March 17:
Dolly Opens Dollywood For 41st Season

Watch your official Dollymania.net video news report of Dolly's appearance via YouTube here or in the media player above. Look for more photos here in coming weeks. Photo at left and video ©Copyright 2026 T. Duane Gordon/Dollymania.net. All rights reserved. Click on photo for larger view.

"I've been missing you!" she told the crowd to screams and applause. "You been missing me?" She joked that some might mistake Naughton as the new husband the tabloids have been claiming she has, to which he noted his wife was in the audience that day. "I don't think I'll ever be married but once," Dolly explained. "I think Carl Dean's waiting for me on the other side. If I should show up to the pearly gates with someone else, he would not like that. He'd be saying 'Who is that little pisser? You leave him outside the gates and if the Lord wants him in He'll bring him. You get on in here with me!'"

She added that although she hasn't been touring she was "taking good care" of her health issues.

"I just kinda got wore down and wore out grieving over Carl and a lot of other little things going on, I just got myself kinda, you know, where I needed to build myself back up spiritually and emotionally and physically. But all is good. It didn't slow me down," she said as she pulled a stray wig hair. "I got a wild hair there. See I'm back to normal!"

Dolly revealed she has been re-working songs in her Broadway musical that tested in Nashville last summer prior to its move to Broadway this coming fall and overseeing renovations at her new Nashville SongTeller Hotel and its new Life of Many Colors Museum.

"I've just been doing a lot of writing, a lot of thinking, a lot of praying, and a lot of getting ready for a lot of new stuff coming up, you know, well, actually for the rest of this whole year. So be ready for me! I ain't done!"

The pair then talked about the new NightFlight Expedition indoor immersive coaster with four experiences in one: a nighttime flight over the Smokies, a whitewater rafting expedition through 500,000 gallons of surging water, a coaster up and over a mountain ridge, and a ride on a mysterious shimmering lake. The five-and-a-half-minute ride and its 44,000-square-foot building remain under construction with plans to open in late spring and will operate all season with temperature controls.

The park's I Will Always Love You festival continues through April 12 with the new "Artrageous" and its musical performances while speed-painting canvases and new "Moto Motion: Freestyle Showdown" with its extreme riders, breakdancers, and aerial daredevils, plus the return of "Sing-a-long With Dolly" and the third season of her bio-musical "From the Heart: The Life & Music of Dolly Parton."

The nation's 250th birthday will be celebrated with a special new fireworks and drone show over the summer, Dolly announced, and Naughton explained a special nighttime Splash Country experience and Run Dollywood race will also come this spring with butterfly medals – which Dolly joked she won't be participating in because she'd black both eyes and couldn't find high-heel running shoes. And a special separately-ticketed Boo Bash for kids to trick-or-treat will be added to the Great Pumpkin LumiNights.

Asked what the secret to the park's success, with over 4 million visitors last year, can be attributed to, she said she prays a lot and that the biggest ingredient in their success are the people who work there and administer it.

She was also asked about her upcoming Music City hotel, which she said will open in late summer or early fall, and what advice she'd give people: "Never forget who you are. Never forget where you came from." Asked about the new ride, she said she likes that people can see the beauty of the Smokies at night safely from the attraction, recalling that black bears used to come onto their property when she was little.

In a construction walk-through later on Friday (without Dolly), Naughton told a Dollymania correspondent that plans are to continue developing Wildwood Grove with at least one additional medium ride and several small flat rides plus an additional entrance/exit to access that section of the park, which may require relocating the train tracks. In addition, they are considering a second train station in that area so that guests may use it for transportation instead of just a round-trip ride.

Additional coverage is available from The Knoxville News-Sentinel here, here, and here, WVLT here, here, and here, NBC News here, WBIR here, WATE here, WLOS here, and WCYB here.

Dolly's 'Buffy' Reboot Slayed By Hulu
Disney's Hulu has chosen not to pick up the rebooted Buffy The Vampire Slayer series, star Sarah Michelle Geller announced over the weekend on social media here. The streamer had greenlit a pilot, which was filmed with the original producers, including Dolly being credited this time as Executive Producer with her Sandollar Films (her co-owner Sandy Gallin was credited on the original series as Executive Producer for Sandollar). No news on whether the reboot will be re-written or shopped around to another network, or if the show has come to an end again.

California Librarian Grilled Over Missing Funds
The State Librarian of California was under fire last week from both Republicans and Democrats over his inability to account for $650,000 in state funds allocated for the statewide expansion of Dolly's Imagination Library early childhood literacy program. California is one of the about half of the U.S. states that have taken the program statewide. The model to accomplish this is to establish a 501c3 nonprofit to which tax dollars are allocated to cover half of the local share of required funding, which is then directed by the nonprofit to each local charity administering the local program in each individual county (the local charity is then required to raise the other half of local funding for book printing and postage, about $12.50 per child annually, to match the state dollars). The California legislation allowed a percentage of the funds to be used for administrative costs, but of the $1.2 million spent, the state nonprofit headed by the Librarian can only document $555,000, leaving $650,000 spent but unaccounted for. Read more from the New York Post here. In related news, after the Republican Indiana legislature rescinded its legislation to provide state funding for its statewide program there, the state's first lady began personally fundraising to replace the funding with private philanthropy and has collected pledges to fund the program through June of next year, it was announced this week here.

U.S., U.K., Aussie Chart Updates
Across the pond, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 remains at No. 1 on the British country compilation albums chart, while Diamonds & Rhinestones, The Greatest Hits Collection rises five to No. 2, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe slips one to No. 14, Emmylou Harris' first installment in Original Album Series rises three to No. 11 and Linda Rondstat's installment (both contain collaborations with Doily) gains three to No. 13, while Glen Campbell's Ghost On The Canvas Sessions with a Dolly duet, falls back out of the top 20, down from No. 20. Sabrina Carpenter's Short & Sweet Deluxe Edition, with its Dolly duet, finds itself at No. 17 U.K. pop. Beyonce's Cowboy Carter, with its Dolly appearances, is No. 14 Americana albums and re-enters the country top 20 at No. 18. Post Malone's F 1 Trillion, with its Dolly duet, is No. 14 British country albums.