Sept. 30: Vegas Residency Postponed A Year For the third time in the past few weeks, Dolly last week revealed a health issue prevented her from making a public appearance, but this time it appears to be more serious and will postpone her sold out Las Vegas residency to a year from now, nine months later than originally scheduled. In a message to fans on social media, Dolly revealed her continuing health issues will require surgeries to correct, preventing her from adequate rehearsal for the December string of shows at The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. Her statement read: "I want the fans and public to hear directly from me that, unfortunately, I will need to postpone my upcoming Las Vegas concerts. As many of you know, I have been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures. As I joked with them, it must be time for my 100,000-mile check-up, although it's not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon! In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see. You pay good money to see me perform, and I want to be at my best for you. While I'll still be able to work on all of my projects from here in Nashville, I just need a little time to get show ready, as they say. And don't worry about me quittin' the business because God hasn't said anything about stopping yet. But, I believe He is telling me to slow down right now so I can be ready for more big adventures with all of you. I love you and thank you for understanding." The six shows Dec. 4-13 will now run Sept. 17-26, 2026. Tickets will be honored for the new dates, and refunds will be available for those who can't make it. No information was given about the nature of the medical issues or surgeries, but she had previously cancelled Imagination Library appearances last month citing an inner ear infection that prevented her from flying to New Mexico and Montana on Aug. 27, and then earlier this month she said a kidney stone that had led to an infection prevented her from driving from Nashville to Dollywood to announce the park's 2026 addition on Sept. 17. She historically has been very private about her health, rarely sharing information about health issues, which makes these three announcements concerning to fans who are praying for her recovery.
Dolly Helps Wiggles Get Nomination Kids entertainers The Wiggles received a nomination last week from the ARIA Awards in Australis for Best Children's Album for their country outing Wiggle Up, Giddy Up, which contains two Dolly covers and two additional Dolly collaborations. Winners will be announced Nov. 19.
'Butterfly' Falls From The Charts After one week at No. 1 on the country digital song sales chart and one week at No. 6 on the all-genre digital songs chart, Dolly and the Zac Brown Band's "Butterfly" falls off both tallies in the Sept. 27 Billboard numbers released last Tuesday. In other charts:
Down Under, Carpenter is No. 7 pop albums, Malone No. 2 Australian country albums, and Beyonce No. 16 country.
Stateside, Carpenter comes in at No. 14 pop albums, Malone No. 53 pop albums and No. 8 country albums, and Beyonce falls off the top 50 country albums chart.
Sept. 23: Reba Interview With Dolly Streams Thursday
Dolly on Monday announced TalkShopLive will on Thursday stream an interview Reba taped with her about a month ago to promote her upcoming book Star Of The Show: My Life On Stage. The interview will air here and in the media player above at 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday.
Dolly Misses New Ride Announcement Last Week
For the second time in a month, Dolly's health kept her from a scheduled public appearance. Last time it was an ear inflection preventing flying and this time it was kidney stones and an infection from them that prevented driving from Nashville to Dollywood to announce the park's 2026 ride addition, NightFlight Exhibition, a first of its kind in the world attraction combining flight, a coaster, whitewater rapids boating, and lake sailing in an indoor dark ride themed around bioluminescence.
Dolly welcomed the crowd Wednesday via a pre-taped video explaining her absence before park officials discussed the ride. Watch the announcement here or in the media player above, and learn more about the ride here.
"I'm just so proud that Dollywood has grown so much in its first 40 years that we're able to add a ride like NightFlight Expedition," Dolly said. "I have no doubt it's going to be a huge part of Dollywood's next 40 years. We're always trying to take the natural beauty of the Smokies and make it part of everything we're doing in the park, and they've definitely been able to do it with this ride. A lot of people ask me about my favorite season in the Smokies, but no one ever asks me what my favorite time of day is. Our new ride sends you out into the mountains at night, which is the time that I think they really come to life! Obviously, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is known for the synchronous lightning bugs, but I also love to just sit and listen to the owls calling or the frogs croaking, and I love to see the stars sparkling like rhinestones up in the big old sky. It's pure mountain magic."
