Bad Wolves guitarist AJ Rebollo quits over the band's Dolly Parton cover

Bad Wolves guitarist AJ Rebollo has left the band, naming the release of their cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" as the breaking point, in the second departure story to hit the group inside a week.

The label, Better Noise, announced on August 28 that the cover would come out on Monday, August 31. It had been recorded months earlier, and Parton had been going to add her own vocals to it before her death.

Rebollo, who joined as a touring guitarist in 2023 after his time in Issues, posted his statement the following night. He wrote that he could no longer in good faith remain a member and co-sign the decisions being made for the band by the label, and called the release "the final nail in the coffin." The band, he said, had told the label they did not want the cover out once Parton's contribution was no longer possible, because it would be understood as capitalising on her death.

He was not the only casualty of the week. Singer Sara Skinner, who joined a few months ago after D.L. Laskiewicz left to play bass in Falling In Reverse, said Skillet's fans had researched her and got Bad Wolves removed from a tour with Skillet and Escape The Fate over her gender identity and an OnlyFans account. Skillet replaced them with Autumn Kings.

Then the account of the Jolene cover changed. Founding drummer John Boecklin said in a press release that Better Noise's chief executive had sent the finished demo to Parton's manager Danny Nozell, that Parton loved the version and had agreed to record vocals, and that proceeds would go to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Nozell said she had given the arrangement her full blessing weeks earlier and was excited to collaborate.

Rebollo then published a second statement, alongside a comment from Better Noise chairman Allan Kovac, saying his departure was never a call to arms against the band or the label and that he wanted the focus on the money going to the Imagination Library. The band had been here before: their cover of The Cranberries' "Zombie" arrived after Dolores O'Riordan's death, in circumstances the band themselves have described as a mixed reception. It is a metal and rock story that began with the lost Skillet tour and runs through Parton's death, while The Cranberries have a 1994 concert getting an official release.