Judas Priest's Rob Halford: 'I love you Dolly'
He pays tribute to his idol
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford has paid poignant tribute to Dolly Parton following her death from cancer aged 80.
The Metal God shared a photo of himself duetting with Dolly Parton on ‘Jolene’ at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in November 2022, when Dolly and Judas Priest were both inducted into the Cleveland institution.
He simply wrote: “She won’t want no cryin’. I love you Dolly’.
A few months after the Rock Hall ceremony, Rob Halford duetted with Dolly on the track ‘Bygones’ from her star-studded rock album ‘Rockstar’.
Speaking to Metal Hammer about the build-up to the Rock Hall duet, Rob said: “Somehow, instinctively, I knew we were going to meet.
“I always tell the story of my mother’s grandmother, who was a clairvoyant, and I still think I’ve got a little of that in me, because something went, ‘You’re going to meet Dolly Parton.’
“Two or three days later, these emails come into the office, and Dolly’s reached out, asking, ‘Would you sing some lines on Jolene?’ You sit at home and go, ‘Oh my god, this is truly going to happen!’ Being a gay guy, ‘I’ve got nothing to wear!’ I know that she likes to sparkle and I like to sparkle, so what I wore on that night was apropos.”
Reflecting on the moment they met backstage, Rob added: “She goes, ‘I love your beard!’, and she starts to clean my beard! It was so surreal!
“I’m meeting this living legend and she’s tickling my beard and going, ‘So you’re going to sing some Jolene with me?’ I was just floating.”