Dolly Parton On Being Inducted Into the Rock Hall of Fame: ‘I’m a Rockstar Now!’

On Saturday night (Nov. 5), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted its 2022 class in grand fashion. Inductees included Dolly Parton, Eminem, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eurythmics, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon. Judas Priest and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are also joining the Rock Hall with the “award for musical excellence.”

P!nk had the honor of inducting Parton, delivering a moving speech in which she called the evening “one of the most magical nights I’ve witnessed in the history of me being in music.”

She walked the audience through Parton’s groundbreaking career, especially as it pertains to being a woman not only in entertainment but in America. P!nk highlighted the hits that speak most to not only Parton’s truths, but universal ones, from “Coat of Many Colors” to “9 to 5,” the latter of which she even briefly belted the chorus of.

“[Dolly is] one of the greatest storytellers of our time… of all time,” P!nk continued.

As Parton walked on stage to accept her honor, she and P!nk — both dressed head to toe in sparkles — exchanged a warm embrace before Parton joked, “I’m a rockstar now!”

In a speech of her own, Parton teased her upcoming rock album and even treated the audience to her as-yet-unreleased new rock song… in which she emphatically declares: “I still got rock and roll down in my country soul.”

And while a host of friends helped perform hits in Parton’s honor, the final sequence of both her set and of the night was the best, in which almost every inductee — and a few special friends — joined forces for a winding rendition of “Jolene.”

The 2022 ceremony is the first time in the Hall’s 37-year history that six female acts — Benatar, Parton, Simon, Cotten, Robinson and Annie Lennox (as part of Eurythmics) — were inducted in one class. 

The show will air on Nov. 19 on HBO.