Dolly Parton Cancels Much-Anticipated Residency For Unexplained Health Reasons

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Monday, May the fourth, and we just got a major health update about Dolly Pardon from Dolly Pardon herself. And she started it with this, I've got good news and I've got bad news. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.

00:00:22
Speaker 1: Robes.

00:00:22
Speaker 2: I said, a major update. This is a concerning one. And the reason it's not more concerning is because she delivered it in her classic we love you Dolly.

00:00:32
Speaker 3: Way, isn't she. I Mean, we all talk of her as a national treasurer, but she certainly personified that in a what was it about? A five minute Instagram reel a few hours ago. As of this recording, she had some tough news to deliver and a big blow to a lot of her fans who have been waiting and waiting and waiting to see her back up on stage. But she did it with a smile. She did it with jokes, she did it with self deprecation, she did it with love, did it with gratitude.

00:01:01
Speaker 2: She didn't look like a woman who has been suffering from anything. She looked like the same Dolly we have seen our entire frickin' live So we just got this a short time ago, this video from her, and we're gonna let you hear from her. We're going to play part of the video she put out, but Robes the headline needs to be first of all, that this much anticipated residency that was delayed already now turns out we're not going to see.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: It at all. Yeah, it does appear like it is completely canceled. This was a big thing. She announced remember last fall, that she was returning to Vegas after thirty years. She was going to do six shows. They sold out. It was scheduled for December of twenty twenty five. She came on and said, hey guys, I'm not feeling great. Need to postpone this for a few months. Turned out to be around nine months. Rescheduled for September seventeenth through the twenty sixth in Vegas. Tickets sold out, some of those seats going for as much as fourteen thousand dollars of pop to see Dolly perform her hits like Joline nine to five, I Will Always Love You, Nate. We all know and love Dolly songs. So to now hear that it's indefinitely canceled, she didn't say a word about She didn't say a postponement. She didn't say at a later date. She just said she had to cancel.

00:02:19
Speaker 2: And robes the concern there. We know how excited she was about this. She was so excited that she came out and said, hey, I got to delay it for a few months, So she was really really trying. Our concern just has to be what has come. What has happened that is so significant that she can't go out there, So that is something we do not know. But like I said, we heard from her. This was just a short time ago. This is really within an hour or two of our recording.

00:02:46
Speaker 1: Here.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: She put this out. We're gonna start to hear from the top and sounds like her classic Dolly. But she starts out saying, hey, I just want to give you an update, and she says I got good news and bad news, and this is how she let everybody know that something's going on with her health right now.

00:03:03
Speaker 4: First, it's concerning my health, and I have some good news and little bad news. But the good news is I'm responding really well to meds and treatments and I'm improving every day. Now. The bad news is it's gonna take me a little while before I'm up to stage performance level because some of the meds and treatments make me a little bit swimy headed, as my grandma used to say. And of course I can't be easy carrying around banjos, guitars and such on five inch heels, and you know that I'm gonna be wearing them. Not to mention all those heavy rhy stone outfitsts, the big hair, my big personality, those that would make anybody swim headed. But let's think of me as like an old classic car that, once restored, can be better than ever. But when they raised the hood on this old antique, they realized that I need to rebuild my engine, and that my transmission is slipping, my oil pan is leaking, and my muffler's busted, and my shocks and pistons need to be replaced, and for sure my spark plugs need to be changed, because you know as well as I know that I can't lose my spark. I know I'm still crazy, but they didn't mention nothing about my mental health.

00:04:36
Speaker 2: I mean, that's classic HER's rose. It felt almost as if she wanted everybody to know I'm okay. She almost seems like she was still comforting us.

00:04:48
Speaker 3: In her hour of need, you know, and that does often happen to folks in a position like hers, where she's the one who's suffering. She's the one who's not okay, but she wants to make sure we're o with her not being okay, And that just speaks to her personality and who she is, because that's pretty remarkable. She's not up there playing the victim, feel sorry for me? I think so often now we see maybe younger stars, but a lot of folks take to social media to play basically victim Olympic Olympics. She's the opposite. She's like, yeah, I'm eighty, I've got health issues, but I don't want you all to worry because now I'm going to be back bigger than every Like she's there reassuring us even though she is physically going through it right now.

