The country star recently released a cover of "Stand by Me," and will put out a covers album later this year
Credit: Attic Entertainment
NEED TO KNOW
- Stella Parton reflects on the grief of losing three brothers and how it impacted her creativity
- The country star recently released a cover of “Stand by Me” and plans to release a covers album titled Nostalgia
- Parton says music has been therapeutic and hopes to inspire others as a “messenger of hope” through her work
In the seven years since Stella Parton last released new music, the country star has been through a lot. She lost three of her brothers — David, Randy and Floyd — as well as a niece, Tever, and for a long time, her grief was a plug that halted her usual flow of inspiration.
“Growing up with so many siblings, we were very emotionally connected, and still are in a real emotional way. It’s a soul connection,” she explains to PEOPLE. “So this whole thing was kind of like emotional paralysis for me in a strange sort of way. Grief has really been a writer’s block for me.”
Still, it was that special connection that finally helped Parton, 77, feel inspired once again. Earlier this month, she released a cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” a song that struck a chord with its emotional lyrics.
Credit: Attic Entertainment
“It says everything that Floyd and I had said to one another and had been through together,” she says of her younger brother. “Music has always been therapy. It’s like a lifeblood. When you grow up in the songwriting family, that’s kind of what you do.”
Parton grew up in Tennessee, born in the middle of a pack of 12 kids. In addition to Parton and her superstar sister Dolly, 80, there’s also Willadeene, 86, David, who died in 2024 at age 82, Coy, 82, Bobby, 78, Cassie, 75, Randy, who died in 2021 at age 67, Larry, who died as a baby in 1955, twins Freida, 69, and Floyd, who died in 2018 at age 61, and Rachel, 66.
As a child, she was often put in charge of looking out for her siblings — especially Floyd, to whom Parton says she was “like a second mom.”
“He was so attached to me. And then as I was raising my own son, he would always come through for me if I needed his help. He always stood by me,” she recalls. “I always like to say that I knew of all my siblings, Floyd would be the one that would come and help me hide the body. And he knew that I would do the same for him.”
When he died, and when Randy and David did too shortly after, Parton says the emotional blow was “painful and sobering.”
“Losing your parents is one thing… but that’s the natural progression of life. You accept and embrace that change from having parents to being an orphan,” she says. “But you don’t accept that as easily with a sibling. Siblings are closer than anyone, really, because you’ve had them with you your whole life. I didn’t realize it would be such a painful experience.”
Credit: Attic Entertainment
For years, she wasn’t interested in making new music. Her last album, Survivor, had come out in 2018, months before Floyd’s death, and though she’s been writing and recording songs since the 1970s, her well of inspiration had dried up.
Before long, her friends were concerned. But a gentle suggestion that she try recording some covers of existing songs helped her dip her toes back into the water. She released “Stand by Me” on June 1, and is planning an entire album of covers, titled Nostalgia, for release later this year.
Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
“It was hard, but you just have to take a philosophical approach,” she says. “When you get the wind knocked out of your sails, you have to wait for a new gust of wind and take flight again. That’s all you can do.”
Parton is now ready to take flight. When she calls, she’s in the studio in Atlanta, working on a new, as-yet-unannounced project. Whatever it is, fans can be sure it’ll be a vessel for Parton to keep delivering as a “messenger of hope” via music.
“We can preach or we can be politicians or we can be motivational speakers, but if a message of hope can ride on a melody, it’s a little softer way of laying it down,” she says. “We’re all in this collectively.”
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