Reba McEntire is speaking out about the loss of Dolly Parton. Parton was 80 years old when she died on August 25. Parton and McEntire were close friends for decades.
“Well, I just got the news that my buddy Dolly passed onto the higher and greater side,” McEntire shares on social media. “Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you did for us here on earth. Your love, your music, and you gave so much with your huge, huge heart. There will never ever be another you. We will remember and cherish every memory and every note you ever played and sang.
“Thank you, Lord, for Dolly,” she continued. “She’s gonna have a blast in heaven singing all her favorite songs with all her family and friends who have gone on before her. I’ll never forget the first time I met you and I’ll never forget our last conversation. I hold it with love in my heart. I will always love you.”
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What Reba McEntire Says About Dolly Parton
In 2021, McEntire teamed up with Parton for a new version of “Does He Love You,” for McEntire’s REVIVED REMIXED REVISITED boxed set. McEntire first sang the song with Linda Davis in 1993. Surprisingly, McEntire and Parton had never released a duet together, until “Does He Love You.”
“Linda Davis did a great job on ‘Does He Love You,’ but Dolly, there’s just something about that woman that just slays me,” McEntire told Variety. “She added empathy and sympathy and camaraderie in the way she sang this song. It’s about two women loving or wanting the same man, and you feel for both women on it, I’m so thankful she said yes when we asked her to be a part of this, because I’ve wanted to sing with Dolly forever.”
Later, McEntire admitted she was blown away by Parton’s performance of the song.
“She said, ‘I just sing what I feel,'” McEntire revealed on said on Apple Music Country’s Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly, “I said, ‘How did you come up with when you came in and all that?’ She said, ‘I just sing what I feel.’ And I loved it. I don’t know how many takes she did. Probably one. It was so powerful when she does come on strong, [on] ‘when I’m deceiving myself.’ It was just, oh my gosh, [it] gave me chills. And I sat there the first time I heard it, I said, ‘Play it again.’”