00:05:35
Speaker 2: And we don't know what that is, but ro we, I mean hell, earlier today we were talking about an eighty one year old man in the hospital. That was Rudy Giuliani. You don't eighty year old folks with health issues should be a concern. Eighty year old folks who work as hard as she does. It's amazing to think about the president of seventy nine. We keep all these things in mind ropes. I guess we're getting used to seeing older folks go harder and longer. But we got to remember these are eighty year old folks and this is an eighty year old body, and she has more time and effort and energy and work on that little bitty. I know people think about her one larger attribute, if you will.

00:06:14
Speaker 1: But she's a tiny little woman. She is, she's dye bitty.

00:06:17
Speaker 2: She has been she has been working nonstot and rode. We were amazed and listening to her in the video. We're not playing all of that, but it was a five minute video. Uh what minute and a half of it spent on promotion?

00:06:28
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, she was promote Oh she was in promotion mode one hundred percent, trying to get everyone excited about the Broadway show that's going to be debuting either in the fall or the winter, about her life's music, which is cool. Yeah, she's selling Dollywood. She's trying to get folks. Yeah, and that's what she does. That's who she is. She is unabashedly self promotional, promotional. I mean, who gives a health update? And not necessarily a good one. She had a lot of bad news to deliver in rhinestones, full makeup, looking fabulous.

00:07:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's another episode. She looks amazing.

00:07:04
Speaker 3: She even made a joke about her late husband Carl's, saying, you know, basically, sweetheart, you're gonna have to slow down. You're getting older. And she said, as long as there are plastic surgeons in the world, I'm not getting a day older. I mean, she had that classic Dolly sense of humor that we've all grown to love. And look, she is dealing with something serious we don't quite know. She put it like this. She said her digestive and immune system is out of whack. I believe was the medical term she gave. So it's unclear. We know she's been suffering from kidney stone. She talked about that as well, that they've She said, they dig more stones out of me in a year than the Rock Quarry and Rockwood, Tennessee. So look, she's making jokes, but she is and has been suffering for quite some time.

00:07:49
Speaker 2: And the thing is, we don't know how bad. She has yet to show us a sick, ill Dolly parton of any kind. Every announcement she's made. She's sitting in a chair, well lit, dressed to the rhinestone nines and looking delightful and chipper and upbeat. I have no idea the sense of her illness and weakness or pain or suffering, no clue.

00:08:19
Speaker 1: Because she looks like Dolly.

00:08:20
Speaker 3: It's true, she looks like Dolly. She sounds like Dolly, and it's not even yes, it is how she looks and it's how she sounds. But her energy, she was just popping. I mean, she just seemed warm and bright. Who knows when the microphone went off and the cameras turned off, she might have just collapsed, but it didn't seem like that. And the big concern all came. Remember last fall when her sister Freda asked for prayers for Dolly, and it's kind of that's the first time we saw Dolly get in front of a video and say I'm not dead yet. Hey.

00:08:48
Speaker 1: We needed that, the sister.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: We needed proof of life.

00:08:51
Speaker 1: Okay, we needed proof of life.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: The sister kind of said some stuff, maybe shouldn't say.

00:08:56
Speaker 3: It, It was that true, scared like the entire nation, and that one post asking folks to pray for Dolly. So that's the first time we saw DOLLI get back on and have some fun in this video. So it seems like she's kind of taken a page out of that pr campaign because it worked. People felt comforted. They were like, Okay, thank god. And at least she's just postponing. She's going to take some time to get ready. I don't know what it says that she didn't even acknowledge or even nod to the possibility that there could be still more shows. These six shows, man, I mean, we were even considering looking at tickets. What an event? How cool would that be? But look, she talked about the treatment plan she's on. The meds she's taking just won't allow for her to be in five inch heels on stage.

