A few months before her death, Dolly Parton, one of country music’s most prominent figures, shared her thoughts on age, life and the legacy she hoped to leave behind.
The artist died on August 25 at the age of 80. She largely viewed aging as a state of mind and insisted that she had no intention of giving up work.
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As she approached her 80th birthday, Parton told PEOPLE magazine that, despite the passing years, she felt as though she had “just gotten started.” According to her, the key to feeling young was not paying attention to age.
While promoting her autobiography in November, she said: “If you allow yourself to get old, you will. I don’t have time to get old. I don’t have time to sit around and think about that. That’s not where my mind is.”
At the time, the singer was also reflecting more and more on the mark she wanted to leave behind. It was these thoughts that prompted her to write her memoir, titled “Star of the Show: My Life on Stage.”
“When you get to be my age, you start thinking about what you need to do to bring things full circle. To make sure you leave behind what you want the world to know about you, from your own mouth, from your own heart,” Parton said.
She also explained her approach to aging in 2020 during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Parton stressed that numbers were not how she measured her life.
“I’m going to be the best version of myself, no matter what age I am,” the singer said.
Displaying her characteristic sense of humor, Parton said that if she lived to 95, she would continue relying on makeup and cosmetic procedures to maintain as youthful an appearance as possible.
“I’m going to look like a cartoon. I’ll have the makeup. I’ll look as young as my plastic surgeons will allow me,” she said. However, Parton emphasized that what a person projected from within mattered more than their outward appearance.
Although she remained energetic and focused on life, the artist had also thought about what might happen after death. Following the loss of her husband, Carl Dean, in 2025, she said she believed they would one day be reunited. The couple had been married for nearly 60 years.
Parton also discussed her faith and views on the afterlife in a 2019 episode of the “Dolly Parton’s America” podcast.
She hoped that she would continue singing and writing songs in heaven, and even play the harp. Jokingly, she imagined herself as a member of the “angel band.”
“I don’t think this is the end of me. I don’t think this is the end of any of us,” Parton said, expressing her belief that people could continue to exist in other forms.
Spoken just a few months before her death, these remarks now resonate differently. Her words that she “didn’t have time to grow old” and her belief that death did not represent the end carry particular weight.
