Dolly Parton was forced to cancel her latest appearance at Dollywood after suffering from a "few little health issues" this week. The 80-year-old singer was expected to attend the grand opening of the NightFlight Expedition ride at the theme park on Friday (14 August) but was noticeably absent.
Virtual update from Nashville
Opting for a virtual appearance, Dolly, who lost her brother, Coy "Denver" Parton last month, issued an update from Nashville. "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," she began. "And I'm dehydrated. And so my Nashville doctor clipped my wings, saying you ain't travelling this week. So I guess if your doctor tells you you ain't travelling this week, you ain't travelling this week. But, I like to keep all of you in the loop like I said I would, on everything."
"So, all is going well on the medical end of things," the country legend added. "I continue working away on all of our other projects."
Recent health struggles
Dolly's absence comes just months after she cancelled her Las Vegas residency. Addressing fans on Instagram in May, the Jolene hitmaker said, "I have some good news, and a little bad news. But, the good news is that I'm responding really well to meds and treatments, and I'm improving everyday. Now, the bad news is 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 bit swimmy headed, as my grandma used to say."
Dolly added that she had long-suffered with "kidney stones," and that her immune and digestive systems had been "out of whack" over the past three years. Assuring fans that she's working on "rebuilding and strengthening those," the A-lister ended on a positive note. "It's serious buusiness when you're talking about internal medicine, so I have great doctors and I'm doing really well, and they assure me that everything I have is treatbable so I'm going with that," Dolly concluded.
