Dolly Parton Defends Kid Rock Duet: ‘I Don’t Condone Nor Condemn’

Now that all the anger is over Children’s rock being part of Dolly Parton‘s upcoming rock album, the country music icon wants more peace, love and understanding.

“I try to look for that innocence and purity in everyone,” Parton (77) said. The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Thursday, November 2. “Just like I did a song with Kid Rock on this album [Rockstar]. Of course I did that before the controversy he had, but recently someone said to me, ‘How can you do this? [song] with Child?’ I said, ‘Hey, just because I love you doesn’t mean I don’t love Kid Rock. Just because I love Kid Rock doesn’t mean I don’t love you.” I don’t judge or criticize. I just accept and love.”

Parton’s “controversy” comment apparently referenced a viral video in which Rock, 52, shot several cases of Bud Light beer with a handgun. “F–k Bud Light, and f–k Anheuser-Busch,” he said before turning the bird toward the camera. Rock did not explain why he misused the beer crates, but the video came amid calls for a boycott of Anheuser-Busch after the company partnered with Dylan Mulvaney – an openly trans woman who is the activist and personality behind the TikTok series “365 Days of Girlhood” – for an ad.

Rock’s inclusion in Parton’s upcoming film Rock star album (he sings with her on the song “Eithor”) angered the LGBTQ+ community after his anti-trans meltdown. “I had done that before [the controversy]but I probably still would have done it,” she shared THR, “because he is a gifted man, and that song was about a bad boy; it was about a boy who cheated and abused her.”

Related: Kid Rock’s most controversial moments: Shooting Bud Light cans, more

Rock the boat? Kid Rock has made headlines over the years for his controversial behavior and comments. When the “All Summer Long” musician was honored with the Detroit NAACP chapter’s Great Expectations Award in May 2011, critics argued that the Michigan native’s practice of displaying Confederate flags at his shows violated the values ​​of the organization. […]

“But like I said, I love everyone,” she continued. “I do not criticize, I do not condone or condemn. I just accept them. But anyway, just because I love you doesn’t mean I don’t love Kid Rock’s God in that way.”

Earlier in the interview, Parton was asked whether the governor of Tennessee had signed a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (the Campaign for human rights noted that the state has passed 15 anti-LGBTQ+ laws since 2015). While Parton said she just wants everyone to be “treated well,” she also noted that she avoids “getting”[ting] in the politics of everything.”

“I’m trying to understand the human element of it,” she explained. In the interview, she talked about the church’s judgment, how “they thought I was a garbage man, they thought I was a whore, that I was going to hell in a handbasket just because I was young and dressed the way I did to me.” That experience, she said, helped her become more forgiving and less judgmental.

This isn’t to say she turns a blind eye to the pain the LGBTQ+ community has faced in recent years. “I have a piece of everyone in my own immediate family and in my circle of employees,” Parton said THR. “I have transgender people. I have gays. I have lesbians. I have drunks. I have drug addicts – all within my own family. I know and love them all, and I don’t judge. And I just see how broken they are about certain things, and I know how real they are.

Partons Rock star arrives on Friday, November 17. The 30-song album features performances by Rob Halford, Lurch, Debbie Harry, Stevie Nicks, Miley Cyrus, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sheryl Crow and the last two surviving Beatles: Paul McCartney And Ringo Starr.