Carrie Underwood Gets Choked Up Honoring Dolly Parton — Then Dedicates ‘See You Again’ to the Country Legend
Carrie Underwood struggled to contain her emotions as she remembered Dolly Parton onstage, paying tribute to the country icon as one of the kindest people she had ever known before dedicating one of her most meaningful songs to her.
Underwood, 43, paused during her Saturday night concert at the Koussevitzky Music Shed in Lenox, Massachusetts, just days after Parton’s death at 80.
Rather than immediately beginning her next song, the American Idol winner spoke directly to the audience about the enormous influence Parton had on country music — and the personal impression she had made on Underwood herself.
“She was not just a huge influence to so many of us, but just one of the nicest people I think I’ve ever met on this planet,” Underwood said.
As she continued, the emotion became increasingly difficult to hide.
‘It’s such a shock to the whole world’
For Underwood, Parton’s death was still difficult to process.
“It’s such a shock, I feel like, just to the whole world,” she told the crowd.
She described the reaction as something that seemed to ripple far beyond Nashville or the country music community.
“You feel the ripples, like, time just stood still.”
Parton’s influence crossed generations, genres and geographic boundaries, and Underwood suggested that her presence had become so familiar that imagining the world without her felt almost impossible.
She described Parton as someone who “transcends all space and all time.”
But it was Parton’s personality, rather than her awards or commercial achievements, that Underwood seemed most determined to remember.
Underwood remembers Dolly’s unmistakable smile
Underwood recalled Parton as someone who continued radiating warmth and optimism throughout her life.
“I feel like she was just out there with the brightest smile on her face up until the very last minute,” she said.
It was a particularly personal description from an artist who had spent time with Parton and performed alongside her during some memorable moments in both of their careers.
Underwood’s tribute was filled with grief, but she did not want the moment to be defined solely by sadness.
Instead, she turned toward her faith.
Looking upward, Underwood spoke about Parton’s devotion to Jesus and expressed confidence about where she believed the country legend was now.
That belief led naturally into the song she had chosen for the occasion.
‘We know we will see them again’
Underwood dedicated “See You Again” to Parton.
The song, released in 2012, centers on loss and the hope of eventually being reunited with someone who is gone.
Before performing it, Underwood broadened the dedication beyond Parton and invited everyone in the audience to think about someone they had lost.
“We all have somebody in our lives who is no longer with us, but we know we will see them again,” she said.
Then she asked the crowd to help transform the venue for the performance.
Audience members illuminated the space as Underwood began singing in Parton’s honor.
The result turned what had begun as one artist’s farewell into a shared moment of remembrance.
‘It’s not the end’
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Underwood returned to the idea of enduring love as she brought her tribute to a close.
She reminded the audience that losing someone physically does not erase the memories, lessons or love they leave behind.
“She is always with us as long as she is in here and in here,” Underwood said, pointing first toward her head and then her heart.
Then she added a final message of hope.
“It’s not the end.”
The sentiment carried particular weight given the history Underwood and Parton shared.
For Underwood, this was not simply an opportunity to salute one of country music’s biggest names.
She was saying goodbye to someone she had admired personally.
Carrie and Dolly shared the stage years earlier
Underwood had several opportunities to perform and appear alongside Parton during her career.
One especially memorable moment came in 2009, when Parton joined Underwood during her holiday television special.
Together, they performed Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” bringing together two generations of powerhouse country voices.
The song had already become one of Parton’s defining compositions and remained deeply connected to her legacy even after Whitney Houston’s enormously successful interpretation introduced it to another global audience.
A decade after that performance, Underwood and Parton shared another major television moment.
In 2019, they joined Reba McEntire as cohosts of the 53rd Annual CMA Awards.
For Underwood, those encounters gave her firsthand experience of the woman behind the famous songs, rhinestones and instantly recognizable public image.
And what she remembered most was kindness.
Underwood’s tribute went beyond Parton’s music
Parton died on August 25 at the age of 80 following what her representatives described as a brief battle with cancer.
Her family remembered her not only for an extraordinary catalogue of music and songwriting, but also for her warmth, generosity and decades of helping others.
Those qualities were central to Underwood’s remembrance as well.
Parton’s career provided more than enough achievements to celebrate.
She had become one of country music’s most recognizable figures, written songs that endured across generations and influenced countless performers who followed her.
But standing onstage in Massachusetts just days after Parton’s death, Underwood focused on something considerably simpler.
Dolly had been kind to her.
A farewell rooted in faith rather than goodbye
Underwood’s choice of “See You Again” made the tribute especially personal.
Rather than performing one of Parton’s own classics, she selected a song from her catalogue that expressed what she wanted to say about loss.
It allowed Underwood to mourn while also emphasizing the faith she shared with Parton.
Her voice occasionally betrayed the emotion of the moment as she spoke, but her message remained hopeful.
Parton was gone.
The memories were not.
Neither was the influence she had on Underwood, other country artists or generations of listeners.
And as thousands of lights illuminated the venue before “See You Again,” Underwood offered her own understanding of what Parton’s death meant.
It was a farewell.
But, in her words, it was not the end.
