'A Beacon and an Icon’ | Tributes pour in for Dolly Parton as the country music legend passes away

Good evening, the breaking news in the past few hours. Country music superstar Dolly Parton has sadly died at the age of 80. The legendary singer's career spanned 65 glorious years in the music industry, with smash hits including 9to5, Jolene, Islands in the Stream, to name but a few. She had been suffering with ill health for some time and had been forced to cancel a string of shows planned for December. Now, in March last year, her beloved husband, Carl Dean, whom she had been married to for more than 60 years, passed away. Her death was announced in a very moving tribute and message on social media by her nephew. I'm representing the Parton and Owens family today, announcing the passing of my Aunt Dolly, Rebecca Parton Dean. Sister, sis, Aunt Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next. It is an honour, an honour that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens. Well, Dolly Parton rose to fame singing ballads about her life growing up with 11 siblings in Appalachia in the rural US. She then shot to fame in 1971 with her first solo number one, Joshua. This was followed by a string of more number ones three years later with Jolene and I Will Always Love You, which remarkably were written not just in the same day, but in the same songwriting session. Can you imagine that level of skill and talent realistically? It's unbelievable, isn't it? And Love Is Like A Butterfly was another one of her greatest hits. Over the course of her career, she will produce top 10 albums in seven different decades and collect a host of awards, including 10 Grammys and several country music awards. In fact, she also has 11 world records to her name. President Trump tonight responded to her death, writing on Truth Social, very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest country singers and far beyond ever, has just passed away. This is a true loss to millions of people. There will never be anyone like her. In her honour, I am lowering the American flag throughout the United States for one week, beginning tonight at 6pm, which is in just under an hour's time here, London time, because he's talking about Washington, D.C. there, and we will bring you that flag-lowering moment live here on GB News. President Trump finishes by saying, rest in peace, Dolly, the world loves you. I should also say that the Empire State Building has turned itself into a pink sparkle this evening. We'll get you a video of that shortly, but they are honouring the late Dolly Parton. They say Dolly was a global cultural icon whose seven-decade career reached generations of fans, and the Empire State Building is illuminated, as we speak, in pink sparkles. In 2014, Dolly dazzled the crowds with her one and only performance here in Glastonbury. All right, well, look, let's get the thoughts of our panel this evening. We've got the campaign's director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, William Yarwood, political commentator, Kai Wilshaw, conservative commentator, Emma Webb, and broadcaster and Dolly Parton mega-fan, Christo Fufas. It's fair to say this is not the show we were planning on doing this evening, but Christo, you are an absolute superfan, aren't you, really? It's difficult to actually summarise the legacy that Dolly leaves behind, but give it a go for us, please. I'll just return to the writer. She was a brilliant writer. She was a writer of brilliant stories, a brilliant poetry, actually, and I think that her music was incredibly accessible to everyone. Who can't relate to Jolene? Please don't take my man. Who can't relate to a story about your mother making clothes for you in a coat of many colours? Who can't relate to meeting someone and having a first impression with Joshua, and actually, it turns out that they're a little bit different, so don't judge a book by its cover. Who can't relate to I Will Always Love You? Every single song was a story. Every single song was written beautifully, but also, it was something that people could really identify with, and I think that they could identify with her as well. As I said to you in the last segment, when we were talking about so many stars nowadays, they take themselves so seriously. You couldn't possibly talk to them about outrageous outfits or whether they've had any work done or all of that, and she was very Joan Rivers in as much as that she would take the mickey out of herself. She wouldn't take herself seriously at all, and I think that meant that a lot of people had a lot of love for her and they felt a real affinity with her. She had an ability to say some hilarious self-deprecating things. The famous quote, it costs a lot of money to look this cheap. I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb and I also know I'm not blonde, but there were actually some incredibly poignant ones there as well. Find out who you are and then do it on purpose. Things like the way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with some rain. All of this stuff. I never harden my heart, but I do try to toughen the skin. There's been very, very profound things there from Dolly Parton. I think, cool. I don't know if we might be able to listen into this. This is a flower laying moment, really, at Dolly Parton's star on the Hollywood Boulevard. I don't know if we maybe take the sound on this. And Peaky loves her too. Dolly would have wanted this drink. It's ice cold. It would have quenched her thirst on this hot day. This is for her. I love you, Dolly. You spell it? K-I-T-T-E-N-K-A-Y-S-E-R-N. What did Dolly mean to you? Dolly was everything to me. Everybody was calling me when she passed away. My sister, my best friend. She was like an angel of earth. She was too good for this world. I'm taking a beer back. No one class, I'm taking a beer back. She taught me how to just be myself, how to just have fun and don't care what people think. She was everything, seriously, y'all. I