Brandi Carlile Says Dolly Parton “Took a Risk” Accepting Gay Artists Like Her

In a heartfelt tribute to the late Dolly Parton, who died today at age 80, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile said that she had “felt her leaving all week” and had been “asking folks to pray every day,” proceeding to share a series of touching thoughts on faith and LGBTQ+ inclusion.“She took my face in her hands and prayed over me once,” Carlile, who collaborated with Parton on her final solo studio album Rockstar, recalled in an Instagram post. “I’ve never been the same since. Her prayers were maybe more powerful than mine or anyone else’s because that prayer has had a very long rainbow-colored halo and I hope it lasts me my whole life.”Carlile added that because her wife and manager, Catherine Carlile, is an “agnostic Londoner”, she often thinks about Parton’s legendary 2014 Glastonbury set, which culminated in the country music icon asking, “Can I get an amen?”“The sound of two hundred thousand immediate British ‘AMENS’ is something that causes me to burst into American hysterics at least once a week!” Carlile wrote, adding, “I loved Dolly with all my heart.” See on Instagram Carlile also praised Parton’s long history of LGBTQ+ allyship, thanking the late icon for sticking up for openly gay artists in country music and beyond. “Before I met her, I loved her because she took a risk and accepted me (and all of us) for being gay in a time where she didn’t need to say anything.”The multi-Grammy-winning artist reserved special praise for Parton’s acumen in handling interviewers who often asked her to weigh in on political issues through the lens of party politics, saying that she chose “only to speak on that which brings love and mercy to real people” while “shutting down any line of questioning that won’t.”“She never wavered on accepting anyone for who they were and who they were meant to be.”For example, when asked about anti-transgender legislation in her home state of Tennessee in 2023, Parton issued