Taylor Swift joined the starry chorus honoring the late Dolly Parton when she released a statement Tuesday night.
The 36-year-old pop superstar paid tribute to Parton – who died earlier today at the age of 80 at her Nashville home – in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter.
“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real or right,” says Swift, who started her career in country music before conquering pop music. “But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be eternal.
“She truly was the gift that kept on giving. Dolly gave us someone to look up to and encouraged us to be who we are as individuals,” Swift continued. “Somehow she was able to give us her lessons about the world in a gentle and honest way, at the same time and often in hilarious ways.
“She managed to give the world the ultimate mystery and fantasy in some corners of her life, but to give complete transparency in the ways that counted,” she added. “Somehow she was true grace and true daring, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the gentlest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a spine of steel to defend her self-worth as an artist.”
Taylor Swift joined the starry chorus honoring the late Dolly Parton when she released a statement Tuesday night. Parton died Tuesday at the age of 80 at her home in Nashville; Swift (L) is pictured on June 11 in New York, and Parton (R) is pictured in 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada
“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real or right,” says Swift, who started her career in country music before conquering pop music. “But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be eternal”; Parton is pictured in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee in 2016
Swift concluded her statement with an expression of gratitude for the late country music icon.
‘I, along with her other fans, are so grateful for that. For the melodies and lyrics she wrote that thawed even the coldest hearts. For the millions of books she made available to children around the world so they could fall in love with stories as she did,” she wrote. ‘She walked the tightrope so that young girls like me could grow up with the dream of joining the circus. Dolly, I will think of you every step of the way.”
