Taylor Swift mourns Dolly Parton, pays heartfelt tribute

Taylor Swift is among the many artists mourning the death of Dolly Parton, who died Tuesday at 80 following a brief battle with cancer.

Swift's admiration for Parton dates back years, in a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she praised the country legend as a defining influence on her own career, calling her "a force of evolution and transformation" whose impact reached well beyond country music into how artists across genres think about reinvention.

“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,” Swift said in a message shared with The Hollywood Reporter. 

“But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one.”

“She was truly the gift that kept on giving. Dolly gave us someone to look up to while encouraging us to be who we are as individuals. Somehow she was able to give us her lessons about the world gently and honestly, simultaneously, and oftentimes hilariously,” Swift continued. 

“She managed to give the world the ultimate mystery and fantasy in some corners of her life, but to give full transparency in the ways that counted. Somehow she was true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the softest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a backbone of steel to defend her own self worth as an artist.”

She concluded, “Along with her other fans, I am so grateful for all of it. For the melodies and lyrics she wrote that thawed even the coldest hearts. For the millions of books she provided children all over the world so that they might fall in love with stories the way she did. For the tightropes she walked so that young girls like me could grow up dreaming of joining the circus too. Dolly, I’ll think of you each step of the way.”

The two shared a warm, mutual relationship in recent months. 

Parton posted one of her final public videos as a heartfelt thank-you to Swift and fiancé Travis Kelce after the couple donated $2 million to her Imagination Library literacy nonprofit around the time of their wedding. 

In the video, an emotional Parton said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm blown away and overjoyed. Now it's evident that you two have made giving back a key part of your lives. So, hey, when you have your firstborn, can I have it? Because that is going to be one special baby!" 

She closed the message with a line that has taken on new weight since her passing: "I wish you both the best, and know that I will always love you."

According to a report from entertainment insider Rob Shuter, Swift is among several major artists, including Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé, said to be "lining up" to take part in a large-scale musical tribute honouring Parton, though plans remain in the earliest stages. 

One industry source told Shuter, "Taylor, Miley, Beyoncé — Dolly crossed every genre and every generation. This could become one of the biggest musical tributes of all time." 

Parton's family announced her death in a video posted to her social accounts, with her nephew and longtime head of security, Bryan Seaver, reading a statement he said Parton had asked him to deliver years in advance.en