Was Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter purposely snubbed from the 2024 CMA Awards? Dolly Parton doesn’t think so.

After Queen Bey’s eighth studio album didn’t receive any nominations for the upcoming 58th Annual CMA Awards, the country icon — who features on two of its tracks — opened up to Variety about why she thinks the project isn’t up for any awards.

“Well, you never know,” said the 78-year-old singer-songwriter, who contributed to the tracks “Dolly P” and “Tyrant,” while Beyoncé, 43, covered her hit “Jolene” for the album.

“There’s so many wonderful country artists that, I guess probably the country music field, they probably thought, well, we can’t really leave out some of the ones that spend their whole life doing that,” explained Parton. “But I didn’t even realize that until somebody asked me that question. But it was a wonderful album.”

The “Here You Come Again” performer added that Beyoncé “can be very, very proud of [the album], and I think everybody in country music welcomed her and thought that, that was good.”

“So I don’t think it was a matter of shutting out, like doing that on purpose,” continued Parton. “I think it was just more of what the country charts and the country artists were doing, that do that all the time, not just a specialty album.”

Following its release in March, Cowboy Carter reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The album spawned a chart-topping single on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Texas Hold ‘Em,” plus two other top-10 hits with “II Most Wanted” and “Jolene.”

Nominations for the 58th Annual CMA Awards were unveiled on Sept. 6, and Morgan Wallen led the pack with seven total nods, followed by Chris Stapleton and Cody Johnson, who both earned five nominations, plus Post Malone and Lainey Wilson, who nabbed four each.

Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney and Kacey Musgraves each received three nominations, as did producer/songwriters Louis Bell, Charlie Handsome and Hoskins.

Elsewhere in Parton’s Variety interview, she spoke about featuring on both Cowboy Carter and Post Malone’s recent country album, F-1 Trillion. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be on both those albums,” she said.

“Well, ‘Jolene’ was in Beyoncé’s, and I thought that was a great album. She’s a country girl in Texas and Louisiana, so she grew up with that base. It wasn’t like she just appeared out of nowhere,” continued Parton. “Post Malone has loved country music his whole life, and then I got to do the duet with him on his album, and I think it’s a fantastic album. I thought both those albums were great.”

Kelly Clarkson recently also reacted to Cowboy Carter not receiving any nominations at the 2024 CMA Awards. “I kind of find it fascinating,” she told NBC10 Boston earlier this month, “because I feel like those songs were everywhere.”