Country icon Dolly Parton has shared a health update with her fans amid ongoing health issues and the death of her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, who died last March.
Parton has been open about her grief and the impact of Dean’s death on her mental health, sharing that she has felt “worn down and worn out”.
The music legend, now 80, has been forced to pull out of a string of recent appearances due to ongoing issues.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” she told People. “It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” she said, noting that in the early ’80s she was “down for several months with female issues”.
“But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI!”
She added: “Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”
Parton also told the outlet that she was working alongside various companies to create “avatar performances” in order to bring fans new experiences.
She did not expand any further, as the discussions are still in the “early stages of development”.
Should Parton go down the avatar route, she would join several artists who have used the digital technology, which has allowed artists both living and dead to craft lucrative shows and tours.
From Michael Jackson, Elvis and Tupac Shakur to Gorillaz and ABBA, hologram concerts are a growing trend. They feature “Pepper’s ghost” forms of performers – named after the illusion technique created by the English scientist John Henry Pepper.
Pepper popularised the effect during a 1862 Christmas Eve theatrical production of Charles Dickens’ “The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain”. The illusion was a hit and was then used in carnival sideshows, cinemas and amusement parks.
The first time it was used for concerts was in 2006 for the Grammy Awards, when Pepper’s ghost technique was employed to project Madonna with the virtual band members Gorillaz onto the stage. Since then, several acts have used the technology, with the most elaborate being the ongoing concert attraction ABBA Voyage, which uses Pepper’s ghost combined with digital projection and motion-capture technology.
Even politicians have taken to using the technology, with Narenda Modi projected at 88 locations across India in 2014 and then-French Presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélanchon giving a speech in 2017 at a campaign event in Aubervilliers he wasn’t physically at.
Recently, it was announced that an AI avatar of Ozzy Osbourne was in the works. However, this was met with backlash from fans who described the stunt as a “cash grab” and a “heresy” – criticism to which the rocker’s widow Sharon Osbourne responded…
She told critics she “doesn’t need your fucking money” and that the Prince of Darkness would have been supportive of the project.
“For somebody to turn around to me and say I’m doing a cash grab? No, you don’t know my husband, OK? I know my husband,” she said. “My husband would say to me over and over, ‘After I go, how long do you think I’ll be remembered?’”
Dolly Parton’s health update comes after she rerecorded her 1977 hit song ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’ earlier this year alongside fellow artists Lainey Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah and Reba McEntire. The single was released to raise money for pediatric cancer research at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee.
The news also follows an academic poll in the US, which found that Parton tops the list of the most beloved public figures in America.