Dolly Parton is going to have a new duet partner in 2023. The 76-year-old, who has sung with Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Zach Williams, Queen Latifah, Brad Paisley and more, will release a duet later this year, a gospel song, with Dionne Warwick.
Parton first sent a song for Warwick to record, followed by another one, with the latter the one the two singers will collaborate on together.
“She sent me another song, the one that we’re going to be doing as a duet. It’s a gospel song called ‘Peace Like a River.’ She wrote it,” Warwick revealed on The Tamron Hall Show (via People). “I am very excited about this, I really am. I’ve done so many duets over the years, but this one’s gonna be very special.”
Special indeed. Whitney Houston, who gained global acclaim for her performance of Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” for the film The Bodyguard, is the cousin of Warwick.
“They called me to see if they could use it, and I said yes,” Parton said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I didn’t hear anything else about it. I didn’t know if they had it, I didn’t know if they had done it. I was driving my car from downtown, where my office was on 16th Avenue, back to my house in Brentwood. I was just driving along and I had the radio on. I heard this “If I should stay …”
Parton, who says it was Kevin Costner’s idea to have Houston sing the song in the film, was blown away by Houston’s version of the song.
“I just freaked out,” Parton recalled. “I had to pull over to the side, because I honestly thought I was going to wreck. It was the most overwhelming feeling, and you know how great that was. It was great.”
Parton released another duet last year, this one with Reba McEntire. The two collaborated on a new version of McEntire’s iconic hit, “Does He Love You,” first released with Linda Davis in 1993. The song is on McEntire’s REVIVED REMIXED REVISITED album, out now.
“We did a new version of it,” Parton told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live. “It turned out really good. I’ve always wanted to sing with her, and don’t know why we never did it until now. But we really sounded good together. I think the fans are going to like it.”
No word yet when “Peace Like a River” will be released.