There are hundreds if not thousands of tributes to Dolly Parton all over the media since she passed away on Tuesday.
Plenty of recording artists have shared memories of working with Dolly over the years, no matter how minor the connection.
But one voice has not been heard from: famed producer David Foster.
Foster is usually the first to be interviewed when someone he knew well goes to the great beyond. In this case, the relationship goes back to the 1980s. He may be too upset to talk about it yet.
Foster co-producer Dolly’s Christmas album with Kenny Rogers back in 1984. He produced and playde on her cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” in 2005. Just this year, he was part of a charity single recording of her song “Light of a Clear Blue Morning.”
But their most important connection came when Foster produced Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.” The song made millions for Dolly (which she naturally gave to charity) and turned the song into an all time classic hit played endlessly everywhere. Foster has told stories about how the hit came about for years, including his reluctance to being the record with Whitney singing a capella. But Clive Davis convinced him that was the way to go, and the rest is history.
Foster is the subject of a documentary by Barry Avrich premiering at the Toronto Film Festival next week. Two weeks ago he and his wife family hosted the 40th anniversary of the David Foster Foundation up in Canada. He was last photographed in West Hollywood on August 20th outside Craig’s restaurant, five days before Dolly’s passing.
