She’s putting her health first, as she should.
Over the last year or so now, Dolly Parton has been dealing with some relatively serious health problems. At the end of 2025, she had to cancel plans for a Las Vegas residency due to those health issues, which were reported to be complications from kidney stones. It became an even bigger story when her sister asking for “prayers,” leading many to think that her condition was more serious than Dolly was letting on.
Dolly has said before she has issues with kidney stones, and her procedure was likely related to that, but in addition, she lost her husband of nearly 60 years at the beginning of 2025, so surely that has been weighing on her. And the woman deserves a break… I don’t think she has stopped working since she first set foot in Nashville at 18 years old.
And just a week or so ago, Dolly missed the opening of her new Dollywood ride NightFlight Expedition, which she was previously scheduled to attend. She still took part in the grand opening festivities via a video message, and she told fans once again that she’s been given doctors orders to rest because of the undisclosed health issues, noting that she gets “dizzy” and “dehydrated,” and needs to continue to take it easy.
Dolly also explained that she’s continuing to work on her other projects, like her SongTeller hotel in Nashville, which contains the Life of May Colors museum, as well as her forthcoming Broadway Musical in New York City:
“I’m still in Nashville, and I’m sorry about that. I was supposed to be there in person like we planned… I’ve had my butterfly wings flapping since May 15th, when we were due to open the first time, ad again in June. But I know we have to make sure that this is the safest, since it is the biggest, and most expensive ride that we have ever added to Dollywood.
So we’re gonna open them today, that’s why I’m here, because my little butterfly wings are very kind of tall. 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, and I’m dehydrated. And so my Nashville doctor has kind of clipped my wings, saying you ain’t traveling this week… but I like to keep all of you in the loop, like I said I would, on everything.
She has been private about what the specific health concerns are, which is more than understandable, and she told People, in an interview that she has hit “hard times with my health,” and a lot of what she is dealing with is things she let go while she was watching over her late husband, Carl Dean, and his health issues prior to his passing in March of last year:
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.”
It’s unclear exactly what Dean was dealing with, but of course, when you’re taking care of a loved one, it’s easy to put yourself on the back burner so hopefully Dolly is taking all the time she needs to rest and heal up now.
Dolly also explained that she has dealt with health issues before, and in the early 80s, she was out of work for months because she was dealing with “female issues”:
“It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health. But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”
Dolly of course has continued to work as much as she can, and right now, her focus is her new Nashville hotel and the Songteller museum:
“I am so proud of this. We found this location early one morning. I knew I wanted to do something special in Nashville, and until I saw this building, nothing ever hit me as the right thing to do. I saw a copy of my book Songteller in the lobby of what once was this office building.
After touring it and seeing the location, I knew this was it. I wanted to join all my Nashville friends downtown, but I didn’t just want it to be another bar. So we found a way to bring in my museum on the third floor and make it really special.”
The Life of Many Colors Museum is slated to open in fall of this year, but again, her health is obviously the top priority, and I think I speak for pretty much everyone when I say she is a national treasure who we must keep in tip top shape.
Dolly recently appeared via video message to accept the ACM Poet’s Award for her songwriting:
Shortly after his passing, Dolly released the song “If You Hadn’t Been There” about her love for her husband of nearly six decades:
