Steve Guest, a Christchurch promoter and friend of Parton, met the Jolene singer for the first time in the United Kingdom 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Working in London with Live Nation, Guest was approached by Parton\u2019s manager about doing a tour with the singer.<\/p>\n
Steve Guest says Parton treated his daughter like one of her grandchildren. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe said, \u2018hell yeah, it\u2019s Dolly Parton\u2019, I think we put a little swear word in the middle of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A tour full of glitz, glamour and rhinestones began, and so did a lifelong friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with her up until this day, and working not just on the tours, but on books and movies and the stage show 9 to 5 and various other bits and pieces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just became very close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Guest says Parton would want fans to celebrate her life. <\/p>\n
Guest said Parton first met his daughter when she was 3 months old at the Savoy Hotel in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe basically took my daughter Gracie under her wing and treated her like she was one of her own grandkids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer team and families\u2019 kids were her kids. She\u2019s just had such a close affinity with my wife and my daughter and my extended family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guest said Parton was \u201cgenuinely interested in people\u201d, no matter their story.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe saw no barriers; she saw people for people and a person for a person; it didn\u2019t matter where they were from or what background.\u201d<\/p>\n
He recalled a media trip in which journalists travelled from Europe to Nashville. <\/p>\n
Parton laid out two tables: one with Tennessee food and the other with English and European food.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wanted to show that she had her hospitality extended to sharing her food from her place, but also that you\u2019d feel at home if you wanted a cup of tea in her home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Guest’s tribute recalled Parton’s warmth and hospitality.<\/p>\n
Guest recalled another memory in which Parton organised an Easter basket for his daughter when they travelled to Nashville.<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe we are exceptionally lucky to have lived and been alive … in a world where Dolly Parton\u2019s existed at the same time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wouldn\u2019t want us to be sad; she\u2019d want us to celebrate. She gave so much good to this world. What you saw is what you got.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I say, she\u2019s funny as hell; her legacy is what will carry on.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s celebrate and play her music, watch her movies, and be an inspiration, and try and make the world a little bit of a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Guest, a Christchurch promoter and friend of Parton, met the Jolene singer for the first time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[28358,177,430,4487,68643,2841,25014,156,8287,3218,6176,424,21817,157,111,139,69,28720,13621,29541,3048,4524,102,87539,6730],"class_list":["post-580608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-alongside","tag-celebrate","tag-celebrities","tag-christchurch","tag-closely","tag-country","tag-dolly","tag-entertainment","tag-friendship","tag-icon","tag-legacy","tag-life","tag-lifelong","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parton","tag-promoter","tag-recalls","tag-said","tag-want","tag-with","tag-worked","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}