Dolly Parton has died aged 80. I interviewed her in 2023, when she was releasing her album ‘Rockstar’. She was on fantastic form: playful, spirited, frank. She never answered a question she didn’t care for, but her skill was never making you feel embarrassed for asking. She just twirled around it, graceful as a figure skater, and told you something else, instead. And anyway, we got through a lot, from her "disaster" of a thanksgiving meal after politics came to the fore, her admiration for goddaughter Miley Cyrus, and how she wanted to be remembered. And yes, she sang my name to me, to the tune of her most iconic hit, after I explained how to pronounce it: "Ro-sheen, Ro-sheen, Ro-sheeeen."
I’m not entirely sure what my expectations were for a career in music journalism, but they certainly didn’t include a living legend singing my name to the tune of one of her most famous songs. I doubt my parents had that in mind when they decided to honour my Irish heritage, either. But here I am, on the phone to Dolly Parton, explaining how my name rhymes with that of the red-haired seductress from her 1973 classic “Jolene”.
