Read Taylor Swift’s Tribute to Dolly Parton After Her Death

Taylor Swift paid tribute to Dolly Parton’s “everlasting” legacy and example of “true grace and grit” following the country music legend’s death at 80 years old.

The global pop star joined a host of other music luminaries in remembering Parton after the singer’s family announced on Aug. 25 that she died after a “brief battle with cancer.”

Swift, whom Parton praised in a video at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards, released a statement in the wake of her death.

“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,” she said. “But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one.”

Swift, 36, was one of several female pop stars decades younger than Parton whom the country star befriended, including Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter and goddaughter Miley Cyrus.

“She was truly the gift that kept on giving,” Swift continued. “Dolly gave us someone to look up to while encouraging us to be who we are as individuals. Somehow she was able to give us her lessons about the world gently and honestly, simultaneously, and oftentimes hilariously. She managed to give the world the ultimate mystery and fantasy in some corners of her life, but to give full transparency in the ways that counted. Somehow she was true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the softest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a backbone of steel to defend her own self worth as an artist.”

Swift also noted Parton’s extensive philanthropic work, which included founding the Imagination Library. The organization has donated hundreds of millions of books to support child literacy.

“Along with her other fans, I am so grateful for all of it,” Swift said. “For the melodies and lyrics she wrote that thawed even the coldest hearts. For the millions of books she provided children all over the world so that they might fall in love with stories the way she did. For the tightropes she walked so that young girls like me could grow up dreaming of joining the circus too.

“Dolly, I’ll think of you each step of the way.”