was at Starbucks when the news broke and I said, everybody. And nobody even seemed like they cared. I said, Dolly Parton just passed away. And I was crying as I was ordering my pink drink, but I don't care. I love her so much. You're on a wand, why? She's my fairy godmother. She's always been a fairy godmother to me. Anyway. Tell me a little bit about, tell me a little bit about your route. I've always just, you know, I always say to you. Okay, well, these are some of the people who are gathering at Dolly Parton's star on Hollywood Boulevard. And clearly people are very, very emotional and they are there to pay their respects. We'll keep showing that to you. I also do want to remind you that we're going to have the flag lowering ceremony a bit later on. For a week, the flags in America are going to be at half-mast to commemorate the sad passing of Dolly Parton. Just before we go to the rest of my panel this evening, we're going to be joined down the line by Susan Holder, who is the author of What Would Dolly Do? And Susan, thank you so much for joining us. Are you as emotional as that lady that we were seeing there on Hollywood Boulevard or potentially not quite, but obviously Dolly Parton meant a huge amount to you. And what are your feelings as this news settles in, really, that she has sadly passed away today at the age of eight? Yeah, I'm still trying to process it, to be honest. I'm not sure anyone's as emotional as the lady who we just saw on Hollywood Boulevard. But I am very moved by the loss of Dolly because I have loved her for a very long time and I just see her as a real beacon, as a real kind of icon and a feminist icon who did it with femininity, which is quite unusual and kind of what femininity she had. But yeah, the talent of Dolly speaks for itself. But her humanity, I think, is what really will be her lasting legacy as well as her music because she really reached so many people. I mean, you've said already, Donald Trump is giving tributes and they're lowering the flag all over America. There's not many people you can think of that unifies people in the way that Dolly does. Everybody absolutely loves her. And I have written a book called What Would Dolly Do? It's not about Dolly. It's a, I write romantic comedies and I write them about people who are trying to find their own way and their own success and their own romances. And in my book, the person uses Dolly as their point of inspiration and it kind of guides her all through the story. And I've written a few books, one that had a Beatles connection, one that had an Elvis connection. But when I go and talk to people about the Dolly book, when I go to bookshops and I do book signings and I meet readers, everybody, I couldn't believe the reaction when I wrote the Dolly one because everybody just loves her for good reason. And you spoke about some of the Dolly-isms that we know. And one of the ones I think that I'm thinking about today is the one she used to say, leave something good in every day. And I think we'd all like to think we do that now and again. Dolly Parton did that for 80 years. She left something good and she's left us so much that we can still kind of access and consume her writing, her music, her films. She was a businesswoman. Her imagination library put 300 million books into the hands of children all around the world. And she was inspired to do that because of her dad who was illiterate. And just the fact that she was so amazing on her own terms. The way she looked was something she chose to do from the age of nine. She saw a woman in the local town. She knew she wanted to be a singer, but she also chose her image. She saw a woman in a local town with blonde hair and lots of makeup and short skirt and high heels. And she thought it was the perfect Southern glamour. And she told everyone that's what she wanted to look like. And people tried to cancel her against that and say, well, that woman's the town tramp. You can't do that. But she said, no, hell, she's the most glamorous thing I ever saw in my life. And she stuck to that. She was challenged many times on it, especially when she was successful, actually. But she held firm because she said it made her feel good. It was her armour against the world. And she used the people going against her to choose songs. She chose a cover version for the first breakthrough hit she had, actually, which was Dumb Blonde. Just because I'm blonde, don't think I'm dumb. This dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool, was part of the lyrics. And then years later, she returned to that theme with backwards Barbie. I'm just a backwards Barbie. Too much makeup, too much hair. But don't you get to thinking that the goods are not all there. And that's what Dolly was all about. She was so real. But even though she looked so kind of artificial compared to other people, she was one of the most real people you could think of. And I think that cut through so much. And I think that's kind of what we'll miss. Her music will always be there. But those witticisms, those one lines, those times when people try to catch her out in an interview, but she always had a comeback, that's what we'll miss now. We won't see any new ones of those, but she's left us so many. But it is heartbreaking, really. But I just feel lucky to have been alive in the time of Dolly Parton. Aw, well, I could have listened to you all day there, Susan. Thank you so, so much for coming on and talking about this on what is obviously an incredibly emotional day and moment for you, and millions of other people as well. Dolly Parton has been a constant in so many people's lives. So Susan Holder there is the author of What Would Dolly Do? You're just looking on your screens now. Again, some of these as more and more people turn up to Dolly Parton's star on Hollywood Boulevard to pay their respects. There's also been events held, and they'll continue to be held as well in Tennessee, Nashville, and we're just looking at her now, I suppose.