At the beginning of the college football season, the University of Tennessee debuted their new their fourth-quarter anthem at Rocky Top, which was to honor the late, great Dolly Parton. They chose “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” which was the title track to Dolly’s album released in 1973. The cover features an iconic photo of the one room home she grew up in the mountains of Tennessee, and it’s always been one of my favorite Dolly songs.
I’m sure Dolly would have been thrilled to know that she’ll be represented on the field at Neyland Stadium, which replaced Morgan Wallen’s “The Way I Talk” for that part of the game, making it a very fitting tribute for the east Tennessee queen:
Nothing but chills as Dolly Parton’s “My Tennessee Mountain Home” replaces Morgan Wallen’s “The Way I Talk” as the #Vols 4th quarter song. https://t.co/0Kpz0a6N46 pic.twitter.com/0Ziivm1SrA
— Sam Granville (@samgranvilletv) September 5, 2026
Dolly passed away on August 25th at the age of 80 following a battle with cancer, and it’s no secret that her home place in east Tennessee meant the world to her.
The University of Tennessee showed love for Parton in many ways during the first home game, and the football team will wear commemorative helmet stickers that they’ll wear in every game that honors Dolly.
An orange butterfly – with Dolly’s name front and center – will be on every athlete’s helmet all season:
“For Dolly. A commemorative helmet sticker will be worn to honor Dolly Parton for every game this season.”
The school also posted a hype video ahead of their first home game, which is another absolutely beautiful tribute to Dolly, featuring her song. You see shots of a gorgeous east Tennessee farm, as well as people in the stadium preparing for game day, and of course, they show the Dolly helmet sticker too. It’s one of the best hype videos I’ve seen in a long time, and let me just say, I am NO Vols fan, but this is just perfect.
Of course, “My Tennessee Mountain Home” is playing in the background here:
In addition to all the other great Dolly tributes, Tennessee introduced their “Dolly Karaoke Cam” and today the song choice was “I Will Always Love You”:
Tennessee introduced the “Dolly Karaoke Cam” and 102,000 people are singing “I Will Always Love You” in Neyland Stadium. Chills.pic.twitter.com/tn9JuXhgv5
— Whiskey Riff (@WhiskeyRiff) September 5, 2026
But it seems as though they’re moving on from “My Tennessee Mountain Home” being the fourth quarter song already, as Tennessee football did not use it as the fourth quarter song during the Vols loss to Texas at Neyland Stadium this past Saturday.
In fact, according to Knox News, they didn’t play any song, but rather had their the Pride of the Southland marching band play “Rocky Top.” UT athletics declined to comment on why Dolly’s song wasn’t played, and they haven’t said what, if anything, would replace it, but the Vols will be back at their home stadium to host Auburn this Saturday, October 3rd, so I guess we’ll find out more then.
It’s possible that they might return to using Morgan Wallen’s aforementioned “The Way I Talk,” but I really hope that’s not the case, because I think “My Tennessee Mountain Home” was a bit of an unexpected, yet super nostalgic and meaningful song to use, and they should at least play it for the rest of the season.
I thought it was the perfect song for a home game in east Tennessee, definitely a different feel from Morgan’s song but I liked the down home, country sentiment. Honestly, I would be surprised if they don’t continue using it, but we’ll see what they play at the next game which might give an indication as to what song they’re sticking with for now.
I don’t know how you couldn’t choose this, though…
“My Tennessee Mountain Home”
