philosophical and more personal — the best being when Peter Cetera of Chicago refused to attend and sing because the other members of the band didn’t want to play in his key.
Paul McCartney didn’t show up for the Beatles’s induction because he was having a contract spat with Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Diana Ross didn’t show up for the Supremes’s induction because she was fighting with Mary Wilson. Levon Helm skipped the Band’s induction over his arguments with Robbie Robertson. Roger Waters was fighting with all the rest of Pink Floyd. Stu Cook and Doug Clifford of Creedence Clearwater Revival showed up and John Fogerty wouldn’t play with them, opting for a house band.
That’s rock ’n’ roll, son. Dolly Parton could still be inducted anyway.
And oh yeah, whether she is or not, she has given the Rock Hall a bucketload of publicity.
