A-list country star reveals she unintentionally plagiarized Dolly Parton's biggest hit
The Grammy-winning artist, 35, explained what had happened - and how Parton, again reaffirmed why she's one of the most beloved figures in show business - while appearing on the Zach Sang Show.
'I think that's, like, any songwriter's worst fear is unintentionally being on top of a melody that already exists and, you know, it happens more than you think,' the Grammy-winning artist said.
She added: 'I think when I write with so many different people - and play the song so many times for loved ones before it ever gets into the public - There's always, like, checks and balances.'
The country music artist said that extended collaborations produce 'checks and balances' and the extra experts in the room can help determine when a melody 'is a little bit too close to [another] song.
Morris explained the situation that stemmed from the 2019 release of her track All My Favorite People, which also featured Brothers Osborne, as she ultimately felt it sounded too much like Dolly Parton's 1980 hit 9 to 5.
'There's a song on my second record called All My Favorite People - and I remember it was like two weeks till the record was out - and my mom was actually the one that was like, "I kind of noticed the verse/melody, sounds a little bit like 9 to 5,"' Morris said.
All My Favorite People was co-written by Morris's ex-husband Ryan Hurd, who she parted ways with last year; and Grammy-nominated songwriter Mikey Reaves.
The track was produced by Morris and the late music producer busbee (whose full name was Michael James Ryan) who died in September of 2019 at the age of 43.
The Middle singer said her 'stomach dropped' when her mother told her she felt that there were noticeable similarities between her track and the Parton staple.
'She was genuinely trying to give me a heads up,' Morris said, 'and I listened to it immediately.'
The Bones singer said that at that point she compared the songs and realized they sounded alike.
Morris said she told Parton about her concern about the similarities, but the Jolene artist couldn't have been sweeter.
Morris said that 'it was close enough' that she felt awful about what had happened - and was looking for a way to reach out to Parton's camp and offer her a songwriting credit on the track (which was not released as a single).
'I remember, like, writing something to her,' Morris said of Parton.
Morris said Parton told her, 'Oh, my gosh, honey, you're all good,' adding that she didn't take any money but 'would have made something' had she pursued a legal settlement.
The My Church artist added that Parton extended a courtesy to her that many of their peers would not have, as 'a lot of other artists are litigious' and would wait for the song to make as much money as possible before pursuing litigation.
'It's just it's such a nightmare for songwriters, who are already like, also so underpaid,' the Circles Around This Town singer added.
Morris said she and Parton have since worked together.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Denise Welch's 'tears' after Taylor Swift swipe: Loose Women star appears to cry in the street and is hugged by son Matty Healy after TV interview backfired
Denise Welch seemingly broke in down tears and was hugged by her son Matty Healy in West Hollywood this week after backlash over her comments about his ex Taylor Swift. The Loose Women star, 67, recently faced the wrath of Taylor's huge fanbase after making a subtle dig at her tendency to pen songs about her famous exes before accusing her Swifties of lashing out at anyone who dares to criticize her. And it appears that things may have gotten too much for Denise as she struggled to hold in her emotions while out with her rocker son, 36, on Friday - though a source told TMZ it was due to a 'family matter'. The actress was seen dabbing her eyes with a tissue as she sat on a pavement outside Stella restaurant, with the 1975 front man sitting close by to support her. The pair, who were said to be at dinner with Matty's fiancée Gabbriette Bechtel, appeared deep in conversation, with Matty taking the opportunity to puff on a cigarette while supporting is mother. Denise and Matty then stood up and embraced, before seemingly heading inside. Following the fallout from her comments, in which she was branded 'obnoxious by Taylor's camp, Denise struggled to hold in her emotions while out with her rocker son, 36, on Friday. The Loose Women star, 67, recently faced the wrath of Taylor's huge fanbase after making a subtle dig at her proclivity to pen songs about her famous exes [Denise and Taylor pictured] Though it's unclear why Denise was apparently in tears, a source told TMZ: 'There was a family matter that Matty was consoling his mother about.' Daily Mail has contacted Denise's representatives for comment. It was said Taylor is taking 'the high road' after 'obnoxious' Denise, the mother of her ex Matty, took a swipe at her during an awkward interview exchange. The 35-year-old singer became a hot topic of conversation during Denise's appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live last month, during which she was quizzed about Taylor's latest album The Tortured Poets Department. Denise told host Andy Cohen: 'Obviously, on pain of death can I talk about that episode, but being her mother-in-law is a role that I am glad I lost'. Her confession elicited shocked gasps from audience members, to which Welch quickly clarified her statement. 