The more than $50 million attraction in Wildwood Grove takes an amphibious ride vehicle through vivid multimedia projections, dynamic onboard and offboard audio, as well as special lighting effects, to immerse guests in an extraordinary Smoky Mountain adventure classified as an indoor family hybrid coaster and whitewater river raft ride. The five-and-a-half-minute adventure begins with a nighttime flight over the Smokies, followed by a whitewater rafting excursion through more than 500,000 gallons of surging water, a mountain ridge roller coaster ride, and a boat cruise across a mysterious shimmering lake. With a 39-inch height requirement, the ride operates in a temperature-controlled 44,000 square-foot building so it can operate independently of the park's weather. It is expected to open in spring 2026.
Check out additional coverage from Amusement Todayhere and The Knoxville News-Sentinelhere.
In addition, the park last week began taking presale orders for season pass renewals, announcing new pass purchasers will be able to buy in a presale starting Oct. 13 if they register in advance. Changes to passes include:
The Summer Fun Pass, introduced this season as an East Tennessee resident Volunteer Pass, will now be available nationwide for $125 to visit the park from mid-April to mid-September.
Silver pass, $160 in the presale, will still have the final three weeks of the season blacked out for ages 10 and up (no blackouts for ages 9 and under) but will no longer come with any free Bring a Friend tickets. Instead, passholders will be able to purchase up to three BAFs for $50 each with no blackout dates ($35 each for up to two additional at Splash if two-park pass). However, silver passholders will now receive a 10 percent discount on food and merch in the park. Previously, the silver discount was only applicable to lodging and you had to buy gold or diamond for food and merch discounts.
Gold pass, $235 in the presale, will still include one free BAF for the theme park (and a second free BAF for the water park if you buy the two-park version of the pass) plus the ability to buy up to three additional BAFs for $45 each ($30 each for up to two additional at Splash if two-park pass). They continue to offer 15 percent off lodging, food, and merch plus an all-season free refill mug, first hour timesaver access, and free parking.
Diamond Pass, $355 in the presale, remains two-park only and includes two free BAFs for the theme park and two free BAFs for the water park, plus ability to purchase up to three additional theme park BAFs for $40 each ($25 each for up to two additional at Splash). The pass's 20 percent lodging, food, and merch discount continues as well as the first hour timesaver access, free parking, cold/hot/frozen free refill tumbler, and free monthly cinnamon bread.
In addition, all presale purchases and renewals will receive a certificate for early rides on NightFlight. The military discount remains available for all pass types, and the free Imagination Season Pass will be available for children born in 2021 or 2022. Finally, as this season is the final season for the Platinum Passes distributed at the 20th anniversary, park officials confirm those lucky folks will have to purchase passes for 2026.
'Butterfly' Debuts No. 1 Country Digital Singles
Dolly and the Zac Brown Band's "Butterfly" sold 3,300 downloads in its first week of release, allowing it to debut at No. 1 country digital song sales and No. 6 all-genre digital song sales, but the track didn't have enough streams to break the top 100 pop singles or top 50 country singles tallies on the Sept. 20 Billboard charts released Tuesday. In other charts:
Across the pond, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 holds steady at No. 2 on the British country compilation album chart, while her Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection inches up one to No. 6, Glen Campbell's Ghost On The Canvas Sessions with a Dolly duet holds slips eight to No. 14, while Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series Vol. 1 and Linda Ronstadt's entry in the series, both of which contain several Dolly appearances, fall back out of the top 20 down from No. 17 and No. 19, respectively. Sabrina Carpenter's Short & Sweet Deluxe Edition, with its Dolly duet, finds itself at No. 11 U.K. pop, No. 30 Scottish albums, No. 30 album sales, No. 28 physical album sales, and No. 10 streaming albums. Post Malone's F 1 Trillion, with its Dolly duet, is No. 11 country albums. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, with its Dolly appearances, re-enters the top 20 country albums at No. 19 and rests at No. 5 Ameriana albums.
Down Under, Carpenter is No. 7 pop albums, Malone No. 2 Australian country albums and No. 36 pop, and Beyonce No. 17 country.
Stateside, Carpenter comes in at No. 11 pop albums, Malone No. 54 pop albums and No. 8 country albums, and Beyonce No. 50 country albums.
Christmas Goods Land At Dollar General Dolly's latest line of holiday-themed home goods is arriving nationwide at Dollar General stores, License Global reports here.
'Still Working'; Headed To West Hollywood The city of West Hollywood is screening the documentary Still Working 9 To 5 Oct. 11 as part of a triple-feature on women's empowerment to kick off LA Tech Week. Accompanying it will be Lilly and Show Her The Money. Get tickets here.
