Close to two months after the heartbreaking passing of Dolly Parton following a brief battle with cancer, the country music world came together to honor the “Queen of Country” with a tribute organized by the Country Music Association… and one family member of Dolly’s did not get the invite.
This past Wednesday (October 21), ABC aired a two-hour live special celebrating the life and music of the country icon called “CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton.” It was hosted and filmed at Belmont University’s Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville, and in true Dolly fashion, CMA and Belmont University pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which was one of Dolly’s great endeavors.
That donation ended up being $1 million.
And as you might imagine, it was a real country music who’s who at the event. Amy Grant, Ashley McBryde, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Ella Langley, Lainey Wislon, Lukas Nelson, Vince Gill, and Reba McEntire – among many other country music superstars – attended and contributed to the touching tribute. One person that wasn’t there? That’d be Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver.
Seaver’s story has been an interesting one to follow ever since the death of Dolly Parton. In case you aren’t familiar with the ongoing lawsuit, it all started when Dolly’s longtime manager, Danny Nozell (who also runs She’s Alive LLC: the company overseeing Dolly’s estate), terminated Seaver and his company as head of security for the estate.
Seaver, as you may recall, was the family member who announced Dolly’s death in a video posted on her social media back on August 25. According to reports, he was hand-selected by Dolly to make the announcement, and the rest of the family approved the decision:
There’s been all kinds of allegations thrown Seaver’s way in the weeks and months following Dolly’s death.
Though one member of the Parton family said there’s no feud in the family, reports suggest otherwise. Seaver has been accused of threatening Parton’s estate, and the Parton family was even granted a restraining order against Seaver a little over a month ago. It’s been a bit of a messy, dark cloud hanging over the story of Parton’s passing.
With everything that’s been going on with Seaver and Parton’s estate, he was evidently not invited to the Dolly Parton tribute that happened in Nashville this past week. Based on a recent social media post of his, it appears that he watched the live show… but made it very clear that he was not welcomed to be there:
“What a beautiful tribute. I was not invited. Nor was my daughter, Dolly’s songwriting, guitar playing, claw hammer finger pickin’ progeny. The rest of my entire family was invited.
A few attended. My kids and I were told not to attend. Such is life.”
What a strange situation, eh?
As far as the latest on the legal proceedings goes, the hearing that was originally scheduled for tomorrow in the lawsuit filed by the estate of Dolly Parton against Seaver has, once again, been continued.
This time around, it’s to allow the estate more time to file a response to his latest memorandum.