Dolly Parton has explained that she doesn't think Beyoncé was shut out of the CMA Awards "on purpose".
Earlier this month, the nominees for the upcoming Country Music Association Awards were announced, and many people were surprised to learn that Beyoncé had been left out.
The Single Ladies hitmaker released her first country album, Cowboy Carter, in March as the second part of her album trilogy. The album topped the Billboard 200 and Billboard Country Albums charts, making her the first Black woman to top the country albums chart.
The record featured appearances from a number of country icons, including Dolly.
In a new interview with Variety, the 9 to 5 singer defended the CMAs' decision not to include Beyoncé.
"Well, you never know. There's so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can't really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that," she said. "But I didn't even realise that until somebody asked me that question."
The Jolene singer went on to insist that Beyoncé should be "very proud" of the album.
"But it was a wonderful album. She can be very, very proud of, and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good," the music legend told the publication. "So I don't think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose."
Dolly continued, "I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album."
When asked if she would be interested in doing a duet of Jolene with Beyoncé, the singer replied, "Oh yeah. I'm open to anything."
