Dolly Parton has explained why she pulled out of a rare public appearance amid her private health battles.
The 80-year-old country icon was scheduled to appear at the launch of a new roller coaster at her famed theme park Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, on Friday (14 August) but dropped out at the last minute.
Instead, a pre-recorded video message was played to attendees, with Parton explaining that while she was only a three-hour drive away from the event, she had been advised by her doctors not to attend.
“I’m supposed to be there in person, like we planned,” she said. “Now I’ve told you before, all my fans, that I have had a few little health issues. And sometimes I get a little dizzy, and I get dehydrated.”
“And I’m dehydrated. And so my Nashville doctor clipped my wings, saying you ain’t travelling this week. So I guess if your doctor tells you you ain’t travelling this week, you ain’t travelling this week.”
open image in galleryParton has spoken obliquely about her health issues over the last 18 months, which has led to the postponement of several shows due to unspecified medical treatments she has received.
Last September, Parton pulled out of a similar Dollywood event, which first announced the roller coaster officially opened this week.
“Hello, Dollywood! It’s me,” the singer said in a video played during the event. “I know, I’m here, and you’re there. And you’re wondering why that is? Well, I had a little problem. I had a kidney stone that was causing me a lot of problems. Turned out it’d given me an infection. And the doctor said, ‘You don’t need to be travelling right this minute, so you need a few days to get better.’”
The “9 to 5” singer-songwriter previously said that the death of her husband Carl Dean in 2025, at the age of 82, led her to not “take care of myself”, adding: “When I got around to it, the doctor said we need to take care of this, we need to take care of that. Nothing major but I did have to cancel some things so I could be closer to home and closer to Vanderbilt [University Medical Center], you know, where I’m kind of having a few treatments here and there.”
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open image in galleryParton also distanced herself from a Facebook post published by her sister Freida in which she asked fans to “pray” for Parton, which the singer responded to with trademark pluck: “I ain’t dead yet!”
The Grammy-winning artist made her first major public appearance since her health issues in March at Dollywood. “I’ve not been touring, as you know,” Parton told the crowd. “I’ve had a few little health issues, and we’re taking good care of them.”
But a few months later she told fans that she would once again have to delay a return to the stage, explaining in a video: “The good news is that I’m responding really well to meds and treatments, and I’m improving every day. Now, the bad news is, it’s gonna take me a little while before I’m up to stage-performance level, because some of the meds and treatments make me a little bit swimmy-headed.”
In May she announced the cancellation of her planned Las Vegas residency, which was scheduled to begin in September.