DW
US country music singer Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. Her nephew Brian Seaver announced the news in a video posted to Parton’s Instagram page.
The 80-year-old singer spent almost all of her life making music and is known the world over for a series of major hits like “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Earlier in the year, Parton canceled a series of shows in Las Vegas citing ongoing treatment for health problems. Late last year, she had rebuffed rumors about her health with typical good humor, declaring in a short video, “I ain’t dead yet!”
Parton’s nephew and longstanding head of security Seaver said it was an “honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness,” to issue this announcement on her behalf, saying she had asked him to do so long ago.
He hailed her influence both on his life and his family’s but also on the wider world’s.
“By her example, we believed anything was possible,” he said of Parton. “She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”
“My family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly Parton, but so have you,” he said.
“She has always been on your television, your record player, your CD and on your phone playlist, becoming an extended part of your family whether you liked it or not.”
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946 in Sevierville into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family in the US south.
She was the fourth of 12 children, growing up in the family’s small shack in the Great Smoky Mountains.
From singing her first songs to chickens, Parton graduated to performing in a church, where her grandfather was a preacher.
Her debut album, appropriately titled “Hello, I’m Dolly,” was released in 1967 with Parton have barely entered her 20s.
She was prolific in her output. By 1974, Parton was already releasing her 13th studio album. Entitled “Jolene,” it included what would become two of Parton’s most famous songs, the eponymous first track and the opening track of side two, “I Will Always Love You.”
She released a staggering 49 solo studio albums in a career spanning well over half a century, concluding in 2023 with “Rockstar.”
Parton was known not only for her voice, stage presence, provocative costumes and ample bust, but also as a rapier wit and a stellar storyteller on stage when she had the mic in her hand between her songs.
Sometimes this would also spill over into her creative process. On a visit to the 2014 Glastonbury music festival in the UK, performing in front of an estimated 180,000 sodden fans braving horrendous weather, she said she had composed a special rap just for them earlier that morning, called “Mud.”
Catchier lines included rhymes like “Up to our bums in all this crud,” while the crowd soon caught on to the chorus by the second go around — chanting “mud, mud, mud!” on her behalf.
