HEART’s Nancy Wilson has praised Dolly Parton for taking herself out of the running for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s 2022 class of inductees.

Earlier today, the 76-year-old country music legend asked the Hall to withdraw her name from the 2022 ballot, saying “I don’t feel that I have earned the right. I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out.”

Parton was one of 17 artists nominated for the Rock Hall class of 2022, along with Eminem, Lionel Richie, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, JUDAS PRIEST and Beck, among others.

Ballots are cast by an international voting body of more than 1,000 artists — including previous inductees — historians, music industry members and critics. Factors considered by voters consider include “an artist’s musical influence on other artists, length and depth of career and the body of work, innovation and superiority in style and technique,” according to a statement issued by the Hall.

Wilson, who was inducted into the Rock Hall in 2013 as a member of HEART, was asked about Parton’s decision to bow out of the highly esteemed honor during an interview earlier today (Monday, March 14) with Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “How classy… It’s really cool for her to step down like that, because the category is so broad. Like, Dionne Warwick is not a rock performer, and a lot of them are not, and they should make different categories under the bigger Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame moniker. They should have a Country Hall Of Fame and a Pop Hall Of Fame and a Rap Hall Of Fame and a Rock Hall Of Fame. I think that would be really smart, if they started to do that. ‘Cause I’ve gotta vote for it, like, tomorrow.”

Wilson, whose band was inducted into the Rock Hall by fellow Seattle native Chris Cornell of SOUNDGARDEN, continued: “It’s really tough because Lionel Richie is in there. If you try to narrow it to what really is rock, it excludes too many others. So I think she’s really a class act to have done that. It makes me wanna write a rock record with her… I should give her a call. She can do anything. She’s written some of the best songs in our history. She can do it.”

The 2022 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees were announced in February, with Dolly appearing on the ballot for the first time.

Parton told Billboard last month that she never thought of herself as a rock ‘n’ roller “in any sense of the word, but I guess they judge it on the music and the influence certain songs have had, and I guess I’ve had songs with other people in that realm,” she said: “I’m not expecting that I’ll get in. But if I do, I’ll immediately, next year, have to put out a great rock and roll album — which I’ve wanted to do for years, like a Linda Ronstadt or HEART kind of thing.”

Parton was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1986, the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1999 and the national Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 2001.

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In a new interview with Darren Paltrowitz, host of the “Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz”, TNT guitarist Ronni Le Tekrø confirmed that he has been in touch with the band’s former singer Tony Harnell about a renewed collaboration. Speaking about the group’s current status, Ronni said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve started writing new material, and I’m currently having good talks with Tony and the whole band. We have very much communication. And it’s been 40 years [since TNT’s formation]. But we’re trying to bring the band back together and hopefully make one last tour of Europe and maybe America… I think we might wanna end the TNT chapter with dignity and do one last tour.”

Last April, Harnell, who has been in and out of TNT several times throughout its four-decade existence, told “The Chuck Shute Podcast” that he didn’t rule out returning to the band. “Ronni and I, contrary to popular belief, we talk often,” he said. “Ronni’s not a big technology guy, but he really loves FaceTime video. And it’s kind of annoying, because I love him, but he’ll call me early in the morning, ’cause he’s overseas, so he’ll call me early in the morning [for a] video chat, and I’m, like, in bed. But I love the guy. Whatever happens, we’ll be on a beach someplace when we’re in our 70s, laughing and hanging out.

“Most of the things that pushed us apart — again, contrary to popular belief — are business related,” he continued. “I’ll just leave it at that.

“‘Never say never’ is a good way to put it [regarding a possible new TNT album]. And there might be a time and a place.”

Harnell’s most recent split with TNT took place in October 2017, less than a year and a half after he rejoined the group. He later described his relationship with TNT in an “Unphiltered” interview as “a very long marriage. I’m here [in New York], they’re there [in Norway] — they’re across the pond really far away. It’s a very difficult situation to be in without having a very unified business organization, and no matter what I did, I could not get the thing unified. We were just on two totally separate not only continents physically, but mentally, psychologically, we were on two different continents as well.”

Harnell said that he “really, really wanted” his latest collaboration with TNT to work out. “In my opinion, this was gonna be it — we were gonna stay together until I didn’t feel like singing anymore,” he said. ‘I was gonna do other things and do other projects and so forth, but my goal was that TNT would be my band for at least another five years, maybe 10 years or whatever, until it ran its course. So this was kind of an unexpected thing.”

In a 2019 interview with “80’s Glam Metalcast”, Le Tekrø said that he was still on good terms with Harnell. “Definitely,” he said. “We talk regularly and we’re even discussing making a kind of Page/Plant album, a Harnell/Le Tekrø album, which could maybe lead into something in the future. But I think me and Tony Harnell — I’m speaking not on behalf of him, but on behalf of myself — we need a different playground to do more extensive hard rock with other ideas, whereas TNT is more limited to a [specific] sound. You see what I mean? So, we’re definitely buddies, and that will last forever. We don’t hate each other, and we never did. That was never the [case].”

TNT’s latest studio album, “XIII”, came out in June 2018 via Frontiers Music Srl. The band’s thirteenth LP was TNT’s first to feature new vocalist Baol Bardot Bulsara, who replaced Harnell. Baol is a Spanish singer whose debut with TNT happened in front of 8,000 fans in November 2017 when the band opened for German hard rock legends the SCORPIONS in Oslo, Norway.