Dolly Parton won't be heading into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year.
In a social media statement Monday, the country icon asked the Hall of Fame to withdraw her name from the 2022 ballot.
"I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out," she said in the statement. "I do hope that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame will understand and be willing to consider me again - if I'm ever worthy. This has, however, inspired me to put out a hopefully great rock 'n' roll record at some point in the future, which I have always wanted to do."
Earlier this year, the Rock Hall included Parton in a nominee class that features Eminem, Beck, Duran Duran, Lionel Richie, A Tribe Called Quest, and more. According to its website, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announces this year's class in May.
While rare, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction for a Country Music star isn't unprecedented. A rare class of artists, including Brenda Lee, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Hank Williams, and the Everly Brothers, can be found in both prestigious clubs.
In an interview with Billboard last month, Parton said she never saw herself as a rock 'n' roller "in any sense of the word." In her statement, Parton added that her husband, Carl Dean, "is a total rock 'n' roll freak" who always encouraged her to dip her toe in the genre — an idea Parton teased at earlier this year.
Other artists have balked at inclusion in the club before-- John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, thumbed his nose at the band's induction in 2006, with the band opting not to show. In 2012, when Guns' n Roses made it, Axl Rose said he would decline to participate and asked that he not be inducted in absentia. Both acts were inducted anyway.
