The queen of Nashville has left it all at the microphone, only this time, she isn’t performing one of her catchy country tunes.
In a recent interview with Billboard, country music icon Dolly Parton shared her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters against police brutality and white supremacy. This comes months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers and nationwide protests.
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Although Parton hasn’t attended any marches herself, she openly showed her support for the BLM movement.
“I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen,” she said in an interview with Billboard. “And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little whites a**** are the only ones that matter? No!”
In 2018, Parton renamed her Dixie Stampede dinner attraction to Dolly Parton’s Stampede after realizing the term “Dixie” could be harmful, as it can be associated with the Confederacy, according to a report from Consequence of Sound. Although this was before the Floyd murder, she said it’s important to reflect, and if a change needs to be made, then make it happen.
“There’s such a thing as innocent ignorance, and so many of us are guilty of that,” Parton said in the interview with Billboard. “When they said ‘Dixie’ was an offensive word, I thought, ‘Well, I don’t want to offend anybody. This is a business. We’ll just call it The Stampede.‘ As soon as you realize that [something] is a problem, you should fix it. Don’t be a dumba**. That’s where my heart is. I would never dream of hurting anybody on purpose.”
Parton isn’t the only country music star to make changes. The Dixie Chicks also removed the word “Dixie” from their band name. They are now going by “The Chicks.”
Lady Antebellum has also changed its band name by removing “Antebellum” due to its association to slavery. The band is now known as “Lady A.”
RELATED: The Dixie Chicks officially change their name to The Chicks
For the full Dolly Parton interview with Billboard, click here.