How Dolly Parton mobilized country music for Tennessee wildfire victims
Dolly Parton had just walked off stage after a rendition of her famous “Jolene” with Miley Cyrus on NBC’s The Voice on a Wednesday late last month when she was given the news: The Smoky Mountains were burning. Her mountains — the ones she grew up in and still calls home, the mountains where her brothers and sisters live, that surround her Dollywood theme park — were on fire.
Parton went straight to her dressing room and turned on the television.
“My first thought was my family,” Parton said, her voice breaking with emotion. “Just my family, that’s always your first thought. It was so scary.”
Once assured her relatives were safe, Parton set to work on an effort that she was singularly equipped to carry out: mobilizing country music for a fundraising telethon that raised millions of dollars for victims of the devastating Sevier County wildfires — all in a matter of days.
(Photo: Shelley Mays, The Tennessean)


















