Before Death, Dolly Parton Finally Revealed the Truth we all Suspected on Michael – dw

I knew Michael and he really was a true musical genius and a fantastic performer and a really sweet, sweet soul. I always thought Michael had the heart of an angel and I’m sure that he’s rejoicing with him now. There are some things people say about Michael Jackson that you hear so many times, but Dolly Parton had lived through enough of Hollywood to know that fame could be deceiving.

Now I know how Jonah Var, Richard Prior, and Michael Jackson might She had spent decades around some of the biggest names in entertainment. She knew what it was like to walk into a room filled with celebrities and still command attention. 77year-old superstar Dolly Parton stole the show on Thanksgiving at the Cowboys Commanders game dressed as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, but some critics told her to act her age.

Bite me. I can even tell you a great story about Dolly, just so you know what kind of person she is. Proud and honored to be one of the one of the old bags in country music. And Michael Jackson lived at that same extraordinary level of fame. Yet, when Dolly spoke about Michael, the most interesting part wasn’t the superstar. It was the person.

I knew Michael and he really was a true musical genius and a fantastic performer and a really sweet, sweet soul. I always thought Michael had the heart of an angel and I’m sure that he’s rejoicing with him now. Of course, we’ll all miss him, but I know that he’ll live on through his music.

And this should remind us all to treat every day as our last and let people in our lives really know how special they are to. And after Dolly’s passing in August 2026, those older words about Michael can feel different because suddenly they aren’t simply one legendary entertainer remembering another.

They’re two enormous lives being looked at from the other side of time. Dolly and Michael could hardly have seemed more different. She came from the mountains of Tennessee, built her career around country music, humor, storytelling, and a personality that made strangers feel like friends. Here’s to you.

Access Hollywood. Michael grew up in Gary, Indiana, became a global phenomenon as a child, and eventually reached a level of fame almost impossible to imagine today. But underneath those completely different images was something they shared to today. We had Dr. Oz come down and visit.

I just wanted to come by and say a special hello. Lady, you remember me? Yeah. Well, I’m so proud of you. How about you sing me a song? Oh, how about you? How about we sing something together? Sing with us. You want How about I sing the lion sleeps tonight? Do that one. Okay, do that one. I love that song. All righty.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion. Aim away. Oh my gosh, Rosie. So you you Okay, here we go. Three. Wait. I Wait. Wait. Don’t cheat. Ready? No. No. No. But your hands got to be inside the pocket, man. No. No. No. I’m going to beat you. Are you ready? Wait. No. No. I’m not ready.

Ready? No. I’m crazy for doing this. Okay. No. You got to stretch it, Mac. You got to Whoa. Whoa. I’m doing I’m not doing the super. Ready, set, go. You cheater. You cheat a lot. Here we go. It’s for everybody. It’s for ALS. Room three. [laughter] OKAY, DOLLY, who you GOING TO CHALLENGE? I’M challenging anybody.

[laughter] These three were enough. Well, NOT THESE THREE. THESE THREE. [laughter] AND YES, I HAVE EARNED A PROP. KITTY, YOU GOT TO PAY EXTRA for the wet t-shirt contest. Cut. They understood what it meant to become famous before the world had finished getting to know the person underneath.

And perhaps that is why Dolly’s perspective matters. Because Dolly never seemed particularly impressed by fame for fame’s sake. She understood the machinery of celebrity. But she also understood something much simpler. People remember how you made them feel. You need Dolly. She’s rubbing. I’m Dolly. I’m the book lady.

You remember me? My hopes for the new year is a little more kindness, a little more love, a little more trying to pull together instead of falling apart. That may be one reason Dolly’s legacy became so much bigger than music. In 1995, she created the Imagination Library, a program that began by sending free books to children and eventually expanded around the world.

probably the most important thing that I had ever done. And it was um so priceless to see children open the mailbox and see a book with their name on it. A book with a child’s name on it. A small package carrying a big part of Dolly Parton’s heart. By 2026, the program had distributed more than 300 million books.

Her philanthropy repeatedly returned to the same idea. Give children a chance to imagine a bigger life. And this is where Michael enters the story in a surprisingly meaningful way. Michael also spent enormous parts of his life thinking about children and childhood. His own childhood had been consumed by work and fame.

So when he became a father, he tried to create something different for his children. His daughter Paris has recalled that Michael made his children finish homework and chores before they could enjoy weekend activities. Let’s find out what’s special about his brother. There’s something special about his brother.

Okay. We feel happy in a special sort of way. Sometimes I think I’m lucky to have a special brother because that makes me special, too. [singing and music] But it does reveal something important. Behind the mythology was a father thinking about childhood. And behind Dolly’s enormous celebrity was a woman who spent decades investing in children she wasn’t required to raise.

Dolly never had biological children of her own. But she became deeply involved in the lives of nieces, nephews, friends, children, and through the Imagination Library, millions of children she would never personally meet. That is what makes their stories so interesting. Not that they were identical. They weren’t.

Dolly’s warmth was immediate. Michael’s personality was far more mysterious. Now, I don’t hip and I don’t hop. I black both eyes with this big top. I know the queen has got them, too, but she don’t work them like I do. I’m like everybody else. You know, you make a bunch of resolutions and you never keep them.

Third weekend of January, that’s just all forgotten. You know what I mean? My hopes for the new year is a little more kindness, a little more love, a little more trying to pull together instead of falling apart. I’m going to try my best to try to bring as much joy as I can and lift people up as much as I can.

Their greatness wasn’t simply that they became famous. It was that millions of people felt there was still a human being underneath the fame. And now after Dolly’s death, that distinction feels even more important because when an icon disappears, the statistics eventually become background noise.

The awards, the records, the soldout concerts. Behind every icon is a person. Behind every performance is a human being. And behind all that fame, what people ultimately remember isn’t how loudly you entered the room. It’s how you made people feel after you left.

Michael Jackson spent his life becoming larger than life. Dolly Parton did too. But somehow both remained most loved when people caught glimpses of something much smaller, something much simpler, something human. And perhaps that is the part of their legacies that will last the longest.