Bob Dylan had relationships that reportedly caused him to “forget who he was,” even though he always seemed to want to keep his love life private. Dylan had even turned down Dolly Parton’s invitation to collaborate in 2005, showing that he appeared determined to keep his distance from the country singer in this instance. However, Parton seems to have a notion for why Dylan kept his distance from her when she spoke about their relationship with Daily Mail in 2014. At the time, Dylan was the performer of the song “Blowin’ in the Wind.” She uttered: I’ve had a couple encounters with him, but I’ve never felt any warmth from him toward me. I believe that my appearance or how I acted have somehow insulted him. Then she explained her hypothesis regarding the potential cause of Bob’s aversion to eye contact: “He’s a crazy buckaroo, but I really like his music. I don’t think we ever clicked. He may not have gotten to know me well enough or simply have thought I was too phony.
Dolly was a fan, though, and she went on to praise the folk star in her remarks: “His melodies are excellent, but his intellect is so profound. They are incredibly amenable to harmonies. I even considered releasing an album with the title “Dolly Does Dylan,” but I feel that it would be too similar to “Debbie Does Dallas.” Five years after that interview, Dolly was speaking with MacLeans in 2019 about her cover of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice,” and the host of the show had an unexpected question for the country singer. The aforementioned query concerned whether Dolly’s sensitive ‘approach’ to the song was a result of her relationship with the folk artist. Dolly responded: “It seems like I dated him and broke up with him! That will be used in my upcoming stage performance! I often joke I’m going to record an entire album of Bob Dylan songs called “Dolly Does Dylan,” although Bob and I didn’t date. Dolly speculated that perhaps Dylan had kept his distance because he considered her to be a “phony.” However, as you can read about why fellow folk icon Joni Mitchell thought Dylan wasn’t authentic here, there were others who held the same opinion about Bob.
