REO Speedwagon’s Kevin Cronin is one of the rockers set to appear on Dolly Parton’s upcoming rock album, Rock Star, and he’s spilled the tea on the track they’ve recorded together.
While chatting with the Totally 80s podcast, Cronin revealed he and Dolly recorded a cover of the band’s classic “Keep On Loving You,” although he notes their version is a “dark duet.”
In the song, Cronin sings about his woman’s infidelity and his decision to stay with her, but says he realized, “I kind of portrayed myself as more of the good guy than perhaps I was.”
“Perhaps it takes more than one snake in the grass, ‘all coiled up and hissing,’ to tango — if you catch my drift. That’s the reality of the song, you know?” he explains. “So, it gave me the idea that Dolly could sing the first verse, and in the first verse, I’m cheating on her. But then I take the second verse, and in the second verse, I go, ‘Oh yeah? Well, I know all about those men!’”
The two then come together and sing the chorus in harmony, but he notes, “It just slays me, because that’s how the song was meant to be performed; I just didn’t realize it until Dolly called me the other day. So that’s how we’re doing it, and I’m just so stoked.”
Hardcore fans probably already know Cronin’s been on Dolly’s radar for some time: she covered the band’s “Time for Me to Fly” as the opening track on 1989’s White Limozeen.
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