Dolly Invested Royalties From Whitney's 'I Will Always Love You' In A Black Community

Country music icon Dolly Parton has revealed that she used some of the royalties she earned from Whitney Houston's cover of her song "I Will Always Love You" to invest in an office complex in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, Tenn.

During an appearance on the show Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Parton said she thought it was an apt way to honor the Black singer, who boosted the song's popularity with her cover.

"It was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there," Parton said. "It was a whole strip mall. And I thought, 'This is the perfect place for me to be, considering it was Whitney.' "

She went on: "I just thought, 'This was great. I'm going to be down here with her people, who are my people as well.' And so I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex. And I think, 'This is the house that Whitney built.' "

Houston recorded perhaps the best-known cover of "I Will Always Love You" for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, which she also starred in alongside Kevin Costner. That recording reportedly earned Parton $10 million in royalties in the 1990s, according to Forbes.

Houston died in an accidental drowning in a hotel room in 2012.

Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1972 on the same day she wrote "Jolene," another one of her major hits.

During the interview, Parton said she was never asked to perform a duet of the song with Houston but wished that she had.

"I would've loved that," Parton said. "But I don't think I could've come up to snuff with her though. She'd have outsung me on that one for sure."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.