In honor of the late Dolly Parton, Bad Wolves will release a cover of her 1973 hit “Jolene” on Aug. 31, 2026.
Bad Wolves had recorded their version of the classic song just weeks ago, and according to the band, Parton was planning to contribute vocals for it.
Bad Wolves drummer and founder John Boecklin said: “Our new singer (Sara “Killboy” Skinner) is a big fan of Dolly and had posted a bunch of videos of her covering ‘Jolene.’ So we decided to make a heavy metal cover version for our next album. On hearing our version, our label CEO Dan Waite sent the finished demo 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 of this week’s news of Dolly’s passing. We will honor Dolly’s incredible legacy by donating proceeds from ‘Jolene’ to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.”
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has given away over 300 million books to children around the world. Founded by Parton in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is the flagship program of the Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring a love of reading in children around the world. The program provides free, high-quality, age-appropriate books to registered children from birth to age 5, regardless of family income, mailing each book directly to the child’s home. Today, the program mails more than 3 million books to children each month.
“With ‘Jolene,'” Boecklin said, “being able to use our platform to help deliver critical funding to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, we know that we can contribute to Dolly’s vision of giving access to books and improving literacy.”
In closing, Boecklin offered condolences on behalf of the band: “Our thoughts are with Dolly’s extended family, manager Danny Nozell, and all of the many thousands of people she touched in her extraordinary life who are grieving her passing.”