'I ain’t dead yet!': Dolly Parton posts video reassuring fans worried about her health
Dolly Parton posted a video to Instagram on Wednesday reassuring fans she is doing "okay" amid concern for her health.
"I ain’t dead yet!" she captioned the video, where she spoke to fans directly.
The message comes after Parton's sister on Tuesday asked for prayers for the country music star, before clarifying she was simply "a little under the weather" and not seriously ill.
In her video, Parton spoke to the camera, explaining she was working on commercials for the Grand Ole Opry, joking, "I know lately everybody thinks that I am sicker than I am. Do I look sick to you?"
"I wanted to put everybody’s mind at ease, those of you that seem to be real concerned, which I appreciate," she said, adding that during her late husband Carl Dean’s illness, she "let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of" healthwise.
"When I got around to it, the doctor said, 'We need to take care of this, we need to take care of that,'" she said.
She added her health issues are "nothing major," and she’s "not dying," but she needed to be close to Vanderbilt, where she was receiving treatment.
Parton has been dealing with kidney stones, a source close to the situation told ABC News.
"I figured if you heard it from me, you’d know that I was okay. So anyhow that’s what I wanted to say and I’m not ready to die yet, I don’t think God is through with me and I ain’t done working,” she said before signing off.
Parton initially sparked speculation about her health when the singer announced on social media on Sept. 28 that she was postponing her upcoming Las Vegas residency due to health concerns.
"As many of you know, I have been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures," she wrote in a statement at the time. "As I joked with them, it must be time for my 100,000-mile check-up, although it's not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!"
On Tuesday, Parton's sister, Freida Parton, pleaded for prayers for her sister, writing in part in a Facebook post, "Many of you know she hasn't been feeling her best lately."
"I truly believe in the power of prayer, and I have been lead [sic] to ask all of the world that loves her to be prayer warriors and pray with me," she continued.
Later Tuesday evening, Freida Parton clarified in her post, writing that she "didn't mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious" and that "she's been a little under the weather, and I simply asked for prayers because I believe so strongly in the power of prayer."
