They just don’t make ’em like Dolly and Loretta anymore…
On August 25, 2026, Dolly Parton sadly passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Dolly’s reps confirmed she sadly died following a “brief battle with cancer,” though the specific kind was not revealed.
Her friend, Loretta Lynn, died peacefully in her sleep on October 4th, 2022, at the age of 90 at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, and the two were very close friends for decades, as they both navigated the industry that is Nashville and country music, blazing their own paths and always encouraging each other to say what they want and be themselves along the way.
Funny, honest and real… has there ever been more charisma and attitude in a single person than in the mountain girl from East Tennessee or the Kentucky girl from Butcher Holler? I think not.
In spite of the incredible amounts of fame and success they’ve both achieved, they’re every bit the salt of the earth, down-home people they were raised to be and it speaks volume about the types of women each of them are. It’s why, even though neither one of them are with us anymore, they’re both still so relevant decades after they both started their careers in the 60s. But back in 1988, Loretta appeared on Dolly’s daytime show, Dolly, to sing a medley of some of her biggest hits with her longtime friend.
Dolly welcomes her expressing just how big of a fan she is of Loretta’s music:
“I tell you, more people love you than anybody in the world. And you have had some of the greatest songs and you’ve written almost everything you’ve ever recorded, ain’t you?
I think that’s great, so I thought it’d be nice if we did a medley of some of those great songs and I want to sing with you on it. Why don’t we do a medley, and I’ll just leap in there and help you any way I can. And if I mess up, you’ll just have to forgive me.”
Of course, Loretta responds graciously saying:
“I’ll mess up, too. I’ll mess up too.”
Dolly wants to make it a competition, to which the says back:
“Let’s see who can mess up the most.”
Of course, neither one of them mess up one time.
Dolly and Loretta worked together several years after this appearance, for their 1993 trio project with Tammy Wynette, Honky Tonk Angels, which was initiated by Dolly.They were nominated for a Grammy Awards thanks to their song “Silver Threads and Golden Needles,” which was nominated for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. At the CMA Awards in 1994, they received a nomination for Vocal Event of the Year.
When it comes to women, and artists in general, who not only shaped country music but paved the way for so many who have come up behind them, Dolly and Loretta are in a league of their own, truly. It’s hard to put into words the impact each of them had on the world, and I know for a fact there will never be another Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn… or anyone particularly close, honestly.
To have stayed so true to themselves, in spite of massive success that most people would only ever dream of, and leave a legacy that is equal parts about their music as it is about the people they were… that’s rare.
They are two of my biggest inspirations, their music means the world to me, and to get to see them on stage together doing what they did best is just a rare treat.
They ran through six of Loretta’s biggest hits, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “Blue Kentucky Girl”, “One’s On The Way” and “The Pill” and it’s as incredible as you would imagine:
