Willie Nelson Reveals He “Had No Idea” Dolly Parton Was Sick: “She Seemed Fine”
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Willie Nelson sat down for an interview with CNN‘s Anderson Cooper and opened up about his upcoming Farm Aid Festival, grief, and his near-death experience.
Farm Aid 2026 is taking place on Saturday, September 26 at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Like it does every year since its inception in 1985, the show is to benefit family farmers and sustainable agriculture.
After telling Cooper that he didn’t expect Farm Aid to continue in the year 2026, nearly 40 years after its inception, Nelson touched on some difficult topics including death and Dolly Parton.
Willie Nelson Opens Up About Nearly Dying From COVID-19
In May 2022, Nelson came down with COVID-19. In August 2022, he told the New York Times, “I had a pretty rough time with it. COVID ain’t nothing to laugh at, that’s for sure.”
Now, he’s revealing it was much more than a “rough time.”
“It was terrible. I wanted to punch out, I wanted to go,” revealing he even told his wife, “Let me go.”
Willie’s wife, Annie, didn’t take that kindly, telling him, “If you die, I’ll kill ya.”
She cared for him and nursed him back to health and after about a week, he began feeling better. He was back on stage performing just a couple weeks after that.
Anderson asked Nelson if he knew in the moment how sick he was at the time.
“Oh yes, Nelson replied. “I could tell I was dying. I wanted to die, it was the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
You can see him talk about his near-death experience, and how he wants to be reincarnated as a rodeo cowboy, in the clip below.
As someone who has grieved a lot in his life, Willie knew the mark he’d leave if he did pass away in that moment. He knew his family would never get over it, but they would get through it, just as he has throughout his life when he’s lost his son, friends, and other family.
Willie Nelson Reveals His Last Interaction With Dolly Parton
While speaking about grief, Anderson brought up the great Dolly Parton, who passed away on August 25 after a brief battle with cancer.
“She was great, I loved her,” Willie admitted.
Anderson asked Willie if he knew Dolly was ill, to which Willie replied, “I had no idea. I did an interview with her shortly before [she died.] She seemed fine.”
The pair were friends for several decades and when she passed away, he simply shared a video of them singing their duet “Everything’s Beautiful (In Its Own Way).”
They worked together many times over the years collaborating on songs like “Happy, Happy Birthday Baby,” “From Here to the Moon and Back,” and most recently, “Pretty Paper” in 2020 and in her 2022 Christmas special.
While Dolly and Willie are both legends and should be used to singing together, the “Here You Come Again” singer admitted that it was difficult to sing with Willie.
Willie laughed when Cooper brought this up and revealed the reason why was because his phrasing is usually never the same twice.
As the two men reflected on Dolly Parton’s early days, they got to talking about the creation of the song “I Will Always Love You,” and how Parton wrote it for Porter Wagoner to convince him to let her leave their highly successful duo and variety show.
RELATED: Dolly Parton Bids Farewell To Porter Wagoner With “I Will Always Love You”
One of Nelson’s team members off camera interjected, “He just recorded it.”
Cooper was surprised to hear this unexpected exclusive.
“Yeah,” Willie confirmed, “In my last session. It was a great song. A great, positive song.”
Watch him speak about Dolly Parton below.
