Music icons to co-host awards
times,” Brooks says. “She’s never texted back.”
What makes for a great TV host?
Garth Brooks: Dolly’s fun because you see the script, but I doubt you’ll hear a word from it.
Dolly Parton: Even if you make mistakes, make that part of the fun. There’s an art to it. You just have to not be afraid of the crowd or afraid of the camera.
You worked with all the legends of late night, Dolly. Who was the best?
Parton: Johnny Carson and I had a great relationship. Everybody knew it was gonna be fun because he had kind of an innocent sense of humor and he’d get embarrassed working with me.
Brooks: Jay Leno was fantastic. What I loved about Jay was he understood why you were there — that you’d traveled to promote whatever you were doing — and he’d set you up like a ball on a tee. Today’s hosts, it’s a lot about the host himself or herself. At least until somebody like Dolly Parton comes on. Then they just kind of clam up.
Parton: They clam up because I won’t shut up.
Modern awards shows are always looking for a moment to get audiences talking on social media. Will there be one on the ACMs?
Parton: I’m doing my first rock ’n’ roll song, “World on Fire,” which has a great message — that’ll hopefully be my moment. But we’re gonna just let it flow. What my heart says do, I do it.
Garth, you explored rock in the ’90s as your alter ego Chris Gaines. What drew each of you to the genre?
Brooks: I think it’s just showing the versatility. Waylon [Jennings] said, “I sing country music, which means I can sing anything.” I was lucky enough to grow up in the ’70s, which was maybe the greatest era ever for rock. Lot of influences there.
Parton: That was a great album, by the way.
Brooks: There’s nothing better than when somebody comes up and goes, “Hey, man, I love what you do, but the Gaines album is my favorite thing.”
Parton: I’m not one to let timing go by, so when I was gonna be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I thought, “Well, I’m like my daddy — you give me something, I’m gonna earn it.”
You made headlines by initially telling the Rock Hall that you felt you didn’t deser ve to be inducted.
Parton: I honestly didn’t — it wasn’t to be controversial. I just thought that there are many people working out there every day [in rock music], and they don’t get nominated. I didn’t want to take any votes from anybody spending their life doing that. But they put me in anyway. I’d often thought about doing a rock album. My husband’s a rock ’n’ roll freak — that’s his music, the harder the better.
You corralled some impressive guests.
Parton: I have Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney both on “Let It Be” — the last of the Beatles. I had Steven Tyler sing with me on a song, and Steve Perry and I did “Open Arms.” And of course Elton John — we did “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” We have a lot of girl power on it too: Joan Jett. Stevie Nicks. Pink and Brandi Carlile singing “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” We did 30 songs. I don’t plan to ever do it again, and I want to leave that for my legacy.
Dolly, you released a string of classic albums in the early ’70s; Garth, you did the same in the early ’90s. When you’re in the middle of a hot streak like that, does it feel like you can’t miss?
Parton: No, you worry each time and you think, “How am I gonna beat that?” You never take anything for granted in this business.
Brooks: But you understand there’s a window of opportunity. Would a song like “Papa Loved Mama”