Vince Gill Honors Dolly Parton with Tearful Performance of ‘I Will Always Love You’ After Her Death

Dolly Parton in Nashville on Nov. 16, 2023.

Vince Gill delivered an emotional tribute to his longtime friend and collaborator Dolly Parton, performing “I Will Always Love You” onstage just days after the country music icon’s death.

During his concert at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday, Aug. 27, the 69-year-old country star paused his performance to reflect on the loss of Parton, who died at age 80 two days earlier.

Gill told the audience that he and his family had been deeply affected by the news.

“We are all crushed here at our house,” he had previously written while remembering Parton, and his emotions were evident once again when he stepped onto the Kansas City stage.

Gill then announced that he would perform “I Will Always Love You,” one of Parton’s most enduring compositions and a song that carried particular significance in their friendship.

Parton originally wrote and recorded the song in the 1970s, but Gill later joined her for a duet version released in 1995. Their rendition charted that year, and the pair memorably performed it together during the CMA Awards.

More than three decades later, the song became Gill’s way of saying goodbye.

As he sang in Kansas City, Gill appeared to struggle with his emotions at several moments. Fan-recorded videos from the concert showed him becoming visibly choked up while moving through the song’s familiar lyrics.

The audience responded with cheers and encouragement as he finished the performance.

Although “I Will Always Love You” became globally associated with Whitney Houston after her blockbuster version for The Bodyguard, the song has always remained closely connected to Parton, who wrote it as a deeply personal farewell.

For Gill, however, the song also represents one of the most meaningful musical moments he shared with Parton.

Before his Kansas City tribute, Gill had already remembered her publicly on Instagram.

He posted footage from their performance of “I Will Always Love You” at the 1995 CMA Awards and reflected on what it had been like to sing alongside her.

“One of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard was when Dolly and I sang that last note of ‘I Will Always Love You’ the year we performed it on the CMA Awards,” Gill wrote.

The memory highlighted not only their professional collaboration but also the admiration Gill had for Parton’s voice and musicianship.

Gill, who is married to singer-songwriter Amy Grant, was among numerous artists who publicly mourned Parton following the announcement of her death.

Representatives for Parton said that the “Jolene” singer died on Aug. 25 following a brief battle with cancer. The specific type of cancer was not publicly disclosed.

Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, initially announced her death in a video posted to Parton’s Instagram account.

The news immediately sparked an outpouring of tributes from across the music and entertainment industries, reflecting Parton’s extraordinary influence over generations of performers.

Several artists chose to honor her not only through written messages, but through her music.

On Friday, Aug. 28, Kacey Musgraves paid tribute during her concert at TD Garden in Boston.

The 38-year-old singer performed Parton’s “Here You Come Again,” turning the classic into a musical memorial for the legendary artist.

Before performing the Parton song, Musgraves sang her own track “Rainbow” and dedicated it to the 9 to 5 star.

John Mayer also incorporated a Parton tribute into one of his performances.

During a private SiriusXM concert at Stephen Talkhouse in the Hamptons on Wednesday, Aug. 26, fans reportedly shouted requests for him to play “Jolene.”

Instead, Mayer chose another Parton classic.

He performed “I Will Always Love You,” playing the song on guitar before transitioning into his own hit “Gravity” for the closing encore.

Brad Paisley also became emotional while remembering Parton at his concert in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on Aug. 27.

Paisley, 53, spoke to the crowd about “When I Get Where I’m Going,” the 2005 song he recorded as a duet with Parton.

He recalled how their collaboration originally came together.

Paisley told the audience that when he first sent the song to Parton, he explained that it had been inspired in part by people in his own life whom he had lost.

He said he was not certain whether the song would personally resonate with her.

According to Paisley, Parton immediately agreed to participate.

“Yes, let me sing on that,” he recalled her telling him.

While describing the memory, Paisley became visibly emotional as the audience offered loud support.

The meaning of the song had now changed for him.

“I never thought it would be about her, but it is,” Paisley said.

He added that the song reflected much of what Parton believed and represented before closing his tribute with a simple message: “We will always love you, Dolly.”

Away from the concert stage, other major stars also shared memories of Parton online.

Among them was Reba McEntire, one of Parton’s longtime friends and fellow country music legends.

McEntire, 71, shared a collection of photographs showing the two women together over the years.

In the accompanying Instagram message, she said she had received the heartbreaking news that her “buddy Dolly passed onto the higher and greater side.”

McEntire thanked Parton for the impact she had made during her life.

“Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you did for us here on earth,” she wrote.

McEntire praised Parton’s music, generosity and enormous capacity for love, adding that “there will never ever be another you.”

The sheer number of tributes reflected Parton’s unusual position in American music.

Throughout her decades-long career, she moved far beyond the boundaries of traditional country music, becoming a songwriter, performer, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist whose work reached audiences around the world.

Songs including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You” became cultural landmarks, while her collaborations connected her with artists from multiple generations and musical genres.

For musicians like Gill, however, Parton’s legacy was also personal.

Vince Gill; Dolly Parton.

Their 1995 recording of “I Will Always Love You” represented a meeting of two celebrated country voices, and their CMA Awards performance remained a treasured memory for Gill decades later.

That made his Aug. 27 performance especially poignant.

Standing alone before the Kansas City audience, Gill was no longer simply revisiting a famous country standard.

He was singing a song he had once performed beside the woman who wrote it — this time without her.

As his voice caught and the crowd cheered him through the final moments, the performance became both a public tribute and a deeply personal farewell to a friend whose music had helped define country music for generations.