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Though most closely associated with the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and Nashville, Dolly Parton — who died Tuesday at the age of eighty after an increasingly tough battle with auto-immune disorder and kidney issues — was a cultural icon who gave a little bit of herself to virtually every nation, city, and principality across God’s green earth.
And Miami was certainly no exception.
Here are five of the country music trailblazer’s most transcendent Miami moments.
Dolly tells the backstory to “Jolene” — and gives a playful backhand to her beloved husband Carl — at Hard Rock Live (2011)
The rapturous crowd gathered to see Parton perform at the Hollywood, Florida stop of the world tour behind her forty-first (!) studio album Better Day (2011) got a surprising — and quite funny — bit of insight into one of her most enduring hits, 1973’s “Jolene.”
“When I first got married, my husband was spending quite a bit of time down at the bank,” Parton said. “And at the time I knew we didn’t have that kind of money. I knew he was looking more for interest because he certainly didn’t have no principal.”
Turns out, her husband Carl Dean — who she had met “in 1964 outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat on the day she moved to [Nashville] at age 18” and then married two years later — had been flirting with “this red-headed, long-legged, tall, good-lookin’” bank teller. “Well, I fought he like a wildcat, but I kept my husband,” she said.
Forty-five years on, however, Parton confided, she didn’t always still feel so wildcat-y.
“Every now and then I look at [Carl] sleeping over in that Lay-Z-Boy chair, snoring with his mouth hanging open, TV remote falling on the floor by the side of the chair,” she said with a chuckle, “and I think, ‘Jolene where are you now?! Come and get him!’”
Dean died last year at the age of 82. The couple was married nearly sixty years. She joins him now.
At 76, Dolly slays duets with Miley Cyrus live from the Telemundo Center in Miami (2022)
No doubt one of the key moments in Miley Cyrus‘ efforts to be taken seriously as a post-Hannah Montana mature, adult artist was her searing Backyard Sessions cover of Parton’s “Jolene” in 2012. A decade later, Parton returned the favor by showing up to Cyrus’ “New Year’s Eve Party” to ring in 2023 with a duet not only of “Jolene,” but also a gob smacking one-two punch of “Wrecking Ball” and “I Will Always Love You,” which showed Parton, even in her final years, was more than merely an inspiration to the next generation(s) of artists — she remained a vital and undimmed force. Sure, she’d share that torch with Miley and co. but she never slowed down enough to need to pass it.
Best Little Whorehouse in Miami
Dolly mania arrived in Miami in July of 1982 with, as Tracey E. W. Laird recounts in her book Dolly Parton: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life, a lookalike contest “with contestants that included a three-year-old-girl.” (Where is she now?!) And while Parton did not enter that contest as she once had at a small bar in Los Angeles — and lost, incidentally! — she did arrive radiant in red for the premiere of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the 163rd Street & Patio Theater, on the arm of co-star Burt Reynolds, no less. (Take that, Jolene and Carl!) The crowd is adoring and this contemporary television report on the premiere from Michael Putney for WTVJ-4 is a classic.
Forty years later, Coral Gables Art Cinema screened the film as part of its Musicals for Members series — and the film had lost none of its power. “It brought undeniable joy to our audience,” Gables Cinema CEO & Programming Director Brenda Moe tells New Times, “and showcased Dolly’s unparalleled ability to tell a story through song, with humor, heart, and a charisma only she could deliver.”
Miami Vice busts poolside prostitutes to Dolly’s cover of “Great Balls of Fire”
In the first season Miami Vice episode “Golden Triangle (Part I)” — airdate: January 11, 1985 — Don Johnson dons some nerdy glasses, a pocket protector, and a shirt an accountant would probably deem too uptight in order to entrap a sex worker at a hotel pool. (It’s called policework people!)
The soundtrack to this only-in-the-eighties escapade?
Parton’s cover of Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1957 hit “Great Balls of Fire,” which appeared on her 1979 album of the same name. (The record also has a great bluegrass cover of The Beatles’ “Help!”)
Even the then-hottest television show in the nation — one which did as much as anything to introduce Miami into the popular consciousness — felt obligated to tap the Parton magic.
“Jesus & Gravity” at Mizner Park Amphitheatre in Boca
In October 2008, New Times correspondent John Hood caught Parton in Boca Raton — and walked away describing her as “better than any faith healer I’ve ever met.”
The final paragraph of his review is as much a coda for the show he attended as it is for Parton’s life well lived:
“In the end though, with the rousing new anthem ‘Jesus & Gravity,’ the plane again was leveled off to include us all, just as long we weren’t above a little out-and-out cloud surfing. Like Dolly herself, the song soars ever skyward and even as it touches heaven still manages to keep one foot firmly planted on the ground. And as much as it is a testament to her faith, the tune truly transcends religion, asking only that you believe, in yourself and in each other, even if it’s just for one last night.”