Dolly Track In TikTok Trend Dolly at Chet Atkins have made the top 10 trends on TikTok, according to Paradehere. Their 1976 duet of "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" has become the sound clip for a viral trend of showing you and your childhood best friend doing something together as kids and then something together today.
Sept. 16: Musical Run Attracts Nearly 80,000 The out-of-town premiere of Dolly: A True Original Musical, which ran for six weeks and 49 performances at Nashville's Belmont University, attracted more than 77,900 attendees to its theater. For context, if the Broadway transfer can attract similar audiences in New York next year, it would be the No. 1 or No. 2 show on the Great White Way. In a statement, Dolly said: "As we continue to workshop our musical for Broadway, I am excited to know that the Belmont University Dolly U partnership will continue, with students playing a part in the next step of our journey, just as they did for our Nashville premiere." Read more on Yahoo courtesy The Tennesseanhere.
Standby Line For Wednesday's Appearance Dollywood's announced last week that select Diamond passholders were invited to attend Dolly's Wednesday media appearance to announce the new ride addition for 2026 but added that a standby line will be available for Diamond passholders who were not invited to wait for seating at the announcement for any no-shows.
Ohio Library Added To Birth Certificates Ohio has added registration for their statewide affiliate of Dolly's early childhood literacy charity imagination Library directly to the state's birth certificate paperwork, allowing parents to register at birth by checking a box on the form. First Lady Fran DeWine made the announcement last week at a luncheon headlined by Zac Brown, who was celebrating his own Dolly connection having just released their duet "Butterfly" together. Read more from Spectrum Newshere.
U.S., U.K., Aussie Chart Updates Across the pond, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 slips one to No. 2 on the British country compilation album chart, while her Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection gains six to No. 7, Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA -- Family, Faith & Fables falls off the top 20, Glen Campbell's Ghost On The Canvas Sessions with a Dolly duet holds steady at No. 6, while Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series Vol. 1 re-enters the top 20 at No. 17 and Linda Ronstadt's entry in the series falls two to No. 19, both of which contain several Dolly appearances. Sabrina Carpenter's Short & Sweet Deluxe Edition, with its Dolly duet, finds itself at No. 11 U.K. pop, No. 28 Scottish albums, No. 28 album sales, No. 28 physical album sales, and No. 9 streaming albums. Post Malone's F 1 Trillion, with its Dolly duet, is No. 9 country albums. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, with its Dolly appearances, falls out of the top 20 country albums, down from No. 13, and rests at No. 4 Ameriana albums.
Down Under, Carpenter is No. 9 pop albums, Malone No. 2 Australian country albums and No. 42 pop, Beyonce No. 18 country, and Dolly's Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection falls out of the top 40 country, down from No. 28.
Stateside, Carpenter comes in at No. 7 pop albums, Malone No. 58 pop albums and No. 9 country albums, and Beyonce No. 48 country albums.
Sept. 9: 'Butterfly' With Zac Brown Released
Dolly and the Zac Brown Band on Friday released their new collaborative single, "Butterfly," complete with a music video. Check it out on YouTube here or in the media player above, and download the duet here.
Dolly Visits Park Next Week, Earns Hall Of Fame Induction Dolly will be on park next Wednesday to announce Dollywood's largest-ever attraction, a yet-to-be-revealed ride coming for 2026. The media invitation to the announcement stated: "the company's newest attraction which soars into the park in 2026. Park officials will plunge media into the heart of the excitement about the largest single attraction investment in the history of Dollywood. Media attendees can climb their way through thrilling information designed to help them as they navigate the most exciting ways to share the news of this unparalleled new project. The announcement represents the next step in the $500 million expansion plan first unveiled in 2021." Invitations began to be sent this week to select Diamond Passholders to attend the announcement. It is unknown at this time whether Dolly will do her weather-permitting park tour or not. In related news, the theme park industry association, IAAPA, announced last week that Dolly will be inducted into its Hall of Fame as part of its 2025 class. Tickets to the ceremony Nov. 17 in Orlando are available starting at $399 each here. It hasn't been announced whether Dolly will be in attendance. Learn more from Theme Park Insiderhere.
