Elvis singing I Will Always Love You

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Before Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton’s "I Will Always Love You" almost ended up with Elvis Presley.

In a new cover story for W magazine, the country legend revealed why the King of Rock & Roll never got a chance to record the iconic 1974 ballad.

According to Parton, she met with Presley’s manager, who wanted half of the 75-year-old’s publishing rights in exchange for the singer to record the song.

Parton said she wasn’t having it.

"I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t give you the publishing,’" she recalled to the outlet. "I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart – I cried all night."

DOLLY PARTON PRAISES LIL NAS X'S COVER OF 'JOLENE,' SAYS SHE'S 'HONORED' AND 'FLATTERED'

W Magazine revealed that legendary singer/songwriter/actress Dolly Parton is the cover of their latest issue, Volume 5 The Originals.  (W Magazine)

Still, the singer/songwriter said she doesn’t regret her decision.

"I had to keep that copyright in my pocket," Parton explained. "You have to take care of your business! Everybody’s going to use you if they can. These are my songs – they’re like my children. And I expect them to support me when I’m old!"

The outlet noted that while Presley never had the chance to record the song, it still played an important role in his life.

"Priscilla, Elvis’s wife, told me that when she and Elvis divorced, Elvis sang my song to her," said Parton. "That touched me so deeply."

Presley and Priscilla divorced in 1973. The star passed away in 1977 at age 42.

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Elvis and Priscilla Presley were married from 1967 until 1973. (Getty Images)

Houston’s cover of "I Will Always Love You" was released in 1992 for "The Bodyguard." The film’s soundtrack sold 17 million copies and broke SoundScan’s record for single-week sales twice, The Hollywood Reporter shared. According to the outlet, "The Bodyguard" earned a Grammy for Album of the Year and "I Will Always Love You" won Record of the Year along with Best Female Pop Vocal.

Houston passed away in 2012 at age 48.

"They also played the song at Whitney Houston’s funeral," said Parton. "After that, I thought, I bet they’ll play the same song when I go."

Looking back at her career, Parton said there was one song that greatly impacted her as a young artist.

"When I heard ‘Puppy Love’ on the radio for the first time, I about killed myself," she said. "I was sitting on the counter at my aunt’s house, and suddenly I heard my voice. I slid on the floor, ‘cause she was mopping. I was trying to get to the radio. Even to this day, I’ve never had anything that was more exciting than the first time I heard myself on the radio."

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Whitney Houston reportedly earned Dolly Parton $10 million in royalty fees with her cover of 'I WIll ALways Love You.' (Getty Images)

As for fellow musicians, there was one who caught the icon’s eye.

"In the early days, I had a big crush on Johnny Cash," she gushed. "He was young and skinny, and he just had that magnetism. The way he moved around – you know, so sexy. I found out later he was just having withdrawals from drugs, but it still touched me. He was so, so sexy."

Parton is the second-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé, who has 79 nods and 24 wins. The country icon earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award a decade ago.

Among her wins, Parton picked up two Grammys for the massive hit "9 to 5" and another for "Trio," her first collaborative album with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. An updated version of "Jolene" won Parton and Pentatonix a trophy. At the 1983 show, the legend scored a nomination for a re-recording of "I Will Always Love You."

A collaborative performance of the song with Vince Gill earned a nomination at the 1996 show — two years after Houston’s famous rendition.

There is a poignant scene in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” where Austin Butler’s character says the words, “I will always love you.” It’s a shot that comes toward the end of the film, and Luhrmann describes it as the film’s actual death scene.

But, in a recent conversation for Variety with collaborator and go-to cinematographer, Mandy Walker, Luhrmann revealed a scene of Butler singing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” that didn’t make the final cut.

After Elvis and Priscilla Presley break up, Elvis drops off their daughter, Lisa Marie, at the airport. The couple have a short heart-to-heart in the back of a Pullman Mercedes, and it’s a heartbreaking moment that foreshadows Elvis’ death and examines his isolation. As Elvis walks up the stairs leaving his family behind, that to Luhrmann was the film’s death scene.

“The script was pretty long, but I always wanted another moment where Priscilla came back into his life and that they were friends. In a way when he walks on that plane and it takes off, we don’t need to see him die, he’s dead,” the director says.

He explains Dolly Parton had always wanted Elvis to sing the song, “but the Colonel interceded and he never recorded it.”

Parton revealed in 2020 during a podcast interview on “Living & Learning With Reba McEntire” that Presley was set to record the track. Parton said, “The night before the session, Colonel Tom [Parker, Presley’s longtime manager] called me and said, ‘You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have at least half the publishing.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ And he said, ‘Well, then we can’t do it.’ And I cried all night, because I’d just pictured Elvis singing it. I know it wasn’t [his decision], but it’s true. I said no.”

Luhrmann explains the scene was a special moment because it was coming toward the end of the shoot: “Austin sang ‘I Will Always Love You’ in the back of the car. The scene begins with Priscilla saying, ‘It’s a beautiful song,’ and he says, ‘Yeah, Dolly wants me to sing it, but the Colonel…'” However, the moment wouldn’t work for the scene and the film, so it was cut.

Luhrmann reveals, “When Austin got out of the car, he looks across at Priscilla and says that line, so that’s where it comes from.”

The filmmaker credits production designer Catherine Martin (also the film’s costume designer) for getting a rare Pullman Mercedes for the scene. The production found one in Melbourne, Australia, and had it shipped to the film’s location shoot.

But Luhrmann and the production faced another obstacle: They were running out of time and he wanted to shoot the sequence on the tarmac at an airport. “We just didn’t know how we would fit it into the schedule. You can’t drive the car because of gasoline, so it’s my guy, Fletch, pulling the car with a piece of rope. There’s no plane and no tarmac. Just a wind machine and the actors,” he said.

Did Elvis Presley ever sing the song I Will Always Love You?

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