'Not that I have anything against [Taylor] at all!' she said emphatically, adding: 'It was just – it was tricky.' 'Listen, you're not allowed to say anything,' she went on, 'and then she [Taylor] writes a whole album about it.' The pair, who were said to be at dinner with Matty's fiancée Gabbriette Bechtel, appeared deep in conversation Denise and Matty then stood up and embraced, before seemingly heading inside Though it's unclear why Denise was in tears, a source told TMZ: 'There was a family matter that Matty was consoling his mother about' Denise was clearly upset during the day out with her eldest son and future daughter-in-law The mother and son were seen speaking outside for a period of time Taylor and Matty, 36, dated following her split from her longterm boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, in April 2023. But the relationship was short-lived - and Taylor has since moved on with NFL star Travis Kelce, while Matty himself is now engaged to model Gabbriette Bechtel. Since then, the $1.6billion songstress has been basking in the glory of her record-breaking Eras Tour, her historic buy-back her musical masters, and her loved-up relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis. That's why, according to an inside source, Taylor has no plans to issue a scathing response to Denise's sly digs. Instead, she plans to do exactly as she always does… and just shake it off. 'It's a bit obnoxious in Taylor's eyes, but she has to take the high road,' the insider exclusively told the Daily Mail. 'If there was anything that would be in a future song of Taylor's – if she were ever to respond – she would respond that way. But as of right now, she might just let it slide. She is not going to let Denise ruin her day.' While Taylor and Matty only dated for a few short months in 2023, their paths first crossed years earlier. They briefly dated following her split from actor Joe Alwyn in April 2023. Their rollercoaster romance came to an end that June after Matty faced criticism for making a series of offensive comments The two reportedly met when Taylor attended a 1975 show in Los Angeles in 2014, with her friends Selena Gomez and Ellie Goulding in tow. But they weren't properly in each other's orbits until 2022, when rumors began circulating that Matty would be featured on Taylor's album Midnights. There turned out to be some truth in the gossip. Matty revealed in the November of that year that he had collaborated with Taylor in the studio, though their work never saw the light of day. They picked up the professional collaboration in January 2023, with Taylor making a surprise appearance on stage at a 1975 concert. And then, following news of her split from Joe in April that year, the new romance was confirmed - just one month later. But as quickly as it had begun, Matty was swept up in controversy over offensive accents and crude jokes he had made about rapper Ice Spice. Across social media, Taylor's fans expressed their disappointment with the singer over her choice of partner, and urged her to dump Matty. By early June, the two were reported to no longer be together.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Nostalgia is eating us alive. Instead of building a new world, we're regurgitating a past that never existed
There has been much talk about our hunger for a 'return to optimism'. Our world has been too real for too long, and we all just want a bit of shelter from the storm. We look back in patronising nostalgia at Obama's Hope poster in the same way we insist music hasn't been real music since about 1986 (or since 1966, or since the Great American Songbook, or since Mozart, depending who you talk to). Movie theatres are propped up by two monolith tent poles: DC's umpteenth Superman and Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot, both attempting a full factory reset of their flagship properties. It offers a return to the originals – AKA, the 'good old days'. But this isn't so much a yearning for a new optimism as it is a resuscitation of an old one. The Fantastic Four is even set in a 1960s Jetsons-style alternate reality (the first comic was published in 1961). Remember this? This is Things As They Should Be™. The great irony in this regurgitation of old aesthetics is that, they themselves looked forward. The joy and optimism of the space age showcased the marvellous and fantastic possibilities of technology and science, before