Dolly Parton makes surprise appearance on 17-year-old great-nephew’s debut album – listen here!

11 August 2026, 14:48 | Updated: 25 August 2026, 19:29

Dolly Parton has joined forces with a very special member of her family for a new song. Picture: Getty

By Giorgina Hamilton

The country icon features on Leroy Brown’s new song ‘Willow Tree’, after he played it for her at a family cookie night.

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Dolly Parton has joined forces with a very special member of her family for a new song, and the story behind their collaboration is almost as sweet as the track itself.

The country music legend features on ‘Willow Tree’, a song by her 17-year-old great-nephew Leroy Brown, who has just released his debut album living through a car window.

And while having Dolly Parton appear on your first album might sound like the sort of thing that would require a rather impressive record-label pitch, Leroy’s collaboration with his famous great-aunt apparently came about much more casually.

The teenager was visiting Dolly for a family cooking night when he decided to play her the song.

Leroy, who was finishing his senior year of high school while writing the album, sat down at the piano and began playing ‘Willow Tree’. Dolly started harmonising.

"I immediately knew that she had to be on it,” Leroy recalled. “It was the best decision.”

He added: “She’s amazing, and it’s really touching and special to me to have her on it.”

The resulting duet marks the second time Leroy and Dolly have appeared together on a recording.

Their previous collaboration came on the 2024 family project Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables, making ‘Willow Tree’ another musical meeting between two generations of the Parton family.

Dolly Parton and Leroy Brown sing 'Willow Tree':

willow tree

For Leroy, however, having one of the most recognisable women in country music on his record is not the point of the album.

living through a car window is a coming-of-age collection written during his final year of school, with songs exploring first love, heartbreak, changing friendships and the strange teenage business of growing up.

The 12-track album combines indie-pop with influences from Leroy’s Appalachian heritage, rather than attempting to replicate the traditional country sound that made his great-aunt a superstar.

There are plenty of family connections behind the scenes, too. Leroy’s cousin Jada Star produced, engineered and mixed the record, making it something of a Parton-family affair, although Leroy is clearly keen to establish a sound of his own.

That is particularly fitting given what comes next for the teenager; just weeks after releasing his debut, Leroy is preparing to head off to college, meaning the album arrives at a rather significant moment in his life.

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And while his famous surname is inevitably going to attract attention, ‘Willow Tree’ offers something rather more personal: a glimpse of Dolly not as a global superstar, but as the great-aunt sitting at a piano during a family gathering.

The song also arrives at a time when fans have been keeping a particularly close eye on Dolly after she recently addressed concerns about her health.

The 80-year-old country legend has been keen to reassure everyone that she is doing okay, despite having undergone treatments and taking time away from some work.

A special duet with his Great-Aunt Dolly arrives on Leroy Brown’s album out August 7th!

In a recent message to fans, Dolly bluntly insisted: “I’m not dying!”

She explained she had neglected some health appointments while caring for her late husband Carl Dean, who died in 2025, and later found herself needing treatment closer to home and Vanderbilt.

“I’ve got some problems,” she admitted, while stressing that there was “nothing major” and that she was taking care of things.