“I wrote a song for one of my dearest friends … and her name is Dolly Parton,” said Lainey Wilson during her Sept. 19 set at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
Describing Dolly Parton as “the lady that I look to for everything,” Lainey Wilson‘s set included a heartfelt tribute to the late country music icon.
Performing her own song about Dolly Parton, titled “WWDD,” she also performed a cover of Dolly’s 1980 hit title track to the film 9 to 5.
Lainey Wilson Performs Tribute To Dolly Parton At iHeartRadio Music Festival
Held on Sept. 19 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the crowd cheered upon hearing Lainey Wilson say the name of the late country music icon Dolly Parton, who passed away at the age of 80 on Aug. 25.
Calling Dolly her “hero,” Lainey added, “Just watching her from afar before I even knew her, her style, her sense of humor, her personality, she was a badass business woman.”
Continuing, she said:
“She treated people with love, she would give you the shirt off her back, and, after getting to know her, you know, they say ‘never meet your heroes?’ But that did not count with Dolly Parton. She was better than I could have ever imagined.”
Expressing how thankful she was to have gotten to know Dolly, Lainey then introduced her song “WWDD,” quipping, “Y’all see what I did with them double D’s?”
She then looked to the audience and said, “What would Dolly do?”
During the performance, a montage of photos of Dolly was projected on the screen behind Lainey.
As her performance of “WWDD” ended, she then went right into a lively cover performance of “9 to 5.”
