Country music icon Dolly Parton’s death came just days after she cancelled a scheduled event at her Dollywood amusement park amid growing health challenges.
Parton, 80, was set to celebrate the new NightFlight Expedition ride at her Tennessee theme park on Aug. 14 but backed out due to dehydration.
“Now, I’ve told you before, all my fans, that I’ve had a few little health issues, and sometimes I get a little dizzy, and I get dehydrated,” Parton said in a video message to fans, Entertainment Weekly reported.
“Now I’m dehydrated, and so my Nashville doctor kind of clipped my wings, saying, ‘You ain’t traveling this week.’ So I guess if your doctor tells you you ain’t traveling this week, you ain’t traveling this week!”
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In her final interview with People magazine on Friday, the Grammy-winning artist talked about her declining health and losing her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean, in March 2025.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” Parton told the outlet. “You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this.
“Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’ I’m still workin’,” she added. “You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner, and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
The legendary songstress made her last public appearance in June at Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop for a ribbon-cutting event, but has increasingly curtailed her schedule in recent months.
In May, she was forced to cancel her first Las Vegas residency in more than three decades for the second time after telling fans she was feeling “swimmy headed.”
“The good news is I’m responding well to meds and treatments and I’m improving every day,” she said at the time.
“Now the bad news is, it’s going to take me a little while before I’m up to stage-performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a big swimmy headed, as my grandma used to say.”
Parton previously canceled the residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, a six-show appearance titled “Dolly: Live in Las Vegas,” late last year.
Despite occasional appearances in recent years, Parton had not gone on tour since her “Pure & Simple Tour” wrapped up in 2016.
