Dolly Parton says she and her team are in early talks with companies that produce “avatar performances,” as she continues working through health issues that have sidelined several appearances this year.

“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” Parton, 80, told People in an interview published Friday (Aug. 21), referring to her late husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025 at 82 after nearly 60 years of marriage.

She said the avatar performances, which she did not describe in detail, are still in the “early stages of development.”

Parton framed the current stretch as difficult but not unprecedented. “It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” she said, recalling being “down for several months with female issues” in the early 1980s.

She added that public scrutiny feels more intense now than it once did: “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! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”

The interview followed a string of missed appearances. Parton postponed a planned Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, first pushing the December 2025 dates to September 2026 before canceling the run entirely in May.

She also appeared only virtually for several 2026 engagements, including the Academy of Country Music’s Poet’s Award at the ACM Honors and, most recently, the dedication of Dollywood’s new NightFlight Expedition ride on Aug. 14.

Parton has not toured traditionally since 2016. In March, at her first in-person public appearance of 2026, she told a Dollywood crowd she had been “worn down and worn out” from grief and needed to rebuild herself “spiritually, emotionally and physically,” while maintaining that her health issues hadn’t slowed her down.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard brought out Max Weinberg as a surprise guest during their Friday (Aug. 21) show at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium, with the E Street Band drummer filling in for his son, longtime band collaborator Jay Weinberg.

Guitarist Joey Walker explained the swap to the crowd mid-set. “In continuing with the tradition that we started over the last year or so, where we get our friend Jay Weinberg to come out and play a song with us — it’d be rude not to. But Jay’s busy, he’s down in Nashville, so Jay made a call: ‘Alright, I’m going to call dad.’”

Max Weinberg then joined the band onstage as a second drummer, playing alongside regular drummer Michael Cavanagh on an extended rendition of “Hot Water.”

The elder Weinberg’s cameo continues a running bit between the Australian psych-rock band and Jay Weinberg, the former Slipknot drummer who has guested with King Gizzard periodically since first sitting in during a 2024 Nashville show.

He appeared again just a week earlier at the band’s Field of Vision II festival in Colorado, playing on “Hell” and hosting a solo drum clinic.

The guest spot came during the second of three King Gizzard shows at Forest Hills Stadium, part of a run marking the band’s fourth consecutive year at the venue and its first time playing three nights there. The Aug. 20 and 21 dates were billed as rock shows, while the run closed Saturday (Aug. 22) with an all-electronic rave set.

The band then heads to Brooklyn’s Under the K Bridge Park on Sunday (Aug. 23) for another rave show, before continuing to a run of Australian dates in October, including a stop at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.

King Gizzard’s Forest Hills stand comes amid a characteristically prolific stretch for the band, which released its latest album, Alien Metal, its 28th studio release, earlier this year.

Dale Morris, the legendary Nashville artist manager who helped build the superstar careers of Alabama and Kenny Chesney, has died. He was 89.

Morris died peacefully in his sleep Friday night (Aug. 21), his representatives said. A specific cause of death was not provided.

“He lived a big, bold, beautiful, blessed life, and I’m holding onto that right now,” Clint Higham, president of Morris Higham Management, said in a statement about his mentor and longtime business partner. “It’s the end of an era.”

Morris began his career in the music industry as a songwriter, penning Johnny Paycheck’s 1967 single “Don’t Monkey With Another Monkey’s Monkey” before turning his attention to the business side.

After launching Dale Morris & Associates, Morris was introduced to the up-and-coming band Alabama in 1979 at The Bowery in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Under his management, Alabama went on to score 33 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart — the most among duos or groups — and became an unstoppable touring force, bringing production values on par with those of the era’s biggest rock acts.

In the early 1990s, Morris forged a professional relationship with aspiring country singer Chesney, who would go on to become a Country Music Hall of Famer and one of the highest-grossing country touring artists of all time, according to Billboard Boxscore. Chesney also holds the record for the most No. 1 songs on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, with 33.

Morris’ other clients included Martina McBride, Barbara Mandrell, Jake Owen, Old Dominion, Brandon Lay, Ryan Griffin and Walker County.

“He was larger than life, and never met a dream he couldn’t build,” Higham said. “Dale Morris gave me my first internship, and I never wanted to go anywhere else. He saw things in people, in me, in Kenny, and inspired everyone to reach beyond what we thought possible. Maybe it’s how much he loved life, loved his family, loved us.”

In 2018, Paradigm (now called THE·TEAM) acquired Dale Morris & Associates, the in-house booking business of Morris and Higham’s firm, Morris Higham Management.

During his career, Morris also received the T.J. Martell Foundation’s Tony Martell Lifetime Entertainment Achievement Award in 2014.

Morris was married to his wife, Earline, for 68 years. He was preceded in death by his son, Tim. He is survived by his daughter-in-law, Jennifer; grandchildren Zack, Colton (and wife Mary Blair), Nick (and wife Shelby) and Kendall; and great-grandchildren Mary Dee and Gus.

“We’re so blessed to have had 90 years with him as the patriarch of our family,” his grandson Zack Morris said in a statement. “Thank you to our music industry family and to his vast community of friends in Nashville, Boca and beyond for loving him all these many years.”

A celebration of life is being planned for later this fall, with details to be announced in the coming weeks. In lieu of flowers, Morris’ family is asking for donations to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.