we knew that those same industries would slowly start choking our own atmosphere. We want to go back to that time, when we could feel good about driving our big shiny bubble cars and tease our hair up guilt-free – without thinking about the ozone or whatever. This perceived collective optimism was never real, of course. But now, after decades of doom storytelling and hope erosion, we want the dream back. What's happening in the culture is more than the good honest fun of theme park recreations, 1950s diners and old west camera filters. This is an earnest but somehow deeply sad defibrillation of dead worlds, built around a hollow craving that can never ever be filled. We are birds constantly regurgitating and eating our own upchuck. Same flavour but different colour, different flavour but same chunks. Its passion looks inspirational, but its sniff is grief. It works, but not quite — as fresh as microwaved leftovers. It's the cultural equivalent of Maga – the lie that there was some glorious past where things were flourishing and wholesome and if we can just get back there we'll be on track again. But there never was that past. It's a distortion of immature childhood memories and historical rewriting by big corporations. This is the multiverse made real by an increasingly small cabal of conglomerates leveraging their various assets, stuffing each storytelling turducken full of old money-makers to reduce the risk in anything new. It's not so much the multiverse as the IP-verse. Every brand everywhere all at once. Over time this starts to feel like a photocopy of a photocopy. The AI boom is quite literally sampling and recycling things that already exist. When I see a brand-new building proudly inspired by the art deco movement of 100 years ago, I wonder if the great deco designers knew way back then that they were on the blind precipice of the future, or were they recreating their own nostalgic past? I wonder, as typography and graphic design trends cycle through recreations of past 'vintage' ideas, what the concept of 'vintage' meant to people back when it was, to them, modern? Having lost hope for the future, we have always looked back for comfort. We have to be cautious of the reasons why. Why did Nazi aesthetics have such a fetish for ancient Rome? Why did Soviet culture idolise modern industrial style? Even in The Handmaid's Tale's Gilead, they revere the natural and organic by insisting on non-GM and high-fat foods. The world around us tells us a lot about our beliefs. We are all potential victims of this ideological myth-making. It's invisible but everywhere, and it's difficult to tell if people in power aim to manufacture a world that matches their values or if it's some kind of naturally developing, laissez-faire attraction. We're all dreaming of a better time from the past, since there is no future. We've stopped dreaming about building – now we dream of recreating. It's not recreating the actual thing that we want, it's the yearning to recreate the feeling we had back then. In my local city centre, I drive past heritage-protected sandstone buildings with the names of the original shopfronts still carved at the top. The mason etching that date in the rock was doing it for the future, so as time stretched on his mark would stay there, even for me now as I whip past the exact same building in a space shuttle machine he could never even dream of. Imagine a shop front named something like, 'Nolan and Sons Merchants, est. 1861.' And on the shop front awning below it, computer-printed on laminate in an deliberately old-timey font, 'Buzz'd Cafe, est. 2025.' Take a sledgehammer to the wall of this cafe. Pierce the membrane of lino wallpaper printed to look like rustic bricks and find sterile chalk-white plasterboard from the previous shop, which was itself once added to modernise and cover the rustic brick walls beneath. You can find these rings of a tree in everything: generations on top of generations of us each trying to make our own existence matter and either cover or recover the ones before us. So, do we seek comfort in the baby blanket of our past myths – or do we try to create our own new ones? Martin Ingle is a writer and film-maker
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
WWE SummerSlam 2025 LIVE RESULTS: CM Punk vs Gunther headlines Night 1, Paul and Reigns feature
WWE SummerSlam is HERE - and for the first time ever, the event will take place across TWO nights! CM Punk looks to win a world title for the first time since his electric return on Night 1 as he faces Gunther for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Logan Paul and Roman Reigns also feature on the star-studded opening card in New Jersey. On Night 2, defending champion John Cena will meet Cody Rhodes in a street fight for the WWE Undisputed Championship. The American Nightmare gets a shot at redemption after losing the title to Cena at WrestleMania 41. Follow ALL of the latest from SummerSlam below...