Dollywood Wins Three Golden Tickets, Slips To No. 2 U.S. Park It took Harry Potter, How To Train Your Dragon, and Super Nintendo World, but a new theme park has dethroned Dollywood as the Best Theme Park in America after taking home the award for five consecutive years from the Golden Ticket Awards, known informally as the theme park world's Oscars. Dolly's park brought home three first place honors and several finalist spots this year.
Universal Epic Universe, the third Universal Orlando theme park to open, took the awards by storm in just its first three months of operation, debuting at No. 2 for Best Theme Park worldwide behind only Europa Park in Germany, making it by default the Best Theme Park in the U.S. Dollywood had held that No. 2 position, first in the U.S., four out of the past five years and took the No. 1 worldwide position from Europa Park two years ago.
Dollywood won Best Kids Area for Wildwood Grove for the sixth year, Best Family Coaster for Big Bear Mountain for the third year, and Best Guest Experience for the sixth year, an award that combines friendliness, cleanliness, operations, and value.
"We've really had a lot of fun this year celebrating our 40th season," Dolly said in a statement, "and it just keeps getting bigger. We've already won some great awards this year, and now our friends at Amusement Today have honored us with a few more. I'm humbled that so many wonderful people from all around the world who have visited us feel like our park is one of the best anywhere. I had big dreams 40 years ago about what Dollywood could become, but even I sometimes have a hard time believing it has become everything that it is now. And you know, when we share our next big idea very soon, I think it's going to have everyone's dreams soaring!"
"Play On" placed second for Best New Show, the park placed third for Most Beautiful Park, Thunderhead was ranked as the fifth best wooden coaster in the world (down from No. 4), Splash Country maintained its fifth place spot for Best Water Park, and Lightning Rod fell out of the top 25 steel coasters worldwide, down from No. 22.
The park's annual Harvest Festival kicks off Friday with the new Candy Corn Country in Country Fair and the return of the Great Pumpkin LumiNights.
'Little Golden Book' Getting Ultimate Fan Treatment Random House has announced that it is re-issuing its Dolly "Little Golden Book" biography (which your webmaster helped create) in an expanded fan edition with a new cover, 22 bonus pages, and a page of stickers. My Little Golden Book About Dolly Parton: Ultimate Fan Edition will hit stores Jan. 6.
Sept. 2: 'Broken Angels' Duet Released With The Grascals
"Broken Angels," the new collaboration co-written and recorded by Dolly and Grascals front man Jamie Johnson and inspired by a mutual friend struggling with addiction and recovery, was released Friday. Download yours from Amazon here or stream for free on YouTube here or in the media player above.
Ear Infection Cancels Appearances Dolly was forced to cancel two planned Imagination Library appearances last week to celebrate statewide expansions in Montana and New Mexico. Via video, she apologized for missing the events, explained an inner ear infection prevented her from flying, and said she would reschedule them. Watch her videos in coverage from Montana Right Nowhere and The Sante Fe New Mexicanhere.
Dolly In New Hag Documentary Dolly and Willie Nelson are interviewed in but don't perform in a new covers-heavy, three-hour long documentary by Ethan Hawke about the legendary Merle Haggard. Premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, Highway 99: A Double Album features mostly other singers interpreting Haggard's songs as it tells his life story.
Broadway-Bound 'Dolly' Ends Nashville Test Dolly: A True Original Musical ended its Nashville try-out on Saturday. It is likely the show will undergo more fine-tuning before it premieres sometime in 2026 in New York.
U.K., U.S., Aussie Chart Updates Across the pond, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 holds on to the top spot at No. 1 on the British country compilation album chart, while her Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection slips six to to No. 13, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe falls out of the top 20, Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA -- Family, Faith & Fables inches down two to No. 12, Glen Campbell's Ghost On The Canvas Sessions with a Dolly duet holds steady at No. 6, while Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series Vol. 2 rises four to No. 11 and Linda Ronstadt's entry in the series re-enters the top 20 at No. 17, both of which contain several Dolly appearances. Sabrina Carpenter's Short & Sweet Deluxe Edition, with its Dolly duet, finds itself at No. 13 U.K. pop, No. 17 Scottish albums, No. 21 album sales, No. 20 physical album sales, and No. 8 streaming albums. Post Malone's F 1 Trillion, with its Dolly duet, is No. 15 country albums. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, with its Dolly appearances, is No. 13 British country albums and No. 5 Ameriana albums.
