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Jack White and Pitbull paid tribute to Dolly Parton at their concerts
It didn’t take the music world long to mourn the passing of country icon Dolly Parton, as the likes of Jack White and Pitbull were honoring her just hours after news of her death broke.
Country music icon Dolly Parton died on August 25 at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer. By that evening, tributes were already appearing on stages across the world.
Jack White played “Jolene” live for the first time since 2007, and Pitbull performed a tribute song to Dolly Parton at their concerts hours after her death
Rock star Jack White was performing at London’s Eventim Apollo on the night that Parton died, and he played “Jolene” as a tribute to her. The performance marked the first time he’s performed the song live since 2007, as his band The White Stripes famously covered “Jolene” in the early years of their career.
Jack White is already paying tribute to Dolly Parton with a cover of Jolene in London pic.twitter.com/wFO3aCMDf4
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) August 26, 2026
While Pitbull’s music may have nothing in common with Parton’s, Mr. Worldwide still paid tribute to Dolly during his show at the Northwell at Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York.
Pitbull did not cover one of Parton’s songs, though, but performed an original tribute with dancers in coordinated outfits, a full band, and lyrics praising “a hard-working woman with a good heart named Dolly Parton” as large screens displayed images of the pair together.
Tonight we celebrate Dolly Parton…the living legend, or should I say the legend that lives forever.
We love you, Dolly. pic.twitter.com/w7cfdGPYRo
— Pitbull (@pitbull) August 26, 2026
Pop star Kesha also paid tribute to Parton at her show at The Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, by performing “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You” — a song that was written by her mother and covered by Parton in the 1980s.
Kesha pays tribute to Dolly Parton at her show tonight, performing “Old Flames Can’t Hold a Candle to You”, a song written by Kesha’s mom in the late 70s and covered by Dolly Parton in 1980.
Kesha later recorded a version for her album ‘Rainbow’. pic.twitter.com/jPVwJzXZ60
— MR. POP (@MrPopOfficial) August 26, 2026
Parton was born the fourth of 12 children in a one-room cabin in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, and left for Nashville the day after her high school graduation in 1964.
She then went on to run a six-decade entertainment business that produced more than 3,000 songs, 25 No. 1 country songs, hit movies, spots in both the Country Music and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame, a theme park in her home county, and a children’s literacy program that has given away more than 300 million books to American children.