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Dolly Parton spent decades singing about love, heartbreak, faith and working “9 to 5,” but there was one arena the country music legend repeatedly resisted entering: partisan politics.
“I am not political, and I refuse to get caught up in political things,” Parton told USA Today in a 2020 interview.
Parton, who died Tuesday at 80, maintained that position through the presidential elections, pointed questions about President Donald Trump, offers of the nation’s highest civilian honor and controversies involving some of her fellow entertainers.
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Dolly Parton passed away peacefully on Tuesday. (Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage)
“I don’t like to get involved in politics, because first of all, I have as many Republican fans as I do Democrats,” Parton told USA Today. “I don’t want to offend anybody, I have a right to myself.”
“Like God gave us free will, America gave us free speech, but you’ve got to be responsible for anything you say and do,” she added.
Two years earlier, Parton was repeatedly pressed about Trump during an interview with ABC’s David Wright, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
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Dolly Parton attends the “Dolly: An Original Musical” fireside chat and press conference at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Jan. 28, 2025 in Nashville, Tenn. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
“I have a lot of fans out there, and I don’t want to offend anybody,” Parton said.
When Wright attempted to draw a parallel between Trump and the sexually abusive boss in Parton’s 1980 film “9 to 5,” she refused to bite.
“I’m not addressing that,” Parton said. “I learned a long time ago, keep your damn mouth shut if you want to stay in show business. … I’m not in politics, I’m an entertainer.”
When Wright pointed out that Parton was also a role model, she responded: “Yes I am. That’s why I don’t talk about people.”
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Dolly Parton appears on the Phil Donahue Show at WGN Television in Chicago, on April 30, 1977. (Getty Images)
Parton’s determination to avoid partisan politics with one of America’s highest honors.
She revealed in 2021 that the Trump administration had twice offered her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Parton said she declined the first offer because her husband, Carl Dean, was ill and the second because she would not travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the BBC.
By then, the Biden administration had also approached her about the award. “Now I feel like if I take it, it’ll be doing politics, so I’m not so sure,” Parton told NBC’s “Today.”
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Parton wowed the crowd when performing at Glastonbury in 2014. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)
Her aversion to political camps did not mean she kept quiet about everything she believed.
“I know whatever I say, people are going to listen, and they’re going to make more of it than maybe what I meant. So I have to be careful,” Parton told People in 2021. “Of course I have my opinion, but I’m not an opinionated person as a rule. You’re allowed your own beliefs and your own faith, but you don’t have to use it like a weapon when it could be a tool.”
Parton’s political neutrality was something she could joke about.
“My daddy was a Republican, my mama was a Democrat, and I’m a hypocrite!” Parton famously quipped, pronouncing ‘hypocrite’ as ‘hypo-crat’ in her iconic Tennessee drawl.
Country singer Dolly Parton in 1970. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Parton’s philosophy was tested again when she recorded a duet with Kid Rock for her 2023 album, “Rockstar.”
Parton defended working with the conservative musician after she was questioned about the collaboration, telling The Hollywood Reporter that she had recorded the song before a controversy involving Kid Rock but would likely have worked with him anyway, according to Rolling Stone.
“Hey, just because I love you don’t mean I don’t love Kid Rock. Just because I love Kid Rock don’t mean I don’t love you,” Parton said. “I don’t condemn or criticize. I just accept and love.”
Parton said she still would “probably” have recorded the duet because she considered Kid Rock talented and believed accepting someone did not require agreeing with everything they did.
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Dolly Parton was one of the Kennedy Center Honorees in 2006 under former President George W. Bush. (Scott Suchman/WireImage)
“I think that’s terrible,” Parton said, according to Rolling Stone. “We all make mistakes. We don’t all get caught at it.”
Parton tied that belief to her Christian faith, arguing that people deserved forgiveness and second chances.
“I ask God every day to let Him shine through me. He’s given me that gift to be able to talk to them, and I’m very careful with it. And people don’t really come to see me be me — they come to see me be them, the parts of me they can relate to,” she told People in 2021.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Parton clarified that she had not endorsed Hillary Clinton after comments she made about the Democratic nominee were interpreted as an endorsement, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Asked later about the race between Clinton and Trump, Parton jokingly called the campaign “the greatest show on television,” and described both candidates as “nuts.”
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dolly Parton performs onstage during attends the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Microsoft Theater, Nov. 5, 2022, in Los Angeles. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)
Even running for president herself wasn’t entertained by the iconic entertainer for a moment.
