Jessica Simpson career switch from pop music to country has been less than successful. Her album only sold 200,000 copies and she ended up dropped by her record label, Sony Nashville, in April. When she opened for Rascal Flatts during a tour at the beginning of the year she made plenty of headlines for sharing too much personal information with the crowd and forgetting the lyrics to her songs while on stage.
Simpson may get a chance to reboot her country career with the help of big-hearted country legend Dolly Parton. Although Simpson famously flubbed the words to Parton’s hit “Nine to Five” while performing at her Kennedy Center Tribute, Parton still has a soft spot for her and wants to help her out.
According to The National Enquirer, Parton has offered to fully fund Jessica’s next country music CD on her own label:
After Jessica’s debut country CD tanked, Dolly personally offered to bankroll Jess’ second country album on her label, Dolly Records, sources say.
“Dolly sees a lot of herself in Jessica. Her personal life has been the focal point of unwanted attention, and like Jessica, she’s had to battle her own doubts and demons,” a friend divulged.
“But Dolly is a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps kind of gal, and she’s tried to instill some of that in Jessica.”
Back in 2003, Jessica’s pop album “In this Skin” sold a whopping 5 million copies…. [she] tried to recapture that glory by courting a country crowd, but her CD “Do You Know” sold fewer than 200,000 copies, and her record label Sony Nashville dumped her…
Despite all [of Jessica’s problems performing] Dolly was quick to defend her.
“I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong,” the 63-year-old music legend declared on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
“But I know that Jessica is a good girl. She’s beautiful to me. I’ve never been around a person any sweeter in my life.”
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, May 25, 2009]
Simpson is lucky to have help from Parton, and let’s hope she also gets some much-needed advice from her and takes it to heart. It’s not helping her career to let it all hang out and discuss her bad gas and the state of her relationship every chance she gets. Still, Jessica somehow landed on the cover of Variety this month so she must be doing something right. I wonder if that had something to do with Dolly Paton’s influence. Given that Jessica’s country album was a failure, why doesn’t she just go back to making bland pop music though? She was earning a lot of money and it seems like that’s where her talent lies.
Don’t bother, Miss Parton. It’s like perfume on a turd.
Goodness I love Dolly as 9 to 5 is my trademark karaoke song 🙂 Really though, was there a career to save in the first place?! This seems like a lost cause AND that bottom photo is terrible! Dolly looks like a muppet, and not in a cute way 🙁
That poor bastard Tony Romo didn’t know what he was getting himself into.
I’ll be he’s just itching to drop the ho’.
Jessica just needs to take a long vacation , plan a comeback after 3 or 4 years, complete with a book about how she let go of Papa Simpson. Right now, EVERYTHING she does is going to be seen as desperate.
well, those are my two cents, at least
Wouldn’t it be cool if Jessica would say, “I’m not worthy!” and then disappear?
I do believe that Dolly is very nice and helpful to Jessica but I highly doubt she’s going this far.
I could believe that Dolly Parton is trying to “save Jessica’s country music career”. That’s easy to believe.
The hard part is her being successful at it.
Even if you took all the great country artists in America and had them help her, she’d fail.
For godsakes, she went on tour with RASCAL FUCKIN FLATTS. Guys who’ve been around for 10+ years and even THAT didn’t bolster her career.
Why? Because, while she may be a pretty girl, she doesn’t have any actual talent other than the two God gave her: Left and Right and I’ll be surprised if she could quickly identify which one was which.
oh yay… bigger fake boobs, a really bad wig and way too much makeup.
That’ll be really helpful.
i love jessica!! everything she does I love..
the first 10 years in pop failed her and 10 years from now after she has failed in country she will try rap and 50 cent will lend her a hand.
jessica simpson is a whining mediocre singer, and a trainwreck on stage unless your drunk why would you want to see that
Look, it’s Carrot Top and Twisted Sister.
Crying on Dolly shoulder helped huh.
I’d love Dolly as my mentor in anything. I hope Dolly can produce Jessica’s album, too.
Dolly is an icon, and justifiably so. She’s a brilliant singer/songwriter who’s inspired legions of musicians, and is easily one of the most revered country artists of all time. Unfortunately, Jessica has none of Dolly’s gifts and will likely fail miserably should she attempt another country album. Even if Dolly puts up the cash to make the record, she can’t force people to buy it.
Sorry, but Jessica just needs to give it up. She’s become a total joke, and this label will undoubtedly taint any of her future professional pursuits.
The only reason In This Skin sold that many copies is because Joe artificially boosted its sales numbers by re-releasing it with the dvd of “The Newlyweds” which people were buying. When the album was released alone earlier, nobody bought it, even though it was released to coincide with the show.
Her career has been on life support for a long time. I really hope Dolly is not going to let Jessica on her label…it would just be prolonging the inevitable. Joe has got to be the source of this story.
Maybe Jessica deserves a break and credit for trying. If Dolly is willing to help her, good for her. Thats what lifes about, heping others. We all have dreams and singing and putting on concerts is not as easy as it looks. Yes Jessica’s career is not in a good place presently but she does have talent, she has a great voice and has had some great songs. Shouldn’t we all be striving to better ourselves in whatever we do. Its easy to sit on your computer and trash other people instead of being supportive of someone trying. I agree there is work to be done but why all the negativity when someone is trying to help someone else better their current situation. And as for the guy that wrote he would kill school children to sleep with Dolly, your name is really fitting- isn’t it?
I bet that no one took the time to listen to Jessica’s CDs, Do You Know is a brilliant album, Jessica can really sing.
I don’t care for her personal life, it’s not too professional to share intimate details on stage while performing.