Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS, Getty Images
Jeff Tweedy revealed which classic Dolly Parton ballad he doesn’t love, surprising the audience during an appearance on a late night talkshow.
Tweedy appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday evening (January 17), discussing his new book, World Within A Song. Host Stephen Colbert said in his interview with the Wilco artist that there are “some hot takes in this book” Colbert asked Tweedy about which popular songs that he doesn’t like.
“Well, I mean, the book would’ve sounded really silly if I didn’t take ownership of some things that aren’t for me, and one of them is ‘I Will Always Love You,’” Tweedy said, noting the gasp from the audience. He clarified, “I love Dolly Parton. All I know is that she wrote ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You’ in the same day, and she should’ve stopped after ‘Jolene.’
“I know it’s me. I know I’m wrong. It’s the ‘I’ part,” Tweedy said, agreeing when Colbert suggested Parton is “milking one vowel too long,” in the 1970s classic. “It’s obviously me because I think that people have a natural inclination to reject things that they can’t do, and I can’t hold a note for very long. So, that song is dead to me.”
Parton debuted “I Will Always Love You” in 1974, and Whitney Houston released her powerful version of the classic in the early 1990s, when she starred in The Bodyguard. Watch the clip of Tweedy’s interview with Colbert here: