Country music's biggest names filled Belmont University's Fisher Center for the Performing Arts on October 21 for the live special "CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton."

The Tennessean reports Reba McEntire opened the night, choking up as she called Parton "one of the greatest people I have ever been blessed to know," before teaming with the Belmont University choir on "He's Alive."

Performers included Brad Paisley, Carly Pearce, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Ella Langley, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Zac Brown and more, with Ella Langley giving "Jolene" an Alabama twang and Pearce and Kristin Chenoweth trading verses on "9 to 5."

Underwood closed the night with "I Will Always Love You," joined by the full lineup for a final message to Dolly herself.

The surprise of the night came when the audience finally heard Parton sing — posthumously — on "Butterfly" with Zac Brown.

According to The Tennessean, Brown explained he did not set out to write the song for Parton but realized she would be perfect to help him sing it; once he asked, she told him it was a hit.

As Brown began the uplifting ballad, the report describes Parton's smoky vocal joining in for a stunning verse while the camera lingered on a wall of live flowers shaped like a butterfly, Parton's unofficial symbol.

Rolling Stone's Nashville Now podcast adds a more intimate memory from the same evening.

Brad Paisley tells the magazine that performing "When I Get Where I'm Going" — his 2005 duet with Parton — now carries a different weight: "It's really hard to believe that this song, which I did with her, is now about her."

He recalls Parton arriving at his house with husband Carl Dean to film the music video, Dean waiting happily in the car the whole time.

"She was in here a while. We walked around and talked in the house and had a great day," Paisley says, adding that Dean "didn't even come in! He was just so happy to drive her around." Parton and Dean were married nearly 60 years before his death in 2025.

The special, which aired live on ABC and Disney+ and landed on Hulu the following day, also funnels its proceeds to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, per Rolling Stone — a concrete legacy payoff for the night.

For creators and podcast listeners, the Paisley conversation shows how artists are processing her death publicly, one interview and one song at a time.