She made Dolly very, very proud.
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.
And a couple weeks ago during the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, country music’s own in miss Kacey Musgraves honored the icon with an absolutely flawless rendition of Dolly’s iconic hit, “I Will Always Love You.”
Of course, it’s one of her most popular and legendary songs, which she first released in 1974. Her original solo version peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart later that year, and then rereleased it October 1982, with a re-recording for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas soundtrack.
Kacey has talked extensively over the years about how much Dolly inspired her as an artist, and while they never recorded a song together or anything like that, they did share the stage on a couple of occasions, first in 2019 at the Grammy Awards alongside Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Maren Morris, and Little Big Town for a medley of Dolly’s biggest hits. In 2016 at the CMA Awards, Kacey was part of another all-star tribute honoring Dolly’s lifetime achievement award.
She was the perfect woman for the job, in my humble opinion, and Kacey’s tribute at the VMAs started out with an old video of Dolly from when her daytime show Dolly took place, as she performed “I Will Always Love You,” and after Dolly starting off the song, it transitioned to Kacey who sounded unreal.
At the end, it transitioned back to Dolly saying goodbye, ending with a charming wink and her infectious laugh, making for a very emotional moment which I needed a tissue for.
During interview with SiriusXM The Highway, Kacey talked about how special it was to be chosen for that tribute, saying she chose “I Will Always Love You” because it was a challenge, adding that she doesn’t think she’ll ever sing it again because it’s so difficult.
Kacey of course acknowledged that no one will ever compare to Dolly or Whitney, but she wanted to “show respect” and how much Dolly meant to her:
“That is not an easy song to sing. They suggested either ‘Here You Come Again’ or ‘I Will Always Love You,’ and I kind of like the challenge of ‘I Will Always Love You.’ I’ll probably never sing that song ever again, because it’s just, it’s really hard.
And it’s not about outdoing, or whatever. There’s her version, and that’s the one, her and Whitney. You know what I mean, like, no one can top those. But I did my best to try and show the respect, and what she meant to me.”
Kacey explained just how much she looks up to women like Dolly and Loretta Lynn, who were brilliant, multi-faceted women who were beautiful and successful and really everything all at once, who weren’t afraid to be themselves and never backed down from what they believed in:
“Oh my gosh, I mean, well I definitely wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing as I know it without Dolly or Loretta. All these women really getting in and paving the way for what we now term as our new normal, so to speak.
But at one point, we forget that they were really pushing a lot of boundaries, and honestly kind of pissing a lot of people off at times, while looking beautiful. But I think it’s just a testament that you as a woman can be multifaceted and multidimensional.
You know you can have a wonderful business, and be extremely intelligent in that way, you can be funny. You can make jokes about your body, you can have a body and show it off, and you can be glam and all of that… I really admire that.”
Amen to that, Kacey…
I think that’s what so many people admired about Dolly, she was always so authentically herself and never shied away from it, and it’s hard to believe it’s already been a month and a half or so since she passed… I miss her.
You should definitely check out Kacey’s performance if you haven’t seen it yet below… I don’t think anyone else could have done it like she did, or cared more about making sure she was honored properly:
