Country icon Dolly Parton doesn’t beat around the bush when making her final plans. The Jolene singer contemplated her mortality late last year and decided to help ease her family’s burden in advance.
Dolly spent decades taking care of her ailing husband, Carl Dean. Earlier this week, Dean passed away at the age of 82, leaving behind a heartbroken Dolly Parton. So far, no official cause of death has been reported.
According to Radar Online, Dean was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2019 and spent the past several years battling multiple health issues. While caring for her spouse, Dolly Parton decided it was also time to consider her mortality and make her final arrangements.
Dolly Parton reveals that when her time comes, she would prefer to hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday. “That’s how I hope to go. I don’t have much of a choice in that, but in the meantime, I’m going to make hay while the sun shines,” the singer states.
Parton’s friends and family worry that Dolly may soon get her wish. They fear Dolly’s lifestyle is becoming too much for her and are urging her to slow things down. The singer has been going nonstop between her work commitments and caring for Carl. However, now that Carl Dean has passed, those close to the singer fear she will fill the void by taking on even more work.
They feel the singer’s upcoming schedule for 2025 is a significant cause of concern. Besides, her tour, Dolly is swamped by overseeing her massive business empire, including the Dollywood theme park and the Dollywood HeartSong Lodge & Resort.
Dolly Parton Takes Care Of Business
Dolly admits she doesn’t fear death. She has lived a long and exciting life and accepted that her time on earth is limited. So, to ease her mind and the burden on others, she has taken care of her final arrangements.
She reveals that her career and her fans mean everything to her. So, when her time comes, Dolly wants to leave her followers with a parting gift. According to the Parton insider, Dolly has prepped “thousands of songs” to be released posthumously because she doesn’t want to leave material “in the same shape like Prince or Aretha (Franklin) or anybody that don’t plan ahead.“
Parton has all her ducks in a row. In addition to taking care of her unreleased music, she has ironed out the details of her $600 million estate.
“You don’t want to leave that mess to your family for people to have to fight over. You need to take care of that yourself, even if it’s a pain in the a–, and it is,” she claims.
As for her funeral, Dolly claims she has a star-studded event planned down to the last detail. Her final wish is that her father’s favorite song If We Never Meet Again, will be played at her funeral.
Dolly Parton doesn’t plan on checking out anytime soon. However, she claims she takes great comfort in knowing that when her time eventually arrives, everything is in order.
