The plot thickens.
In the wake of the death of the late, great Dolly Parton, there is already a battle going on between her estate and her family, as her nephew, who was her head of security and owns his own security company, was fired. He, nor any of his employees, are now in charge of protecting any of Dolly’s homes or business properties.
She’s Alive, LLC (SAL), which Dolly created while she was alive to protect her legacy after her death, filed a lawsuit claiming Seaver became “emboldened” after his aunt’s death, which is what led to him being fired, and the trust was also granted a temporary restraining order against him.
The filling obtained by People says:
“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.’”
The claim also stated that Severe had threatened to “inflict reputational and economic harm” on his aunt’s brand in the weeks prior to her death, and he is also accused of “making threats of real-world violence” towards Dolly’s staff and others she worked closely.
The filing also stated:
“As the entity entrusted by Ms. Parton to protect and promote her life’s work for future generations, SAL must cultivate a safe work environment for employees, advisors, and partners, free from intimidation or hostility—particularly intimidation by an armed former security contractor. Without relief, Defendants’ calculated campaign will continue to inflict fear, to destabilize SAL’s operations, and to cause further irreparable harm.”
Text messages between Dolly’s longtime manager Danny Nozell and Seaver that were filed with the case show the singer’s nephew vowing to “set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships” if he doesn’t get paid, just days after his aunt’s death.
In a statement to TMZ, Seaver says that he stands by most of his comments and claims 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 that’s not all… She’s Alive, LLC also fired for a temporary restraining order against Seaver and his company, which was granted, and according to TMZ, the management company says Seaver called himself and “international arms dealer and mercenary,” adding, “I’m a killer.”
Following his aunt’s death, the estate alleges that Seaver said:
“All I do is warfare. Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do.”
Because of the aggressive nature of the alleged comments, the company has claimed they’ve hired private security for the employees, including at their homes, due to fear of Seaver and his employees. The company claims they are unable to conduct operations as normal due to the ongoing issues with Seaver.
For his part, Bryan has denied making threats and that his messages were taken out of context, though he did tell TMZ he stands by most of his comments.
TMZ also reported today that more text messages submitted in some of the documents related to this lawsuit show Seaver bragging about being the “face of the biggest social media post in human history,” as it was Seaver who announced Dolly’s death to the world via a vide that went to all of her social media platforms.
It’s a task she assigned to him long ago, and it sounds like he got quite an ego boost from it if it’s all true:
“But I’m now the face of the biggest social media post in human history.”
It’s just a very unfortunate situation, considering I think this is the absolutely last thing Dolly would have wanted in terms of her family being involved and her business being put in jeopardy. She loved her family more than anything, and spent her life building such an impressive empire, and I have to imagine she had all of her affairs in order before she passed because she was a very smart woman.
But, that still doesn’t mean everyone else is going to just go along with it, and I guess we’ll see how this all continues to play out. Of course, you would hope that this isn’t true and Seaver didn’t say or do all of those alleged things in the filing, because if he did, that’s a disgusting disservice to the extraordinary life and legacy his aunt left behind.
Here is the death announcement he allegedly referred that was included in the filing:
