Dolly Parton has shared her feelings on selling the rights to her back catalogue, as some of her peers have done recently, in a new interview.
The likes of Neil Diamond, Sting, Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and more have all sold their back catalogues in recent months and years.
Asked in an interview with the BBC if she was also planning to do the same, Parton replied: “I would not be above doing that. All I would do then is to take that money and do whatever for my family or other businesses.
“Then I would start a whole new publishing company, start over in a few years, sell that too if I wanted to. Never say never, as they say.”
Many artists – including Neil Young, Blondie, Shakira and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie – have sold the rights to their catalogues to the Hipgnosis Song Fund. The company’s CEO Merck Mercuriadis explained his criteria for buying up catalogues last year.
“For me, the criteria is not just predictable and reliable income, but it’s cultural importance as well,” he said. “Everything that I buy is proven, it’s successful, but it’s also culturally important.
“So when you look at Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), Mark Ronson’s records including Uptown Funk, Lady Gaga, Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac, Steve Winwood, Nile Rodgers and Chic with Bernard Edwards, these are all culturally important artists who made big records that the whole world can sing, but are really important to people as well.”
Meanwhile, Parton recently published a new novel called Run, Rose, Run and released an accompanying album of the same name. In a three-star review, NME said: “If Parton is very much in her comfort zone here, that’s really part of the fun. ‘Demons’ is a wistful duet with Ben Haggard, son of late country legend Merle, her former touring partner Merle. ‘Lost and Found’ contains a nod to ‘Amazing Grace’, a song Parton has covered in the past.
“The friendly feminist album ‘Woman Up (And Take It Like a Man)’ sounds exactly like you think it does. It all adds up to a thoroughly enjoyable listen that confirms what fans already know: even a middle-of-the-road Dolly Parton album has lashings of charm.”