00:09:44
Speaker 2: I get that, and again she was making jokes about it, but she said, look, some of these meds they got me on what'd she say, swimmy headed regret.

00:09:52
Speaker 3: Shit, I'd never heard that before.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, you can be on some meds and stuff that gets you light headed, and if you're eighty and in five inch heels running up and down a flat, slick stage wearing heavy ass whatever and carrying heavy ass whatever. She that was a part of her joke she made she said, wearing the heavy rhyme stone and I came around these big personality She paused and kind of looked down. She made a joke even about her own physical stature and about some of her own attributes robes.

00:10:24
Speaker 1: She was perfectly Dolly.

00:10:26
Speaker 2: So I don't know to be concerned or just okay, she's good.

00:10:33
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what I guess she's trying to do.

00:10:35
Speaker 3: That's what she wants you. She wants you to walk away just giving her love, maybe keeping her in your prayers and in your thoughts, but not excessively worrying about her. She made it very clear. She even said, I have some healing to do, but I am on my way. I mean, she is promising there was a lot more to come from Dolly Parton.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: Well, stay with us, we'll tell you what lot more to come. We're already kind of teased about the Broadway show, but we'll tell you the other thing.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: She teased.

00:11:04
Speaker 2: She's trying to get up and running. Also, we're gonna actually let you hear the joke Robot just told you about that she said about plastic surgeons.

00:11:12
Speaker 1: We'll keep her young.

00:11:13
Speaker 2: We'll let you hear her tell that joke herself and also Robes, We're gonna also remind people of the other reason that Dolly Pardon has had a hell of a year and a hell of the worst kind of first stay here, we continue here on Amy and TJ, not knowing if we should be concerned about Dollie or not. But it made me smile seeing the video, even her telling us Robes that she has to counsel these shows. I was smiling for five minutes listening to her deliver that little video.

00:11:54
Speaker 3: We were laughing.

00:11:55
Speaker 1: She was hilarious.

00:11:56
Speaker 3: She is an entertainer through and through and form as always. And look, she's obviously struggling. There's no way that Dolly Parton wanted to cancel for the second time now her VEGUS residency that she talked about being so excited about knowing that fans this was thirty plus years in the making. So obviously something serious is going on with Dolly Parton, and so yes, part of my heart breaks for her, but I also just I loved seeing that regardless, and it is honestly, this is an inspiration to any of us having a bad day, maybe getting a tough diagnosis, learning about some sort of problem we're facing. You know what, you can handle anything with the right attitude, and I think she is just a beacon for that. Her attitude is everything. Her attitude is infectious, and she the way she has handled this illness and this, I mean this frustration. I'm sure she feels about not being able to do what she loves in front of the crowds who are begging to see her perform. She's handled it with such positivity. It's it's remarkable.

00:12:58
Speaker 1: You said this illness again. We should say whatever it is.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Whatever it was, she says, it's treatable, that's all we're told, and it's gonna take more time. But however much time is going to take ropes. She is not putting a deadline on it, because there is not some I'll be back next year, or we're gonna redo these for next season, or there is no indication of when we might see her back out there doing her thing. We talked about, she's doing the she's doing the Broadway show. I didn't realize she's working on a museum in Nashville as well. Dolly Music, Who the hell do you dragged my ass to abba a museum across the country.

00:13:34
Speaker 1: Take me to Nashville. I'll go to Dolly's museum, no problem.

00:13:38
Speaker 3: Yes, she's got the museum, She's got Dollywood. And look, I honestly, I guess I must have had my head in the sand. I did not know she had an upcoming Broadway musical, Dolly, a true original musical. Obviously we're going to see that.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: I didn't know there was gonna be out so soon. I didn't know it was in the works to be coming so soon. So that was a surprise as well. So, like she said, and again we mentioned we should say here for we are saying to you that she was promoting stuff. No, no, no, she was making a joke herself about the fact that she was promoting.

00:14:07
Speaker 1: So we're not criticizing her calling her out.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: She herself, She said, oh, I know, it's just saying old Dolly that she is promoting something all the time. She said, well, yeah, that's what you got to do in this business. So even that was perfectly authentically her. But Robes, this is a lady who for the It's the toughest.

