Belles on Collaborating with Dolly Parton for ‘Son of Jolene’

Country music artist Belles (real name Kelli Belles) never imagined that her retelling of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” would pique the interest of the country icon. Now, the two have revealed that they are collaborating.  

In an interview with PEOPLE Magazine, the Nebraska-born singer admits she never expected Parton to hear “Son of Jolene,” let alone sing it with her. When she received the call that Parton wanted in, her immediate thought was “I could die happy now.” She added, “When I wrote this song, I would've never in a million years thought that it would've gone all the way to Dolly, and now I'm here, but I really couldn't be more grateful.”  

Parton said when she heard Belles’ unique take on “Jolene,” “When I heard 'Son of Jolene,' I thought it was very clever. No one had ever thought of it that way."  

Belles recalled how the idea for the song came to her. “It was kind of just random. I was on my headlining tour last year, and my opening act he's a great country artist, but his mom came out to a show one night, and her name was Jolene. And then, I don't know what came over me, but I was in the van the next day, driving to the next show, and I just turned to him, and I was like, ‘You should write a song about being the son of Jolene. That would be a really interesting take. Maybe you have a messed-up love life because your mom's name is Jolene, or just an angle like that.’ And he was like, ‘I don't really know if that feels like me or something I would write about.’ And I was like, ‘That's totally fair, but I might write that song.’ And he was like, ‘Well, go for it.’”  

Since it was one of Parton’s most recognized songs, Belles wanted to make sure the country legend is aware that she’s making an unofficial sequel to it. “It was actually my publisher, Stephanie Greene, who got the song to Kent Wells, who's Dolly's producer,” Belles said. “And he really loved it and was like, ‘Hey, I'm going to play this for Dolly, because I think she would really love it.’”  

Wells was right; Parton loved it. “She did in fact love it, and she wanted to sing on it, and that was such a surreal moment,” Belles said.  

Listen to Belles’ original version of “Son of Jolene” below.