I have to admit, earlier this year when famed country singer Dolly Parton announced she was declining her nomination into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I was impressed.
“Even though I am extremely flattered and grateful to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I don’t feel that I have earned that right. I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out,” Parton wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “I do hope that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will understand and be willing to consider me again – if I’m ever worthy. This has, however, inspired me to put out a hopefully great rock’n’roll album at some point in the future, which I have always wanted to do!”
It was a rather classy move and a respectable one. Of course, at some point between then and now, Parton apparently changed her mind because she is now officially a Rock & Rock Hall of Fame inductee and unabashedly owns it. “I’m a rock star now!” she declared at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gala Saturday night.
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Also inducted into the Hall of Fame was Eminem, who, last I checked, isn’t a rock & roll performer, either. But he never said he’d refuse to accept the nomination — Parton did. One could argue that rock & roll is a bit of an umbrella term, which is fine, but what changed Parton’s mind?
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