Dolly Parton Offers Kelly Clarkson, Reba McEntire Advice on Handling Grief

Country music legend Dolly Parton, 79, is sharing comforting advice on coping with grief.

Parton’s kind words were for fellow country singers Kelly Clarkson and Reba McEntire, 70, who are mourning the loss of former talent manager Brandon Blackstock, who died on August 7 after a yearslong battle with melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

“I think that you just have to be grateful for the years that you’ve had with someone, and you just try to remember the very best of all that,” she said to Entertainment Tonight.

“Take their energy that they had given you then, and just kind of recycle that, and let that become a part of you. Just honor their memory and just know they’re in a better place than we are these days.”

Blackstock and Clarkson were married from 2013 to 2022 and have two children together. McEntire was Blackstock’s stepmother. She was married to Brandon’s father, Narvel Blackstock, from 1989 to 2015.

Parton’s advice comes as she’s struggling to write music because she’s grieving her late husband, Carl Dean, who died on March 3 in Nashville.

The 10-time Grammy Award winner opened up about her songwriting struggles when she was a guest on reality-TV star Khloé Kardashian’s Khloé In Wonder Land podcast last month.

“My husband passed away three months ago,” Parton said. “When you asked me if there’s stuff that I’ve started, haven’t finished, several things I’ve wanted to start but I can’t do it…I will later, but I’m just coming up with such wonderful, beautiful ideas, but I think I won’t finish it.”

Parton said she “can’t do it” right now because of her schedule and “can’t afford the luxury of getting that emotional right now,” but she credits songwriting as a source of joy. 

Dean and Parton met at a laundromat shortly after she moved to Nashville at 18. Two years later, they married on Memorial Day in 1966 in Georgia. Known for avoiding the spotlight, Dean was a businessman who owned an asphalt-paving business.

The death of a loved one can cause a range of emotions, but there are practical steps you can take to deal with the immediate loss.  

AARP offers resources for people struggling with grief. You can find them here.