When Dolly Parton was toasted at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors
in December 2006, much of the press surrounding the event focused not
only on Dolly, but on Jessica Simpson, who flubbed a performance, then
left the stage in tears.

Jessica had been divorced from Nick Lachey for less than six months at
the time, and on reflection, she really wasn't ready to perform in
public.

"I completely tortured '9 to 5,'" Jessica told the national radio show
GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. "I messed the lyrics up, and my
boyfriend broke up with me that day. I couldn't even focus on stage,
and I was in front of the president and everybody. Afterwards, my chin
started quivering. I just started crying...and then I walked offstage,
and I said, 'I will absolutely never sing again, ever in my life.' It
made me afraid to go on stage. After going through a divorce, I was
always used to my ex-husband standing side stage when I was done. I
only performed twice during that [time], and every time I broke down
onstage crying. I was dealing with a lot of pain and trying to heal,
and it was such a process."

Obviously Jessica changed her mind about never singing again. She's
working on her first country album, and who was among the first to
offer encouragement? Well, that would be Dolly.

"Afterwards," Jessica noted, "Dolly was like, 'Don't you let that get
you down. I want to hear you keep singing.' I was just like, 'I'm so
sorry.' And she's like, 'I don't even want you to apologize. Let's
take a picture, and we'll end up working together someday.' And then
she wrote me a letter, 'cause all the media and the press were really,
really hard on me, and I knew that was going to happen. And she even
went as far as to say, 'I will always love you.' I just cried and
cried reading the letter that she sent me, but it was so encouraging."

That makes it quite appropriate that Dolly has a song slated for
Jessica's first country album. It's titled "Do You Know," and Dolly
will be singing on the song, as well.