If you’re going to make your first-ever country album, you may as well go all in. That’s why The Wiggles recruited some of the genre’s biggest names for Wiggle Up, Giddy Up!, their new album, that features guest turns from Orville Peck, the late Slim Dusty, Dolly Parton, and more.
Working with the legendary Parton was a dream come true for the group.
“That was all thanks to Natalie Waller from ABC, she’s well-connected in the country world and introduced us to Dolly’s team,” OG Wiggle Anthony Field revealed to Rolling Stone AU/NZ in a new interview. “I can’t imagine how busy she is, but she still took the time to send us three songs. We were so nervous sending our recordings back, just hoping she’d like them. I produced most of the album, and I was sweating. But then we got word that Dolly loved it.
As newer Wiggle Tsehay Hawkins gushed, Parton is “the queen of country!”
“Just hearing that she was happy with it was absolutely amazing,” she added. “It was wild. In the studio, we’d have her isolated vocals playing back, and it was just her voice – it gave me chills. Even though she wasn’t physically there, it still felt like we were singing with Dolly Parton.”
The pair also praised their other collaborators in the interview, with Hawkins noting Peck was “so down-to-earth.”
“He [Peck] told us his niece loves The Wiggles, he was like, ‘I’m the coolest uncle now!’ He’s one of the biggest country stars right now, but he was just the nicest guy. We actually met him in person at the GQ Awards recently, and even though we weren’t in Wiggle gear, he came up to us straight away,” she said.
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On Dusty, Field told Rolling Stone AU/NZ how touching it was to bring his music to a younger generation.
“Slim Dusty was a huge part of my childhood – my dad was from Cobar in the country, and Slim was everywhere. He’s still a legend, there’s even a statue of him in Tamworth. So for kids who’ve never heard Slim before, getting to experience that iconic voice is pretty special,” he said.
