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Lil Nas X Covers Dolly Parton's Iconic Classic, "Jolene"

The "Old Town Road" artist performed the 1974 country hit during a BBC Radio 1 performance

Ever since his mainstream breakout with pop-country trap anthem "Old Town Road," Lil Nas X has had a unique relationship with the trappings and sounds associated with country music on his rise to mainstream pop-cultural dominance. This pairing continues as the performer has recently released a cover of Dolly Parton's 1974-released, lovelorn country classic, "Jolene."

The suburban Atlanta native's twang is unmistakably countrified in his take on Parton released from a performance for BBC Radio 1 celebrating the release of Montero, his debut studio album. Though nothing as explicitly country as "Old Town Road" or "Jolene" is on his latest recording, his continued adoption of country music's aesthetics is notable.

Back in 2019, in an NPR interview, he noted the following regarding his country music interests:

"["Old Town Road" reaching number one] was just a bonus. That was just luck that that happened. I'm a fan of all genres of music. I have a few country songs I like. I'm not gonna say I'm a huge country fan but, you know, I listen around...When I uploaded ["Old Town Road"] and I labeled it country I knew the song was country-trap, but I feel like if I had to choose — which I had to — I thought it would lean more on the country side. So I labeled it as country. And this is during the time I'm not expecting my song to actually hop up on charts. So, it wasn't intentional. I'm not expecting to have the No. 1 spot on the country charts, but it happened."

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