Yeah, this case is going to get heated.
Of course things were already heated when the estate of country music legend Dolly Parton fired her nephew, Bryan Seaver, and his security company from their longtime job of protecting her property.
The drama started last week when Danny Nozell, who had served as manager for Dolly Parton since 2005 and now runs She’s Alive LLC, the company overseeing her estate, terminated Seaver and his company as head of security for the estate.
Seaver, as you may recall, was the family member who announced Dolly’s death in a video posted on her social media back on August 25:
According to a termination notice filed in court, Seaver was informed that he was being dismissed immediately, and replacement guards had already been brought in to protect Dolly’s home in Nashville, along with her museum, downtown Music City residence and warehouse.
As you can imagine, it doesn’t sound like the termination sat well with Seaver, who said he was “dismayed by the unexpected and, so far, unexplained” actions of Dolly’s longtime manager Danny Nozell and Pinnacle Bank, who is presumably serving as a trustee over her estate:
“We remain unshakably resolved to fulfill her final directive to protect her family, and we refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith and with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much.”
Well the explanation Seaver was looking for came soon thereafter, when She’s Alive LLC filed a lawsuit against Dolly’s nephew, requesting a temporary restraining order and accusing him of engaging in a “campaign of threats” and intimidation against the estate:
“Mr. Seaver began his campaign of threats, intimidation, and coercion a few weeks prior to Ms. Parton’s passing…. In writing, he vowed to ‘destroy the entire brand’ and also told her entertainment attorney: ‘I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer.’”
In text messages filed with the lawsuit, Seaver threatened to “destroy the entire brand,” while claiming that the “Dollywood brand is dying” and threatening to take his story to Billboard Magazine:
“I’m going to spend the next time I have on earth ratf**king anyone that has ever betrayed my family.”
And he also threatened to go public in another text message:
“I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or f**king pay me.”
He also emphasized his military service and career as a contractor in a September 3, 2026 email to Dolly’s longtime attorney:
“I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer. I sold 27 million $ worth of ammunition and arms to the Haitian Police on the day Dolly died. Entertainment is not my game. I have spent my entire career breaking things and spying on African and Arab leaders. And protecting Dolly.”
Seaver continues that Dolly “blew my cover with this announcement,” presumably a reference to her request that he be the one to announce her death.
He ends the email by requesting a conversation with the attorney:
“I would appreciate having a dialogue and communication route with you. I expect you know where all the bodies are buried same as me. Let’s have dinner…”
For his part, Seaver released a statement to TMZ, Seaver standing by most of his comments, claiming that the text messages were taken out of context:
“I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments. I am a security professional and I am a killer. However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by.
I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster. A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”
And he says that Dolly always jokingly referred to as “her killer.”
“Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp. I was her ‘baby boy ninja’ and Danny Nozell took that text out of context to somehow imagine that I was threatening him. He’s always called me The Killer.”
Davidson County Chancery Court judge I’Ashea Myles granted the estate a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Seaver and his company from interfering with Dolly’s estate, entering estate property, or coming within 1,000 feet of the estate’s employees.
A hearing on the restraining order has been set for October 9 in Nashville. But in the meantime, it sounds like attorneys for the estate had a hard time tracking down Seaver to serve him with the lawsuit.
In emails filed with the court today, Keane Barger, an attorney representing She’s Alive, LLC, wrote to Seaver asking him to accept service of the lawsuit by email because they were having a hard time serving him personally:
“Our process server has attempted to personally serve you several times without success.”
But Seaver was in no mood for pleasantries, firing back with an email addressing what he says were the cameras that were installed by private investigators apparently attempting to serve him with the lawsuit:
“Tell your private investigators to come pick up their cameras: My dogs ate them and my kids used them for batting practice. I tied the 3rd one to a coyote and you’re probably getting some good footage from that. Not much left to pick up, but if you want them they can pick up the scraps.”
Sounds like he has no intention of making things easy on them as they try to remove him from his aunt’s estate.
