Omaha native Belles ("Son of Jolene") joins Steve & Gina in the Morning

Belles has a duet with Dolly Parton ("Son of Jolene") that has kept the Kat 103.7 request line busy.  HEAR Steve & Gina talk with Belles about her song and workin with Dolly.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cat one O three point seven is your number one
for new country to is Steven Gina in the morning,
Steve Lundy GML ten and we are so pumped have
with us a young woman who has really made her
mark on Nashville with their new song Son of Joline.
Would you please welcome Omahan native Kelly Bells. Hi Bells.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello, what's up guys?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this is so cool to talk to you. Congratulations
on the Son of Joline. What a great project and
it's gotten great reception.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Oh, thank you guys so much. It's truly been such
a dream come true.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Well tell us where the idea of our Son of
Jolene came from.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Well, I was on tour follow twenty twenty four and
my opening act. His mom came out to a show
one night, and his mom's name is Jolene. So I
met her and that was the first person I'd ever
met named Jolene before. So I was in the van
the next day and I don't know what came over me,
but I just turned to him and I said, you

(00:56):
should write a song about being the son of Jolene.
And he was like, I don't really know if I
would write that song. And I was like, that's totally funny,
but I might, you know, take a stab at it
if that's okay with you. So I wrote the song
that next week.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
That is awesome when you got the call from Dolly
Parton saying that she did want to sing on Son
of Joline? What was that like? What was going through
your mind?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Oh my gosh, it was such a shock. So it
was actually my publisher in Nashville. She was able to
get the song to Kent Wells, who's Dolly's longtime producer,
and he loved the song and said he was going
to play it for Dolly, which to me was already
like mind blowing that Dolly Parton was going to hear
a song that I wrote and sang, you know. Apparently,

(01:44):
you know, she loved it so much that she wanted
to sing on it and be a part of it,
which was so mind blowing. And I of course grew
up idolizing Dolly Parton. So it is just such a
dream come true.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Talking with Bells, will player song Son of Joline with
Dolly Parton coming up in just a moment. So what
were those recording sessions like?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
So I actually recorded this song in a garage in
East Nashville.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
I love this. I love stories like that too.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, and then Dolly put her vocal on with Kent,
and then Kent brought me in a couple days later
and had me listen to the song with her voice
on it for the first time, which that was really
when it felt real and it was just mind blowing.
I mean, she is like the greatest of all time,

(02:35):
and what she chose to sing on this song. Every
single time I hear it still like blows my mind.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
And then they had a chance to get together with
her for some press. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yes, I got to meet her, and I was so nervous,
you guys out the first five minutes, but she was
so kind and sweet and she was just everything that
you think Dolly Parton would be.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
You know, we've got bells, Weathers here with Stevenngina in
the morning, sound of Juline coming up in j just
a moment.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
You know what I really love about this the song
is that you kept the iconic chorus, but then you
added in your own narrative. How did you kind of
balance that while honoring the song.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
It's so funny because I wrote the song with two
of my best friends in Nashville, and it was just
one of those songs that kind of fell from the sky,
like it just happened really quick. We wrote the song
in about forty minutes, and I honestly don't think we
thought too hard about like the structure of the song,
Like it just kind of happened that way. And honestly,

(03:40):
we were just writing a song that day, and I
think that's kind of part of the beauty of it
is we just didn't really like overthink it too much.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Jina and I've had that discussion before. I love when
songs are more inspired like that, they just happen organically.
I just love that. Yeah, So I'm kind of curious.
Could this become a movie? It's a great storyline for
a movie. Has anybody ever even mentioned that?

Speaker 2 (04:03):
No, you're the first?

Speaker 1 (04:04):
All right, then I want to I want co producer
credits on this thing because I came up with the idea.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
It would be a good storyline for a movie.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
It really would.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
I mean, you got the story of Joelina in the
background and then it fast forwards to this store.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Sure, yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Well, hey, congratulations on the son. Do you mind if
we play it on the radio.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Please do, and thank you guys for supporting this song.
I love being from Omaha and talking about being from Nebraska,
so it means the world to me. Thank you guys
so much, and.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Let us know when you're back in the area. Not
only will we come see it, but I can hook
you up with my garage so you can do some
more recordings.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
All right, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Thank you Bells, it's a pleasure. And keep on chugging away. Okay,
thank you