Brandi Carlile recalls first time meeting Dolly Parton 10 years ago on 'Dolly Day'

This story originally appeared on Out.

"She was formidable, and she was faithful." That's how out queer rocker Brandi Carlile described her close friend, the icon Dolly Parton on this "Dolly Day."

Carlile was a guest on NBC's Today show on Friday, Sept, 25th, aka "9-2-5," ahead of her scheduled appearance as a performer for the program's Friday Concert Series at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. As it turns out, it was exactly ten years ago to the day that Carlile met the legendary country singer.

The show shared with her a Facebook post from Sept. 25th, 2016, showing them posing for a photograph together, with the caption: “Well it finally happened... I met the queen! I have no recollection of what I said but @dollyparton is the greatest preacher the world has seen!”

“I didn’t know that,” Carlile said. “That was backstage at her concert. I went, bought a ticket, went and saw that show,” she added.

She had always longed to meet Parton, Carlile told the hosts, long before she became an 11-time Grammy winner. She would go on to forge a close friendship with Parton.

“It’s like every little girl’s dream that ever plays a guitar and sings a song to grow up and find a way to meet Dolly Parton, so I was pretty on mission early on to meet Dolly,” she said.

Carlile recalled that time in 2019 she was curating a historic all-female lineup at Rhode Island's famous Newport Folk Festival, when she realized it would be so much better if Parton was on the bill.

“I got tasked with, or the gift rather, of getting to curate the first all-female headlining set at the Newport Folk Festival, which is just like a history making place,” she said. “It’s one of the most important festivals I think in in U.S. history, and I just knew we couldn’t do it without Dolly, and so that’s how I became, I think, close with Dolly, was through her deciding to come and grace the stage of that festival."

Carlile, who collaborated with Parton on her final solo studio album, Rockstar, was asked what meeting Parton backstage at that festival was like, and she talked about her very commanding presence.

Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile Perform ‘I Will Always Love You’ Dolly Parton and Brandi Carlile Perform ‘I Will Always Love You’

“She was like half humor. She was formidable, and she was faithful,” she said, and laughed remembering that Parton arrived wearing a "nudie suit," five-inch heels as well as fake fingernails and a plastic bag over her head.

“I was so taken aback when I saw that vision of her, and I realized the gravity of the situation, and my eyes started welling up with tears, despite myself, in the dressing room,” said Carlile. “And I just said, ‘I’m really nervous.’ And we were her backing band, and I was like, ‘I feel maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.’ And she says, ‘Well, darling, we need to do something about that,’ and just took my face in her hands and prayed with me, and it was like transformative.”

When Parton died last month, Carlile shared that inspiring moment with her Instagram followers, writing: “I’ve never been the same since. Her prayers were maybe more powerful than mine or anyone else’s because that prayer has had a very long rainbow-colored halo and I hope it lasts me my whole life.”

As Out reported, Carlile also praised Parton’s long history of LGBTQ+ allyship, thanking the late singer for sticking up for gay artists in country music and beyond. “Before I met her, I loved her because she took a risk and accepted me (and all of us) for being gay in a time where she didn’t need to say anything.”

What was it, the Today show hosts asked her, that gave Parton the ability to be relatable and beloved by people of all kinds? Her upbringing, Carlile said. Parton was raised in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in rural Tennessee, one of 12 children.

“I think it has a lot to do with her growing up poor, and her role in her family, and knowing how to take care of people, but knowing how to lighten the mood, and her faith that permeated everything that she did,” Carlile said.

Her interview and concert were timed to coincide with new release, Returning to Myself (Sad Gay Version), which dropped today, 9-2-5. Following her visit to the television studio, Carlile went outside to the plaza and performed four songs, two from her eighth studio album released last October — "Human," and "You Without Me," and two from prior albums: "The Story," and The Mother."

Watch her performance of "The Story" by clicking here.