00:14:25
Speaker 1: Time, isn't it for anyone?

00:14:27
Speaker 2: And certainly a married couple or you've had somebody your whole life of close family member robes. That first year everything is the first year without that person. She lost her husband of how many years, Carl, how much old.

00:14:39
Speaker 3: Eighty two when he died. Oh, yes, they would they He died together two months before their fifty ninth wedding, el Rasery.

00:14:46
Speaker 2: He has been with her through everything she lost in March of the last year.

00:14:49
Speaker 3: Yes, I have that right, Marvel twenty five.

00:14:52
Speaker 2: She has gone through everything. She's finally gone through a full cycle of first Yeah, and she went through that first cycle of first first Christmas without him.

00:15:01
Speaker 1: Thanks again.

00:15:01
Speaker 2: All this stuff robes and while she was dealing with whatever this health emergency is.

00:15:07
Speaker 3: People will tell you when you have been focused on someone else and their health, which clearly it looks like that was happening for her with Carl. Once Carl passed in March, it does make sense her body was probably holding on, holding on, holding on, or she wasn't paying attention, she wasn't taking care of herself, and when he finally passed, she was her body finally said you got to pay some attention to me. That does make sense.

00:15:29
Speaker 2: Remind me, babe, if you remember as well. She alluded to this in a video she did previously. But was she saying she said, I let some things go? Yes, was that COVID she was saying?

00:15:38
Speaker 3: Was that?

00:15:38
Speaker 2: Hell?

00:15:39
Speaker 3: It was with Carl? Okay, she was focused on him, She admitted she was focused on him and not focused on her own health. And so once he died all of a sudden, probably it was just a domino effect. You know, when you're mentally just stressed like that, losing the love of your life, the man who's been by your side for fifty eight years, that that is going to wreak havoc on your immune system, your body, your mental and physical health already. Now add to that that you're at the time, I believe she was seventy nine years old. Yeah, and if you've been ignoring things, it's all gonna come piling up. And that is what it appears to have happened.

00:16:13
Speaker 2: Okay, but we all leave us on a happy note here. We mentioned earlier we're mentioning Karl now, but she is mentioning him, and this is how she kind of wrapped up her as my daughter is facetiming me. This is how Dolly kind of wrapped up her her video by mentioning Karl. But mentioning something that he said to her about not getting any younger. And look, I'll just let this speak for itself. Here is Dolly Barton letting you know just how good she's doing right now.

00:16:40
Speaker 4: I was saying something I'll rop it about something her nordition that Carl said, no, honey, you got to remember you're not getting any younger. I said, well, honey, you've got to remember that as loads are plastic surgeons in this world, I'm not getting any older.

00:17:02
Speaker 2: Come on, Okay, that's awesome. I just want to say, Dolly's that just will leave you with that.

00:17:06
Speaker 1: Dolly's fine.

00:17:07
Speaker 2: And now I'm gonna go to bed thinking Dolly's fine, and you're gonna have to tell me something otherwise.

00:17:11
Speaker 1: Hope she's well. She is just a treasure rose. I looked up.

00:17:14
Speaker 2: She's consistently rated then sometimes even number one, the most the highest favorability rating of an American celebrity. Wow, Dolly freaking partner. It makes sense?

00:17:29
Speaker 1: Does that?

00:17:29
Speaker 3: Is awesome? And when you see, if you haven't gotten a chance, you put this up on her Instagram stories if you want to, you got to hear here on the podcast. But do you want to even see her. What we're talking about, how good she looks. If you have any concerns, just watch this Instagram story and you'll think she looks like she's fifty five and just running marathons. That's what she looks like. And that's her attitude, that's her energy, that's that smile and that charm that she has, and just it's so good to see that going strong. Even through some tough times, Dolly is still smiling and so we can And with that everyone, thank you for listening to us. I'm Amy Roebach alongside t J. Holmes. We will talk to you soon