US country music legend Dolly Parton dies at 80
Legendary singer-song writer Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.
In a career spanning six decades, the country music star wrote more than three-thousand songs such as hits 'Jolene' and 'Nine to Five'.
She'd been unwell for some time.
Last September Parton announced she would have to pull out of a residency at Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace and wouldn't attend the Motion Picture Academy’s Governors Awards, to accept a humanitarian award.
Parton's nephew and head of security Bryan Seaver says Dolly Parton paved the way for many artists.
He says she never saw a door she couldn't open, and the ones she opened made and changed history.
In a 2023 interview with Mike Hosking about the release of her rock and roll album 'Rockstar', Parton said she was proud of the growth country music had been seeing.
“I’ve loved watching it grow too, and I’m just proud, you know, that people want to have that title: ‘I’m a country singer, I’m in country music,” Parton said.
She was a passionate and energetic person, with each dream and achievement spurring on another, and although she had plenty to look back on, she confessed she doesn't dwell on the past.
“I’m gonna go just as long as I can and I’m gonna, I’m gonna create as much as I can,” Parton told Mike Hosking.
She planned to leave as much good in this world as she can, feeling that it’s her duty to make the most of herself – something she's definitely achieved.
“If I don’t, nobodies gonna do it for me.”
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