Dolly Parton has received a grovelling apology from a country singer who admitted she accidentally lifted multiple elements of the singer’s 9 to 5 song.
Maren Morris is an American singer best known for her country songs, including The Middle, My Church, and Girl.
The singer has been releasing music for decades and recently discussed her latest music, divorce, and her previous hits during a recent podcast appearance.
The 35-year-old Arlington, Texas-born artist was then asked about a rumour that she once accidentally copied a legendary hit song from 1980.
Maren revealed that the ordeal was her ‘worst fear’ and she felt she had to apologise profusely to Dolly.
‘I think that’s, like, any songwriter’s worst fear is unintentionally being on top of a melody that already exists and, you know, it happens more than you think.
‘I think when I write with so many different people – and play the song so many times for loved ones before it ever gets into the public – There’s always, like, checks and balances,’ she said while appearing on The Zach Sang Show.
‘There’s a song on my second record called All My Favorite People – and I remember it was like two weeks till the record was out – and my mom was actually the one that was like, “I kind of noticed the verse/melody, sounds a little bit like 9 to 5.” And I felt like my stomach dropped.’
She said that after listening back to the song, she felt that it was ‘close enough’ to 9 to 5 and she felt ‘so s**t’.
Maren said she wrote to Dolly to explain the situation and said: ‘I’m so sorry, this was an honest mistake, I would love to give you a percentage of the writing credit as I would never do this intentionally. But it sounds close enough to me.’
Dolly’s response? ‘Oh my gosh honey, you’re all good.’
She added that Dolly didn’t take a single cent of the credit and was not worried at all about any similarities between the songs.
Maren added that she had had friends get sued and said there are ‘many artists who are litigious’. But lucky for her, Dolly wasn’t one of them.
She then added that Dolly likely doesn’t even remember the interaction as she’s ‘huge’ and has so much going on, adding that the Jolene singer is most certainly a ‘songwriter’s writer’.
Dolly is now 79 years old and has decades of success under her belt.
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She recently faced emotional hardship as her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean, died in March.
‘Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,’ she said in a statement at the time of his passing.
She has continued to pay tribute to her husband on social media since his death and shared memories about her late partner with her followers.
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