Bebe Rexha says Dolly Parton once turned down recording a song with her ‘about heaven and hell’

Bebe Rexha recently released a new song, “Seasons,” with Dolly Parton, but says the duet almost never happened.

Rexha, who's charting now with the massive hit "I'm Good (Blue)," said she really wanted to work with the country icon.

“I tried hitting up her manager a lot,” she said April 28 on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

“So they were like, ‘OK, sure. Send us a song, but we need it on a CD,’” she added.

Rexha said she was thrown for a loop because she doesn’t know how to make a CD, which led her to discuss her first attempt at collaborating with Parton, who was turned off by the subject matter.

“But she’s so sweet. I had another song, prior to this one,” Rexha said.

“It was a song about heaven and hell and stuff like that. And she was like, ‘I can’t.’ She wrote me a handwritten letter and telling me why she doesn’t want to sing about hell. ... She didn’t want to go into that energy. So then I sent her ‘Seasons,’ and she loved it. And then a week later, she sent me her verse.”

Rexha said Parton glows, even beyond music.

“She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And she’s the funniest. She said she would adopt me,” she said.

Rexha called Parton “an icon” for her songwriting skills and said she was on her game when they shot the video for "Seasons."

“Girl, she put me to shame. Let me tell you,” she said.

“I thought I looked good. I was like, ‘OK, I feel good.’ I have my corset on, my heels. She showed up in 6-inch heels. Six-inch heels! A corset. Her (breasts) were like this high. And she was ready to go. She’s like, ‘Whatever you need, let’s go. Let’s get this done.’”

Rexha does have one regret about the experience. She said she forgot to ask Parton if she has any tattoos, and Clarkson said she’s never seen any, either, since she always has her arms covered.

Parton does indeed have some ink.

“I do have some tattoos, that’s true,” she told People in 2020. “But they’re tasteful. I’m not a tattoo girl.”

She said she got the artwork after having a health issue.

“My tattoos are pretty, they’re artful and they usually started out to cover some scar, not to make a big statement,” she said. “Ribbons and bows and butterflies are the things that I have. I was very sick for a while and I had to wear a feeding tube. It left a little indention in my side and I didn’t like it because I’m so fair that scars turn purple on me.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com