The living legend didn’t hold back while talking about the country music of her youth and how the genre has changed in recent years.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Dolly Parton is a living legend in the music industry—the 10-time Grammy winner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, and her songwriting skills are so prodigious that she wrote the classics “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” in the same day.

But the star has always had a soft spot for her roots, and when it comes to music, that means country.

In an Oct. 22 interview with Elle, the “9 to 5” songstress opened up about the current state of the genre in the way only Parton can.

“I will always love country music. I love all the days of Hank Williams, and all the early, early days. George Jones, and of course Merle Haggard, all those wonderful, wonderful artists of that day,” she said about some of the genre’s pioneers.

Parton continued, sharing that “everything has to change, and country music has changed a lot, but there’s going to always be those young people that latch on to Hank Williams and go back and do some of that.”

She then said that the public’s perception of country music has shifted in recent years, going from “an old hokey kind of music” to “one of the most loved musics in the whole wide world.”

Parton also addressed the way the genre itself has changed, noting that “they’re still calling it country music, even if it sounds more rock and pop.” She then issued a promise, sharing that “country music’s going to always exist in one form or another. I’m going to see to it as long as I live.”