Dolly Parton has canceled her Las Vegas residency due to a health issue.
The 80-year-old country singer announced last year that her Las Vegas residency, which was set to begin in December 2025, would be rescheduled to September 2026. However, in an Instagram video on Monday, she said she had some “good news and bad news.”
“The good news is I’m responding really well to meds and treatments and I’m improving every day,” Parton said about an unspecified medical condition. The bad news, she explained, is that it will take her a “little while” to feel well enough to perform, meaning her Las Vegas residency will be canceled.
Parton, whose husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025, said that the medication she has been taking for her condition makes her a little “swimmy-headed,” so it would be difficult to play guitars and banjos in “5-inch heels” and rhinestone outfits. “And you know that I’m gonna be wearing them,” she said. She compared her body to a classic car that needs some fine-tuning before it can get moving again, better than ever.
“I've told you before that I've always had problems with my kidney stones,” the Joyful Noise actress said. “Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tenn. But seriously, my immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple of years, and they're working real hard on rebuilding their strength.”
Though she won’t be able to perform, Parton said she is still working and is especially focused on her upcoming Broadway musical, which she hopes fans unable to see her in Vegas will be able to enjoy in the future.
“Plastic surgeons can make you look as good as you can on the outside, but it's serious business when you're talking about internal medicine,” Parton said. “But I have great doctors, and they assure me that everything is treatable.”
She also thanked fans for their support in the year since her husband’s death, noting that they are who gave her strength as she honored the holidays and other special dates without her beloved spouse.
This is not the first time the “Jolene” singer has spoken about her health. In October 2025, after her sister Freida Parton scared fans by writing on social media that she was “up all night praying” for her sister’s health, the 11-time Grammy winner confirmed that everything was OK in an Instagram video.
“I wanted to say, I know lately everybody thinks that I am sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you? I'm working hard here,” Parton said in the video.
The video came less than a month after Parton postponed her Vegas residency due to a few undisclosed medical procedures. That same month, Parton also missed an event at her amusement park, Dollywood, due to a kidney stone complication.