Sept. 25: 'What's Up?' With Linda Perry Released As Single
Dolly's next single from November's Rockstar project, "What's Up?" featuring original artist Linda Perry (former lead singer of 4 Non Blondes and producer of Dolly's Dumplin' soundtrack), was released on Friday and a music video premiered on CMT. Check out the video here or in the media player above, and download the song here!
'Mojo' Cover Girl With New Interview The rock album project has garnered Dolly's first-ever interview with British rock journal Mojo, which features busts of her and several other legends such as Bob Dylan, Robert Plant, and Paul McCartney on the cover of their 30th anniversary November issue (available here). Check out a preview of Dolly's interview here.
Sept. 18: Dolly Sugar Holiday Cookie Kits Coming Dolly's Duncan Hines baking line is expanding this holiday season with a Sugar Cookie Kit, it was announced last week. Each kit will include cookie mix, green frosting, holiday sprinkles, a keepsake booklet, and a barcode to access a holiday message from Dolly herself.
Get New UT Vol Dollywear The University of Tennessee last week announced a partnership with Dolly on four new Vols shirts which are available on their online store here.
WBIR Chats With Dolly An interview from Dolly's recent visit to Dollywood with WBIR was released last week here, with the version that aired here.
Sawyer Brown Doc Coming Billboard last week premiered the first trailer for the new documentary Sawyer Brown: Get Me To The Stage On Time, which features an interview with Dolly. Check it out here.
Dolly The Sheep Creator Dies Ian Wilmut, the British scientist who cloned Dolly the sheep and named her after Dolly Parton since the source material came from a mammary cell, died last week at age 79. Read an obituary from Live Sciencehere.
Chicago Christmas Song Being Reissued Dolly's 2003 holiday collaboration with the band Chicago, a cover of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time," is getting a reissue this year. The song will appear in a reissue of the album it came from, Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three, as well as a compilation Chicago's Greatest Christmas Hits featuring selections from their three holiday collections, and a boxed set of the three albums, all set for Nov. 3 release.
Sept. 11: Dollywood Wins World's Best Park, Dolly A Park 'Legend' After years of slowly moving up, and being ranked No. 2 the past three years, Dollywood finally took the world's best theme park designation, winning first place in this year's Golden Ticket Awards for Best Park, presented Saturday night at the Tennessee park. They also finished first in Best Christmas Event (for the 15th consecutive time), Best Kids Area (for the fourth consecutive time), Best Family Coaster, and Best Guest Experience (for the fourth consecutive time). In addition, Dolly (who made an unannounced in-person appearance at the ceremony) and her partners in Dollywood (the Herschend family) received the Legend Award, the Golden Tickets' equivalent of lifetime achievement in the theme park industry. Dolly accepted both the Best Park award and her Legend award before closing out the ceremony by singing along with a recording of her "9 to 5."
Considered the "Oscars" of the theme park world, the other finalists for Best Park were No. 2 Europa-Park, No. 3 Universal Islands of Adventure, No. 4 Phantasialand in Germany, and No. 5 King's Island, which breaks the top five for the first time in its 50-year history. Also, for the first time since the awards began in the 1990s, Cedar Pointe failed to make the top 5. It had won first place Best Park from Golden Ticket inception through 2013 and Europa-Park won from 2014 through last year.
Additional recognitions were second place for Most Beautiful Park and Best Food (same rankings as last year), Thuderhead at No. 4 Best Wooden Roller Coasters (up from No. 10), Lightning Rod No. 14 Best Steel Roller Coasters (down from No. 11), No. 3 Best New Roller Coaster for Big Bear Mountain and No. 5 for Best New Attraction for Big Bear Mountain.
Watch the entire ceremony on Facebook from Amusement Todayhere (Dolly accepts her awards around the two-hour mark and two-hour-30-minute mark). WBIR covered the awards here, and WATE interviewed her here. While at the park for her unannounced visit, Dolly scheduled a park tour but it was cancelled due to rain.
'Let It Be' Flies Off The Chart Dolly's remake of "Let It Be" with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr fell off the Billboard charts released Wednesday, down from one week at No. 2 Rock Digital Song Sales, No. 15 Country Digital Song Sales, and No. 22 overall Digital Song Sales. Dolly's Run, Rose, Run falls off the top 10 bluegrass albums chart, down from No. 7. Overseas, Dolly's Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection gains one to No. 2 in its 41st week on the British country compilation albums chart, 27 of which were spent in two runs at No. 1. Elsewhere on the chart, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe re-enters the top 20 at No. 14, Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly duet and one Dolly cover) holds steady at No. 17, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 shoots up nine to No. 4, and Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) re-enters the top 20 at No. 20.
Dolly Wishes High Schoolers Well Dolly recently sent a sweet message to the Franklin High School marching band outside of Nashville wishing them luck on a concert where they'll perform her songs and on their performance in the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade. See her video here.
New 'Rolling Stone India' Interview Dolly has a new interview about her rock album in Rolling Stone Indiahere.
