This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
The post Vince Gill Breaks Down Singing “I Will Always Love You” In First Tribute To Dolly Parton Since Her Death first appeared on Crafting Your Home
Vince Gill paid tribute to his friend and longtime collaborator Dolly Parton just two days after her death, choosing to perform the song most closely tied to their shared history.
During a concert at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City on August 27, Gill attempted to sing “I Will Always Love You,” the Parton-penned ballad the two artists famously performed as a duet at the CMA Awards in 1995.
The moment proved overwhelming for the country music veteran, who became visibly emotional partway through the song, with the audience stepping in to help carry the performance as his voice faltered.
Parton died on August 25 at age 80, according to an announcement from her nephew, Bryan Seaver, setting off an outpouring of tributes from across the music industry that has continued in the days since.
Gill, a Country Music Hall of Fame member who has known Parton for decades, was already on the road for a run of shows in Missouri and Tennessee when the news broke, and he chose not to cancel.
Instead, he used the Kansas City show, and the song that once linked his voice to Parton’s on one of the biggest stages in country music, as a way to honor her in real time in front of a live audience.
Vince Gill Struggled To Finish The Song Their Duet Made Famous
Before beginning the performance, Gill told the Kansas City crowd he wasn’t sure he could get through it, according to a review of the show published by The Pitch.
He had already worked through an emotional stretch of the set, telling the audience, “I wrote this for my brother and sing it for sister Dolly,” before performing “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” a song originally written following the death of his own brother.
That performance alone drew visible emotion from the crowd, but what followed became the night’s defining moment.
When Gill moved into “I Will Always Love You,” the emotional weight of performing the song without Parton for the first time since her death became apparent almost immediately.
According to the same review, Gill faltered partway through, and rather than let the moment stall, the audience began singing along, effectively supporting him through the rest of the performance with what the outlet described as a communal, cathartic show of grief.
Gill managed to finish the song, but the moment was reportedly powerful enough that a portion of the crowd left the venue immediately afterward rather than stay for the encore that followed.
Gill’s connection to the song goes back more than three decades. Parton originally wrote and recorded “I Will Always Love You” in the early 1970s, and the track later became a global hit through Whitney Houston’s 1992 version for “The Bodyguard.”
Gill’s history with the song is tied to a 1995 CMA Awards performance, when he was invited to sing it as a duet with Parton herself.
Reflecting on that performance earlier this week, Gill said, “One of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard was when Dolly and I sang that last note of ‘I Will Always Love You’ the year we performed it on the CMA Awards,” a memory that made his decision to revisit the song in Kansas City carry even more significance for those familiar with their history.
Gill Said He And His Family Were “Crushed” By Parton’s Death
In the hours after Parton’s death was announced, Gill shared a short statement acknowledging how deeply the loss had affected him personally, writing, “We are all crushed here at our house.”
That statement, posted alongside a clip referencing their shared performance history, set the tone for what became his first public tribute to Parton just two days later, on stage in Kansas City.
Gill has long been known for becoming emotional during tribute performances for artists and friends he has lost, including a widely remembered moment in 2013 when he struggled to finish “Go Rest High on That Mountain” during a memorial service for George Jones.
Parton’s death has prompted a wide and rapid response from across the entertainment industry, with numerous artists sharing personal tributes in the days since.
Reba McEntire, who described Parton as a longtime friend, wrote on Instagram, “Well, I just got the news that my buddy Dolly passed onto the higher and greater side,” adding that Parton had given so much through her love, her music and, in McEntire’s words, her “huge huge heart.”
Kacey Musgraves, who had performed alongside Parton during an all-star tribute at the 2019 Grammy Awards, wrote simply on social media that the news “really really hurts,” adding that the world felt “a lot less sparkly all of a sudden.”
“I Will Always Love You” Has Become The Song Most Chosen To Honor Parton
In the days following Parton’s death, “I Will Always Love You” has emerged as the song most frequently chosen by fellow artists and fans looking to honor her, according to Taste of Country’s coverage of the tributes that followed her passing.
That pattern makes sense given the song’s history: Parton wrote it herself, recorded it twice across her own career, watched it become one of the best-selling singles in music history through Houston’s version, and treated it as a personal touchstone throughout her decades in the industry.
For Gill, however, the song carries a layer of meaning beyond its cultural significance, since he is one of the few artists who performed it directly alongside Parton during one of the song’s most high-profile moments.
Gill’s tribute also arrived amid a broader wave of public mourning that has included tributes from Jane Fonda, Parton’s longtime friend and “9 to 5” co-star, who wrote that Parton “will always be with us because she was so present, so powerful, so generous and playful that she is woven into all our lives and hearts forever.”
Musicians ranging from Brandi Carlile to Maren Morris have echoed similar sentiments in the days since Parton’s death, each pointing to specific memories of her generosity, mentorship, or music.
Against that backdrop, Gill’s Kansas City performance stood out as one of the first tribute performances captured live in front of an audience, rather than shared solely through a written statement or social media post.
Gill has continued his tour dates in the days following Parton’s death, and it remains to be seen whether he will perform “I Will Always Love You” again during upcoming shows or whether Kansas City represented a singular moment tied specifically to the timing of her passing.
What is clear from accounts of the performance is that the song carried a different weight than it has in the past, transformed from a celebrated career highlight into what audience members and reviewers alike described as a raw, unscripted expression of grief.
For a song that Parton once used to say goodbye to a mentor of her own, its return to the stage two days after her death, sung by the man who once shared its final note with her, closed a circle that few in the audience are likely to forget.
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