Country music icon Dolly Parton recently has used a portion of the royalties she earned from Whitney Houston‘s cover of her song “I Will Always Love You” to invest in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, Tenn.
During her interview on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Parton said she thought it was an appropriate way to honor the Black singer, who significantly increased the song’s popularity with her 1992 cover version for the 1992 film The Bodyguard alonside Kevin Costner.
During the interview on Saturday, Parton said she was never asked to perform a duet of the song with Houston but wished that she had. “I would’ve loved that,” said Parton said. “But I don’t think I could’ve come up to snuff with her though. She’d have outsung me on that one for sure.”
“It was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there,” Parton said. “It was a whole strip mall. And I thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be, considering it was Whitney. I just thought, ‘This was great. I’m going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well.’ And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex. And I think, ‘This is the house that Whitney built.’ “
Houston’s recording of the song Elvis Presley was also once interested recording reportedly earned Parton $10 million in royalties in the 1990s, according to Forbes.
Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” in 1972 on the same day she wrote “Jolene,” another one of her significant hits.
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Author: Brad LeBeau
Photo: Public Domain