Guest HostTours

Chris Janson’s New Song Features Dolly Parton and Slash

Chris Janson has announced his upcoming track, “21 Forever.” It features two musical icons and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers: Dolly Parton and Slash. The track speaks on that transitional…

Chris Janson's New Song Is A Duet With Dolly Parton and Slash
Terry Wyatt, Michael Loccisano. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Chris Janson has announced his upcoming track, "21 Forever." It features two musical icons and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers: Dolly Parton and Slash. The track speaks on that transitional time in life when you've grown out of the youthful partying and start embracing life in a whole new way. Then realize that you "can't be 21 forever" and understand the beauty of growing up.

Chris said, "I'm so thrilled to announce that two global icons have joined me in song for my absolute biggest collaboration to date. Dolly and Slash, it doesn't get any BIGGER than that." He added, "I'm incredibly humbled and grateful for these two. Hope you all enjoy '21 Forever.'"

Janson is preparing to release his latest album via Big Machine Label Group/Harpeth 60 Records, due early this summer. The lead track off the upcoming album, All I Need Is You.

Last year during this same month (May), Janson released a video for his duet with Eric Church called "You, Me & The River," which starts out with Eric dragging a body into a river. It is a song that Church wrote and is the first song Chris put on an album that he didn't write himself.

Eric texted the song to Chris in the wee hours of the morning, just as he was returning from a trip to Montana. Janson told CMT, "I'm thinking,' Hmm, is he recording this? Is he asking my opinion? I was like,' Maybe he's pitching?' Who knows?" After realizing he was pitching it to him, Chris asked Church to do it as a duet.

Janson said of the mini-movie video for the song, "It's a big, big production video and a lot of fun. It's pretty intense. It's like the show Ozark or something like that. It is very, very much in that vein of, 'Whoa.'"

Chris adds that the video is somewhat spooky and likes it that way. He offered, "At the end of the day, this video was a blast to make – but it was creepy too, and that was fun in a whole new way! It was real acting. And Eric Church is a trooper, man. He said, 'Throw a bunch of dirt on my face.' So I covered my buddy up in the dirt on a cold spring night. Like I said… creepy!"

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.