{"id":96061,"date":"2026-08-26T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/carly-pearce-recalls-meeting-dolly-parton-at-16-i-couldnt-believe-she-was-real\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T16:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T16:29:31","slug":"carly-pearce-recalls-meeting-dolly-parton-at-16-i-couldnt-believe-she-was-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/carly-pearce-recalls-meeting-dolly-parton-at-16-i-couldnt-believe-she-was-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Carly Pearce recalls meeting Dolly Parton at 16: &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t believe she was real&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Many country singers have shared their <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/dolly-parton-death-reactions\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">remembrances<\/a><\/span> of meeting Dolly Parton after they became stars. But few were actually working at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/dolly-parton-dollywood-exhibit-the-dolly-parton-experience-tennesee-music-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Dollywood<\/a> when they met the legend.<\/p>\n<p>Country star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/carly-pearce-country-music-29-written-in-stone\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Carly Pearce<\/a> met Parton when she was just 16 and performing as part of Dollywood&#8217;s Country Crossroads show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I remember just staring at her because I couldn&#8217;t believe she was real,&#8221; Pearce told &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221; on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s exactly what everybody wants her to be in real life,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Parton, whose groundbreaking career spanned six decades, 10 Grammy Awards and millions of fans, died at a Nashville, Tennessee, hospital on Tuesday after <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/dolly-parton-dies-age-80-country-music-star\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">a brief battle with cancer<\/a><\/span>, her team said in a statement. She was 80 years old.<\/p>\n<p>Pearce had been part of a special show honoring Parton for her songwriting with the ACM Poet&#8217;s Award last Wednesday. Parton recorded a video message for the show, thanking the Academy of Country Music for the award, saying, &#8220;Songwriting has always been the most important part of who I am creatively.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I never thought of a world where she wouldn&#8217;t be here,&#8221; Pearce said Wednesday. &#8220;It just feels not real to me. I was so saddened. We had just honored her at the ACM Honors this past week. I sang &#8216;9 to 5&#8217; for her, and she had a little video and was a whole part of our show as the ACM icon. So it was just a really crazy thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed__float-wrap\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-medium\" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/26\/5bbe52b5-a2eb-49a7-92db-610f72187462\/thumbnail\/620x413\/4825588459e870ddff537a35c75aed88\/gettyimages-2291202177.jpg#\" alt=\"Carly Pearce attends the ACM Honors at The Pinnacle on Aug. 19, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee. \" height=\"413\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/26\/5bbe52b5-a2eb-49a7-92db-610f72187462\/thumbnail\/620x413\/4825588459e870ddff537a35c75aed88\/gettyimages-2291202177.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2026\/08\/26\/5bbe52b5-a2eb-49a7-92db-610f72187462\/thumbnail\/1240x826\/5659968270fa79e447d6aea153284d46\/gettyimages-2291202177.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Carly Pearce attends the ACM Honors at The Pinnacle on Aug. 19, 2026, in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Terry Wyatt\/Getty Images for ACM<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Parton was also wildly successful as a businesswoman, even though she was often underestimated in a financial world led by men. She owned the publishing rights to all of her music, which generated millions of dollars. In fact, Whitney Houston&#8217;s massively popular recording of &#8220;I Will Always Love You&#8221; benefited Parton to the tune of many millions alone.<\/p>\n<p>Country singer Lauren Alaina <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B2scY9dlYGs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told &#8220;CBS Mornings&#8221;<\/a> she was lucky enough to pick Parton&#8217;s brain about her business empire several times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I asked her her best advice for me, and she said, &#8216;Never put the career first. Put God first, then your family, then the career.&#8217; And she said, &#8216;It&#8217;s really worked for me,'&#8221; Alaina said. &#8220;I remember being so in awe of her career. And it really was such an impactful thing for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Another success for Parton turned out to be the unheralded purchase of a local theme park in western Tennessee. Parton&#8217;s purchase in the 1980s of the park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, turned into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/archives-dolly-parton-dollywood-opening\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">the highly successful Dollywood<\/a> where Pearce would later work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I find to be really inspiring is, you think about that she was 80, and for decades she continued to raise the bar,&#8221; Pearce told &#8220;CBS Mornings.&#8221; &#8220;Look at everything she&#8217;s got going on right now \u2014 a musical, a new hotel in Nashville, her travel gas station in Tennessee. I mean, the woman never stopped. At 80. And you just go, &#8216;There is something to be said for always pushing and never thinking that you&#8217;ve quote-unquote made it.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n<\/section>\n<p>  <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation  component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<\/aside>\n<section class=\"content__body--footer\">\n      <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<section class=\"content__tags\">\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/carly-pearce-dolly-parton-dollywood-lauren-alaina\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many country singers have shared their remembrances of meeting Dolly Parton after they became stars. But few were actually working<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3518,9273,1090],"class_list":["post-96061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-dolly-parton","tag-dollywood","tag-tennessee"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Carly Pearce recalls meeting Dolly Parton at 16: &quot;I couldn&#039;t believe she was real&quot; - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Country star Carly Pearce was working at Dollywood when she met Dolly Parton in the early 2000s.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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