Dolly Parton Helps Fan With Cancer Cross Item Off Bucket List

Country icon Dolly Parton helped one of her fans with cancer cross an item off his bucket list.

Utah resident LeGrand Gold has been a fan of the Grammy-winning superstar for his entire life. He was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer in 2021, and one of the things on his bucket list included meeting Parton.

On Friday, January 22, the singer gave him a surprise phone call just before Christmas.

“She sang a song, put my name in the song. I feel like I’m immortal now,” he told local NBC affiliate KSL. “That was really cool. It made me feel good.”

In a video of the call that was shared on YouTube, Parton says, “Hey, L.G. It’s Dolly P! How are you? I’ve heard you’ve been a fan of mine for many years, and I just wanted to thank you for that.”

“I’m just happy to know that I’ve got a fan that devoted and that I’ve had a chance to watch that journey all these years,” she says. “I’m just happy that we got to kind of have our journey together in this lifetime. I always want to make people happy with my music and with the things I do and the things I say and I’m just happy to know that I’ve touched your life in some way. So thank you for honoring me with that.”

Gold, who lives in Orem, has battled cancer for the past two years. Recently, his doctors told him that the treatment was no longer having an effect. He decided to write a bucket list of things he hoped to do with the rest of his life, one of which was meeting Parton.