Natalie Grant Calls Duet with Dolly Parton ‘A Full-Circle Moment’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christian artist Natalie Grant recently opened up about how Dolly Parton asked to sing with her at Dollywood and then sang with her again for Grant’s cover of “Step by Step.”
“It is the craziest thing,” Grant told Sadie Robertson Huff on the “WHOA That’s Good” podcast, “because I had sung at Dollywood earlier this year and I had no idea that Dolly was going to be there on the day that I was singing… So her management had like sent an email or something and said, ‘Hey Dolly’s going to be at Dollywood when Natalie’s doing her concert, and she said if it wouldn’t trouble her too greatly, could they sing a song together?”
The request completely surprised Grant. She could not have been happier to have Parton sing with her.
“And I just remember going, Dolly, your name is on the park. You can trouble me like, this is your park, it’s Dollywood. And so we sang together. I remember going okay, that was the sum total of it. Like this was a life moment, bucket list moment, awesome, cool, great,” Grant said.
She told the Tennessean, “My kids met her. She was so gracious, sassy and funny. And it was amazing.”
“Well, I had no idea that my manager had actually given that song (‘Step by Step’) to her team,” Grant continued. “I had kind of known up to that point everybody that I wanted to ask to sing on all these different songs, but this one…I was like, I don’t know who I want to do this with.
“I didn’t know to dream Dolly. I mean, that was like beyond what I kind of thought, and so then…when I got the email back that said, ‘Oh, Dolly is so sorry she’s busy,’ I didn’t even know to be disappointed because I didn’t know that he’d asked,” the singer said.
After Grant’s dream to sing with Parton came true, she could hardly believe it could happen a second time. But Parton surprised her again.
“And then it was like three weeks later, I get an email, and it is a letter from Dolly on Dolly letterhead. It’s got this hot pink Dolly [signature] at the top, as you would expect it to have. And she’s like, the song just keeps ringing and calling me back and I hope it’s not too late for me. Could I sing the song with you? I really want to do this song.’ I’m like, what is life? What is even happening right now?” Grant gushed.
Movieguide® previously reported on the song:
The duo covered Whitney Houston’s “Step By Step,” “dubbed one of Houston’s best songs,” marking the first time Grant and Parton have recorded together…
“In 1996, ‘Step By Step’ is a song I would blast on cassette in my beat up Volkswagen Golf as I drove to my job at Medicare,” she shared. “The dream when I moved to Nashville was music, not Medicare, but I had to do what was necessary to keep going.”
“This song was my reminder to keep putting one foot in front of the other. If you would’ve told me then that one day, I would not only be recording this song, but doing it with an international icon, I never ever would’ve believed it. I still can’t believe it,” the singer reflected.
“God is so in the little details,” Grant told Huff. “Because just like think about the fact that Whitney Houston made ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Dolly Parton…You know what I mean? Like, it became this massive, massive thing, and Dolly had never sung a Whitney Houston song, and now it just happened to be a Whitney Houston song…It’s such a full-circle incredible moment.”
“Remaking this song was dream enough,” Grant said, per CVHN. “I don’t think I will ever get over this.”
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