Dolly Parton is getting better every day. The 80-year-old postponed her Dolly: Live in Las Vegas residency, originally scheduled for late 2025. Her sister, Freida, later posted on social media, asking for prayers for Parton, sparking concern among her fans. But now, Parton, whose husband Carl Dean passed away last year, says she is doing well, and is still working harder than ever.
“I’ve been not touring, as you know,” she says (via WVLT). “I’ve had a few little health issues, and we’re taking good care of them. I just kind of got wore down and worn out, grieving over Carl and a lot of other little things going on. I just got myself kind of where I needed to build myself back up spiritually, emotionally, and physically. But all is good. It didn’t slow me down.”
Dolly Parton Opens Up About Her Various Business Ventures
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Parton may not be touring, but she is still working harder than ever, including on her Dolly: A True Original Musical, which opened in Nashville last year.
“I have been doing a lot of working on our new Broadway musical,” Parton reveals. “It’s gonna open in the fall in New York. I’m rewriting some songs. We’ve expanded it a little bit…I’ve been working on that, and I’m writing a couple of new songs for it, and rewriting a few of the songs that we already had.”
Parton is also working on another venture closer to home, her Songteller Hotel, located in downtown Nashville.
“And, of course, we’ve got the new hotel, Songteller, that’s gonna open sometime in late summer, early fall, in Nashville,” the East Tennessee native says. She adds that she is also working on the Life of Many Colors museum, which will be part of the Songteller hotel.
“Be ready for me. I ain’t done,” she adds.
Dolly Parton Opens Up About Life After Carl Dean
Dean passed away shortly before what would have been the couple’s 59th wedding anniversary. Together since Parton was 18, the Country Music Hall of Fame member says she will never be with anyone but Dean.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be married but once,” Parton says. “I think Carl Dean’s waiting for me on the other side. And, if I should show up at the pearly gates with somebody else, he would not like that. He’d be saying… ‘You leave him outside the gates, and if the Lord wants him in, He’ll bring him.'”
After Dean passed away, Parton admitted the loss was excruciating.
“I get very emotional when people bring it up,” Parton says on the Today Show. “We were together 60 years. I’ve loved him since I was 18 years old, and it’s a big adjustment just trying to change patterns and habits. I’ll do fine. I’m very involved in my work, and that’s been the best thing that could happen to me. But I’ll always miss him, of course, and I’ll always love him.”