Dolly Parton’s sister Stella Parton refuses to “stay silent” about politics.
“‘Stella, why can’t you be more like your big sister Dolly and stay silent about the corruption going on in America?’” Stella, 77, wrote via Facebook on Wednesday, June 3. “I cannot and have not stayed silent about the crimes and blatant corruption going on in our country since 2016. I will always stand up for the truth in my country!”
She continued, “It makes me laugh at the [stupidity] and meanness of some people. When you get under their skin with truth they try to insult you by saying something so stupid!”
Dolly, 80, has not publicly addressed Stella’s comments, though famously avoids sharing her political affiliation. (Stella is one of the singer’s 11 siblings including Willadeene, David, Coy, Robert Jr., Cassie, Randy, Larry, Floyd and twins Freida and Rachel.)
“I try to shine with it and let them see it through me. I try to find the God-light in everybody and everybody shines,” Dolly told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “I see that in everybody. I go right to that God-light, and I don’t care if you’re Black or white or green or alien gray.”
She continued, “I go to that, because we’re all pieces of God and we all have that little God-light inside us. Some don’t get to let it shine. If I don’t see it first out, I’d go searching. That’s how I accept everybody because I know that we’re all pieces of God.”
According to Dolly, her beliefs stem from her upbringing.
“Well, a lot of that is my personality, but I did grow up in the church, but sometimes that church can even go against you because I also grew up in a church where they criticized and condemned and so many things were a sin,” the country icon acknowledged. “But in my own self, knowing how different I was, knowing that I was criticized for just looking the way I did, they thought I was trash, they thought I was a whore, that I was going to hell in a handbasket just for being young and dressing the way I did and being the way that I was.”
Dolly added, “I knew how innocent I was in being myself and how pure that was in me, so I try to look for that innocence and that purity in everybody else. I don’t condemn or criticize. I just accept and love.”
Dolly, however, did briefly wade into the political landscape later that year with her rock song “World on Fire,” which took aim at “greedy politicians.”
“[It is about] all of ‘em, any of ‘em,” she quipped to Today in May 2023. “I don’t think any of ‘em are trying hard enough. I’m sure we’re all trying, but I just really think often that they worry more about their party than they do about the people. If we just do what we felt was the right thing, rather than who’s going to lose, or who’s going to win this, or who’s going to look better if they do this. None of them are working from the heart.”