“No. I don’t think anybody could actually do a great job at that,” Parton told Metro in 2023, according to People. “I think we’ve had enough ‘boobs’ in the White House.”
Parton said she preferred trying to make a difference through music and the way she treated others.
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“I’m not smart enough to be in politics, or maybe I’m too smart,” she said. “Either way, I’m not qualified for that type of a job. But I’m pretty qualified to do what I do, which is to point people in the right direction, to write about it in songs or speak about things.”
Parton died after a “brief battle with cancer,” according to her representatives. At her request, a small, private service will be held for her immediate family, with the family asking for donations to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library rather than flowers.
SCOTT DAVIS
DOLLY WAS A ON OF THE KIND WAS SHE PERFECT NO BUT HOW MANY OF US WALK ON WATER YET? I AM AMAZED BY THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE OF CHRIST VRBALLY CRUCIFYING HER TODAY THAT HINESTLY BREAKS MY HEART SOME COMMENTS AND POSTS RIGHT AFTER SHE HAD PASSED SO SAD WHERE IS ANY HUMAN COMPASSION SHE HAD FAMILY AND LOVED ONES TOO? IT IS SAD I PRAY SHE MADE IT TO HEAVEN AS WELL IN JESUS NAME I KNOW JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO HEAVEN SO SOON ONE DAY WE WILL KNOW BECAUSE IF SHE WAS SAVED WE WILL SEE HER IN THE CLOUDS WHEN JESUS RETURNS FOR HIS PEOPLE. GOD BLESS YOU BROTHER DAVID AND LORD COMFORT DOLLY'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS BY YOUR GRACE IN JESUS NAME
David Brooks
Scott regarding human compassion I'll share a story with you. You know Paul says evil is going to wax worse and worse in our day? They don't like Dolly Parton because she was a Christian that's the bottom line. A few days before I left Thailand I was walking down a busy Street and seen an older middle-aged Thai woman beating on a cripple. Because he had fallen down and old she was sitting on the sidewalk with him and just pounding on him. To my amazement nobody was doing anything to stop it. I got in her face. I said, do you want a problem with me?? She had a blank stare on her face still fixated on the cripple. She grabbed his walker and tried to smash him with it but before she could I pried it out of her hands. He had blood coming off his face. I helped him to his feet and as soon as I did she took off. I wiped some of the blood off. You don't know how badly I wanted to do something to that woman but my discretion prevented it. The evil is so bad in this world and I don't understand why people walk around like zombies when they see something bad going on.
SCOTT DAVIS
WE TRUELY ARE LIVING IN THE DAYS SIMILAR TO NOAH OTHER THAN THE EVIL THAT WAS GOING ON THEN THE EARTH WAS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE LIKE IT IS NOW. JUST DRIVING DOWN THE ROAD YOUR SUBJECT TO SEE PEOPLE PULLED OFF THE SIDE PUNCHING EACH OTHER OUT JUST BECAUSE ONE MAY HAVE DRIVEN TO SLOW OR FAST AND THAT IS IF NEITHER ARE ARMED. BROTHER WE LIVE IN A TIME THAT JESUS SPAKE OF IN LUKE 10:30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 34And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 36Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. THE BODY OF CHRIT NEEDS TO EXERCISE THIS PRINCIPLE BIGTIME NOT JUST TO STRANGERS BUT TO EACH OTHER. JESUS TOLD THE DISCIPLES THAT BY THIS WOULD THE WORLD KNOW THAT THEY WERE HIS DISCIPLES BECAUSE OF THEIR LOVE ONE TO ANOTHER. MAYBE I WAS WRONG BUT I GAVE THE WORD TO SEVERAL THAT SPAKE THINGS THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE TODAY BUT THE OLD DELETE BUTTON HAD TO BE ENGAGED WITH SOME I PRAY GOD HELP THEM OUT OF THE SNARE THAT satan AT his WILL TAKES THEM CAPTIVE IN I PRAY GOD OPEN THEIR EYES TO THE TRUTH SO THEY CAN RECOVER THEMSELVES. SIGNS OF THE TIME THOUGH BECAUSE INIQUITY ABOUNDS THE LOVE OF MANY WILL WAX COLD SO WE ARE TRUELY SEEING THAT TODAY. BE BLESSED MY BROTHER IN JESUS NAME