Dolly Parton offered fans a reassuring update after her doctor stopped her from traveling because of dizziness and dehydration. The 80-year-old country music legend had planned to attend the opening of a major new attraction at Dollywood, but her latest health trouble forced her to remain home in Nashville. Parton said her medical care is going well and made clear that she remains busy despite being unable to travel. The setback follows months of treatment that already forced her to cancel a long-awaited Las Vegas residency.
Parton was scheduled to appear at the August 14 dedication ceremony for NightFlight Expedition, an immersive indoor adventure coaster at her Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Instead, she addressed the crowd through a prerecorded video filmed at her Nashville home. Butterfly wings moved behind Parton in the video as she explained why her doctor had “clipped” her own wings for the week. Following several preview days, NightFlight Expedition opened to the general public on August 19th.
“I’ve told you before, all my fans, that I’ve had a few little health issues and sometimes I get a little dizzy and I get dehydrated. And I’m dehydrated,” Parton told the crowd. “So my Nashville doctor has kind of clipped my wings, saying, ‘You ain’t traveling this week.’ So I guess if your doctor tells you, ‘You ain’t traveling this week,’ you ain’t traveling this week.”
Parton then moved quickly to reassure those concerned about her condition. “All is going well on the medical end of things,” she said, according to Trending Politics. Although she stayed home on her doctor’s orders, Parton said she has continued working behind the scenes. The country music icon is known for her dogged work ethic and devotion to her fans.
The “Jolene” singer named several projects that continue to occupy her time, including the SongTeller Hotel and the Life of Many Colors Museum in Nashville. She has also been rewriting and reworking “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” her autobiographical production planned for Broadway. Parton said the temporary travel restriction had not stopped her from continuing that work.
The latest episode follows a longer health battle involving recurring kidney stones and problems affecting her immune and digestive systems. As People reported, Parton canceled her previously postponed Las Vegas residency in May because she was not yet ready to return to “stage performance level.” The six-show engagement had initially been planned for December 2025 before being moved to September 2026. Parton said she was responding well to medication and treatment and that her doctors had assured her everything she was facing was treatable.
Watch Parton explain why her doctor stopped her from traveling here:
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“I have some good news and a little bad news. But the good news is I’m responding really well to meds and treatments, and I’m improving every day,” Parton said in May. “Now, the bad news is that 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 swimmy-headed, as my grandma used to say.” She joked that she could not risk becoming dizzy while carrying banjos and guitars, wearing heavy rhinestone outfits and walking in her signature five-inch heels.
Parton also disclosed that doctors were working to restore her immune and digestive health after both systems “got all out of whack over the past couple of years.” She said she has long struggled with kidney stones, joking that doctors “dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee.” A kidney stone caused an infection in September 2025 and forced her to miss the original announcement for NightFlight Expedition.
Her health problems have unfolded as Parton continues mourning her husband, Carl Dean, who died on March 3rd, 2025, at the age of 82. The pair had been married for nearly 60 years, and Parton said facing the holidays, their wedding anniversary and the anniversary of his death during her first year without him was particularly difficult. Closing her latest message with characteristic optimism, Parton congratulated the Dollywood team on the new attraction and told the crowd she would see everyone “down the road.”