Lainey Wilson Shares The Hilarious 'Rumor' Dolly Parton Said She'd Start

Lainey Wilson shared a hilarious story about Dolly Parton — and a playful “rumor” — as she spoke about joining the country legend on a new all-star duet.

Parton, who celebrates her 80th birthday on Monday (January 19), released a new version of “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” with Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah and Reba McEntire, plus David Foster on piano and The Christ Church Choir on background vocals. Parton wrote the song 50 years ago in 1976, and released it in 1977. Proceeds from the new recording and music video will support pediatric cancer research at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, Parton shared on Friday (January 16).

“It’s a powerful song,” Wilson said at a press event earlier this week in Nashville. “I mean, first of all, I think all of y’all probably know how important Dolly is to me and my journey, and how important she is to so many people. …Whenever she asked if I could be a part of this, I was like, that will never get old to me. That will never get old to me, and when I found out who else was going to be a part of the song, it’s huge for her to tip her hat to me like that, by allowing me to be on this incredible song that has stood the test of time. That does mean so much.”

The reigning Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year said she got to have Parton “coach me up” in the studio together, and “the banter that me and her her have…I feel like I’ve known her in another lifetime.” Wilson added that her mother also got to spend time with the country legend, “and I do not take it for granted that I even got to just spend a few hours with that woman. Everything that she says, I put it in my pocket.”

Then Wilson revealed the rumor that Parton jokingly said she’d start about her.

“I was telling her [Parton] …I was going to do a halftime show with Snoop Dogg and this and that. And I was telling her the story about how Snoop Dogg had FaceTimed me when I was in bed eating a bowl of sherbet,” Wilson recalled, “and Duck [her fiancé] goes, ‘you have to answer it!’ I had never even met Snoop Dogg at this point. And I answer it, and I was telling her this story about how he had smoke billowing around him and whatever, and she said, ‘I’m going to start a rumor that you and Snoop Dogg were in the bed together!’

“But honestly, if Dolly Parton started a rumor about me, I’d be like ‘hell yeah.’ I mean, have at it, girlfriend,” Wilson said. “Getting to know her, there’s so many layers to that woman and I’m thankful to have her in my life.”

Wilson is also taking the stage at the legendary Grand Ole Opry as part of the annual Opry Goes Dolly show on Saturday (January 17), celebrating Parton’s 80th birthday. The lineup also includes Vince Gill, Rhonda Vincent and songwriter Trannie Anderson, who will make her Opry debut.

Watch the new “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” music video here: