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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Legendary Musician Dolly Parton Dead at 80; Nashville Remembers Queen Of Country Music Dolly Parton; Ken Burns Remembers Dolly Parton; Sen. Graham, Rep. Norman Face Off In SC Senate GOP Runoff; SC Senate Runoff Tests Trump's Endorsement Power; Legendary Musician Dolly Parton Dead At 80; Remembering The Life And Legacy Of Dolly Parton. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 25, 2026 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(DOLLY PARTON singing)

"But I'm perfectly fine now, and I don't miss you and the sky is green and the grass is blue."

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She was such a great song writer. Erin, I think if she had done nothing else, she'd still be a hall of fame material. Fortunately for all of us, she did so much more.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Tom, thank you so much and thanks so much to all of you for joining us. AC360 begins right now.

[20:00:40]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening.

It is a sad evening tonight, but we are going to spend a good part of this next hour remembering and celebrating the remarkable life of Dolly Parton. She died today of cancer after seven remarkable decades on stage, on screen, both big and small, in recording studios and in our hearts. We are remembering her and people across the country and around the world are paying tribute to her.

Flags at The White House at half-staff tonight, the Empire State Building will be lit up pink starting at 9:25 tonight, in honor of her song "9 to 5". There are also gatherings, as you might imagine, in the capital of country music, Nashville, where we'll also be live tonight.

Dolly Parton was 80 years old. Her nephew and security director made the announcement of her death in a video to her many, many fans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN SEAVER, DOLLY PARTON'S NEPHEW: Dolly was a farmer, just like her Daddy. He farmed the soil; she farmed songs and happiness. Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton. Because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.

Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly and Granny Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton and may God bless you all. She will always love you. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, that last line, of course, is a nod to one of her 25 number one country singles and one of the very few songs ever to hit number one in the charts in three different decades. The way she tells it, she'd been appearing on "The Porter Wagoner Show: and wanted to strike out on her own, but Wagoner didn't want her to hear about it, so she said she went home, wrote a song, brought it to him the next morning and made him listen.

Well, he did, and she said it left him in tears and he said, okay, you can go, provided I produced that record, which he did, and this is it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOLLY PARTON singing "I Will Always Love You."

"And, I will always love you. Will I always love you."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well that song, "I Will Always Love You" reached number one on the country charts in 1974, when she remade it for a movie soundtrack in 1982, it hit number one again and then again, of course, in 1992, when Whitney Houston made it for the movie, "The Bodyguard," only this time on the pop charts. Three decades, three times at number one.

Not bad for a song that Elvis might have also recorded and almost recorded, but didn't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOLLY PARTON, AMERICAN MUSICIAN: Elvis was ready to record it. I told my friends and people that he was recording it, and they were in town to do the recording. They had invited me down to the session and Colonel Tom Parker called me the day before and said, now you do know that Elvis is recording your song, and you do know that Elvis don't record anything that he don't publish, or at least get half the publishing on. And I said, well, I'm really sorry, but I can't do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, a lot of people would have had a hard time turning down Elvis Presley at that time. But Dolly Parton knew who she was and what she had that no one else did. In all, Parton wrote some 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records, 25 number one hits on the country charts, and she topped the pop charts several times, including with the theme song for the movie she starred in with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, "Nine to Five."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARTON: Nine to Five, for service and devotion. You would think that I would deserve a fat promotion. Want to move ahead, but the boss won't seem to let me. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That song became a touchstone for millions who put in the hours, no matter what the shift. The movie showed her touch for comedy and showcased a performer whose talent by then was already crossing categories and art forms, and whose business interests included hotels, restaurants, a theme park, Dollywood and, starting in the 90s, philanthropy.

The imagination library, which has given several hundred million books to babies and young children. Dolly Parton, as you may know, was born in East Tennessee to a family so poor her father had to pay. The doctor, who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal. She was the fourth of 12 kids in her song, "Coat of Many Colors," she writes about a coat made from quilted rags in my coat of many colors, she sang, I hurried off to school just to find the others laughing and making fun of me in my coat of many colors my Momma made for me.

[20:05:15]

From the President on down, tributes have been pouring in her "Steel Magnolias" costar Sally Field writing, if there are truly angels on earth and we have just lost one. Jamie Lee Curtis writes they say, don't meet your heroes, they were wrong about her. "Nine to Five" costar Lily Tomlin posted a photo of herself and parton with a broken heart and the message, no words.

Costar Jane Fonda called Dolly Parton simultaneously a naughty, playful southern gal from the hollows of Tennessee and a deep, soulful thinker who could see through people right down to their true selves.

Former President Clinton called her one of a kind, and there was more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY GATLIN, SINGER: She was an incredible tornado of fun. She was smart. She was a great performer.

DIANE WARREN, GRAMMY AWARD WINNING SONGWRITER: She was so full of light and life and never stopped.

LORRIE MORGAN, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: She was for everybody. And she was an inspiration.

CHELY WRIGHT, COUNTRY MUSIC ARTIST: She should have run for President. She'd be a sure win for sure

CHRIS JANSON, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: You are born into this world knowing who Dolly Parton is.

DIONNE WARWICK, AWARD-WINNING SINGER AND ACTRESS: She was just a wonderful, wonderful lady, I'm going to miss her a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Dolly Parton's funeral will be a small private service for immediate family members. She'll be buried next to her late husband, Carl Dean, who died last year. Instead of flowers, the family is asking that people make donations to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

I spoke earlier with my friend Andy Cohen about Dolly Parton's legacy and his experiences with her over the years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Andy, thank you so much for joining us. I know you're on vacation, or at least at your house in the country. You were a huge dolly parton fan. What did her music mean to you?

ANDY COHEN, HOST "WATCH WHAT HAPPENS LIVE": It meant everything to me. I mean, you know, it's incredible how much she meant to so many people. I've never seen a celebrity's death affect people just in these last few hours, the way that Dolly is touching people. She was so much more than just an incredible musician and songwriter.

She played so many instruments. Her voice was so beautiful. She touched so many parts of music and the entertainment industry and just her joy and enthusiasm and spirit was so overwhelming. And she was also such a positive person. And she did so much for so many people that it's just hard not to be sad and think that, you know, this was someone that just was always around in so many avenues of our lives.

COOPER: You actually, first of all, you have an Andy Warhol painting of Dolly Parton in your house.

COHEN: I do, I bought it, right before covid, which was great timing because I was shut in and I just stared at Dolly Parton, uh, all day long. And at one point my son ben turned to me, quite presciently at one point and said, Daddy, is that God? And I said, well, Ben, you just might be on to something. A lot of people think, you know, that she is.

And, you know, she was a woman of great faith. And that was very important to her, her faith. And I know that her family probably, you know, feels that she's in a better place but, you know, that was very important to her, her faith.

COOPER: She actually surprised you by calling in to "Watch What Happens Live" to wish you a happy birthday. And I just want to play some of that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Oh, is it Dolly Parton?

PARTON: Yes.

COHEN: Oh, it's Dolly Parton, wow, oh my God, Dolly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh sweet.

COHEN: Oh my God, best birthday ever. Dolly, I love you so much. PARTON: Happy Birthday. I love you too. It's all about that bass, about that bass, anyway.

COHEN: Dolly, it's my birthday. Can you just confess tonight that you wrote about me, "Little Andy" is about me?

PARTON: Yeah, I love Andy and I love you. And I wrote ain't you got no gingerbread. Ain't you got no candy. Ain't you got some birthday cake for me and "Little Andy."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Oh my God.

COOPER: Isn't that surreal to have somebody you've long admired, you know, like, surprise you and know who you are and call you in. And to have a relationship with someone and like, did like little Andy Cohen growing up in Clayton, Missouri believe one day he would be friends with Dolly Parton?

[20:10:02]

COHEN: It's very, yes, it's surreal that, you know, one of the great gifts of, I think both of our lives, we could both say that. And I think anyone who came in contact with Dolly Parton probably felt that they were touched by an angel of sorts. And, Anderson, you and I were dear friends with Dolly's longtime manager, Sandy Gallin.

So, we got to meet Dolly at various dinners and social events, and she was -- I remember Sandy on, on a different birthday of mine, years before he got her to call me and sing me and "Little Andy" and me and "Little Andy" is one of the most depressing songs that she wrote in her entire catalog. And she wrote thousands of songs, but she described that song as quite pitiful. it's very sad.

COOPER: I remember meeting her, Sandy and Dolly shared, I guess, owned or co-owned an apartment together in New York, that they would, you know, occasionally stay in. And I think that's probably where I first met her. You, I mean, you interviewed her a bunch of times over the years. You asked her about the first time she heard Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You". She said it was one of the proudest moments of her life, and amazingly, she was saying she heard it on the radio and didn't know that Whitney Houston was going to record it.

COHEN: Yes, I think that that recording took her by surprise somehow. But the even bigger story relating to "I Will Always Love You" is that Elvis Presley tried to record the song many years before, and he wanted. And he said, I'll record it, which would have been a big break for her. But he said, I want to own the publishing. And she refused to sell him the publishing to the song because she thought that it would someday be worth something.

And that gives you a sense of how smart of a business mind she was. And if you look at Dollywood and all of her business ventures, she was a quite prolific producer. She owned her entire catalogue. She wrote all of her music and songs. I think one of the only hits she ever had that she didn't write was "Here You Come Again" which was a huge song. There I am shopping at Dollywood.

Dollywood is an incredible place. You know, I think, I think it's a testament to Dolly Parton and the love that people have for her that she created this theme park. And one would think, oh, well, how egotistical or, you know, what does that mean? But she was the most humble person. And it's not only a celebration of Dolly, but it's a celebration of music, and it's a celebration of the place that she was from, the smoky mountains, which she loved so much. And she gave so much to that community. And, to the people who live there, she was such a charitable person.

You remember she gave a million dollars to help fund the COVID vaccine, and she's given hundreds of millions of dollars in free books through her imagination library, uh, to help kids who don't have access to books to learn how to read.

So she was, you know, she was so funny. And she used to joke about, you know, how expensive it was to make herself look so cheap, her joke. But, she was very humble and she was always the butt of her own jokes. And I think she was a real, uh, testament to, you know, the way that you should live your life. And also, there were so many times in the last five years where, um, people were trying to build statues of her and they were really trying to deify her the older she got.

And she kept refusing it and saying, hey, she would say, I'm not dead yet. But she would also say, you know, I'm not worthy of this. You know, I'm a, I'm a child of God. And it came back to her faith. And I think we could all learn from that.

COOPER: Yes. Well, the fact that, I mean, she had the career that she did remain true to herself and lasted through generation after generation after generation and decade after decade. I mean, she's always been, you know, a part of our lives as long as we can remember and she will be missed. Andy Cohen, thank you so much.

COHEN: Thanks, handsome man.

COOPER: On CNN, Shimon Prokupecz is in Nashville, where the capital of country music is mourning, Dolly Parton tonight. He joins us now. What have you been hearing from folks in Nashville today?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, people are out here now, Anderson. it's still early and I'm sure as the night goes on, more people will be celebrating many of the bars have already started to play. A lot of her music. People that are walking through up and down this street here on Broadway.

You can hear the music, you can hear the people, and people will no doubt here. Later, Anderson, be celebrating her life. She meant so much to Nashville, and Nashville really meant so much to her. This is where she became a star at such a young age. To come here and to be embraced by this community, by the country music community being inducted and being a part of the grand ole opry. And what a moment that was for her, because that gave her that title. It made her distinguished. That happened to her at such a young age and really solidified and began her career and on such a great path. And country music legend, I was never a country music fan, but certainly I knew who Dolly Parton was throughout my life, and it was always her generosity and all the money she made through the music and what she did in this community and for the state, the greatest gift she gave. And certainly, people all over the world feel it was to give back. And that was her greatest joy. And certainly, the people here in Nashville are going to celebrate her.

You know, we know that outside her home, flowers are being placed. The country music museum, there are flowers being placed. So, people are really starting to gather and remember her, but celebrate her life and really take to what she meant to the country, to the world about giving and kindness. And what she did is just incredible -- Anderson.

COOPER: Shimon Prokupecz, appreciate it from Nashville. Thanks very much.

Coming up next, filmmaker Ken Burns, Dolly Parton's voice, her story, and remarkable personal personality all play a big part in his 2019 documentary series country music. We'll talk to ken ahead.

And later, legendary music writer and director Cameron Crowe joins me. Also tonight, returns from key races and runoffs as another installment of election night in America unfolds.

[20:21:28]

COOPER: An outpouring of remembrances tonight for Dolly Parton, the iconic country music superstar, actress, businesswoman, philanthropist who died today at the age of 80 from cancer.

Over a career that spanned decades, her quick-witted personality and signature Tennessee twang captured the hearts of millions. Director Ken Burns interviewed her for an episode of his eight-part 2019 documentary, country music. Earlier, we touched on how her hit song "I Will Always Love You" was a farewell of sorts to her longtime collaborator, Porter Wagoner. Here is Dolly Parton, in her own words in Ken's documentary, sharing the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARTON: He was going to sue me, he was going to do this, he was going to do that. And so, I went home. I thought, he's not going to listen to me because I've said it over and over. And so, I thought, do what you do best. Just write a song.

So, I wrote the song, took it back in the next day, and I said, Porter, sit down, I got something I have to sing to you. So, I sang it, and he was sitting at his desk and he was crying. He said, that's the best thing he ever wrote. Okay, you can go, but only if I can produce that record. And he did and the rest is history.

VOICE OVER: Released a few months after she left, it would go on to become Dolly Parton's best-selling song.

DOLLY PARTON singing "I Will Always Love You":

LYRICS: If I should stay, I would only be in your way. So, I'll go but I know, I'll think of you each step of the way and I will always love you, will love always love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And Ken Burns joins me now. That song was so pivotal in in her career and in her life.

KEN BURNS, DIRECTOR "COUNTRY MUSIC": Yes, it's her declaration of independence from Porter Wagoner and it's an amazing one. I had, of course, heard, as most of us had, the Whitney Houston version, which is so spectacular and diving deep into country music to learn the sort of heart of this story was magnificent.

She was something else. I met her a couple of times in the early 90s. She was formidable, she was smart, she was authentic, she was resolutely herself. You felt like there was some just steel in there. And yet she had a generosity and a beauty. You know, she said, growing up in East Tennessee, that she modeled her look off the town trollop, as she put it diplomatically, because she said, I thought she was the most beautiful girl id ever seen and it was it was so moving.

And, you know, Andy was right that that she, you know, went her sense of humor was so great. She says it costs a lot of money to look this cheap. And she also said, although I look like a drag queens Christmas tree, I am at heart a simple country girl, you know, it's just she give you both sides of it and everything. I am not offended by all the dumb blond jokes because I know I am not dumb, she said. And I'm not blond either.

And you know, there was just that incredible joie de vivre that she had that I just found so irresistible. All of us who came in touch with her when we were working on the film, and her sense of placement in country music, you know, you get into those bar stool conversations, you know, who's the best? Is it Hank Williams? Is it Jimmie Rodgers? Is it Johnny Cash? Is it Merle Haggard? To which I always say, is it Dolly Parton?

You know her, "Jolene", not just "I Will Always Love You", but "Jolene" and not her song here you come again. First time I ever heard her was in city hall park. I was coming out to lunch trying to raise money for my first film, and I heard this voice and I couldn't believe it. And I grabbed somebody and said, who is that? They said it was Dolly Parton. Don't you know, like, I was an idiot and I was an idiot.

She has this amazing voice, Wynton Marsalis told me that she never sung a wrong note in her life. And you can hear that even in that simple encore show, that that rendition of "I Will Always Love You", there's an ease and a grace to it, a generosity. And yet she's this amazing business woman.

You've talked about the thing with Elvis and Colonel Parker and the publishing rights, she sort of stood up for herself. That's what the declaration of independence that that song is from Porter Wagoner. She knew she was going someplace.

You know, when, when, when she moved to Hollywood in the early 70s. They can, you know, people accused her in Nashville of, you know, selling out. She goes, you know, I'm not leaving country music. I'm taking it with me, you know, and, and she had that kind of chutzpah to be able that you to actually think that she could carry this whole music, which she did out to the rest of us, shared it in popular music, crossed the line, recrossed. It was an extraordinary star.

And at the heart of it is this generosity, this virtue, this spirit, this deep, deep faith that allowed her to be able to be many things to many different people. I love the way she straddled it, and at the same time, she is a conduit back to hundreds of years of a folk tradition, however, modern, however, pop, however, country she might be. She's also recalling these songs that are, as she put it in our film, Welsh and Irish and Scottish and English, and her mother would sing them and she said that was the way we carried the news through the hollers of east Tennessee.

And so, this gal born, as you said, you know, so poor that her father paid the doctor with a bag of cornmeal sack of cornmeal. We can't even imagine the poverty that she was born into. And yet she didn't feel that. She felt she had a rich upbringing. You know, she understood the sting and shame in the coat of many colors. But that's only later.

She felt the love in in her home. And she brought it and shared it with the rest of us. And it's, you know, I feel a little bit lonely, I've been listening to her all, all afternoon, all the songs. And I don't know any song better than "Jolene". It's a melody song.

COOPER: She also, I mean, she knew the history of, of country music. I mean, it wasn't just, you know, she knew its roots and which you made this incredible documentary series about what is it you think about country music that is so iconically American, that is so, I mean, you talked about the Welsh roots and roots from elsewhere, but it is such a it is this incredible American art form.

BURNS: It is an incredible American art form and it's a blend. It isn't just that Anglo-Saxon tradition that she grew up with. And the next holler over, there's an African-American tradition that has brought the banjo, an African instrument, into play. And so, what you have, as someone said in our film on country music, a rub, a kind of friction that takes place and we know where the friction between races is bad.

Well, country music is the place where it's good and it has an elemental simplicity to it. Just look at her song "I Will Always Love You". What is she saying? I will always love you. I will always love you. I will always love you. And it's one of the most beautiful love songs of all time. Who has the courage to say it that way?

Someone said that country music is three chords and the truth. It doesn't have a lot of virtuosity the way you might find in jazz music or classical music, but what it has is it kind of mainlines human emotion directly into our hearts. Theres nobody on earth that can't be affected by Hank Williams saying, I'm so lonesome I could cry, or "Jolene", please don't take her.

This is a one woman's cry to another woman. Please don't take her just because. Don't take him just because you can. You know, she knows that she's not as pretty as Jolene, and she's begging her woman to woman not to take her man. I mean, there is just elemental truth and human experience in this. And this is maybe the greatest delivery vehicle of them all.

COOPER: Ken Burns, I'm so glad you're with us tonight. Thank you so much.

BURNS: Great to be with you, Mister.

COOPER: Yes, me too.

Just ahead, another legendary filmmaker, music fan and music writer, Cameron Crowe, his Dolly Parton stories, including the time she opened for Elvis and did what no one else could, making his rowdy fans forget the king of rock and roll for quite a while.

Coming up next, though, a quick update on election night in America and a crucial test the President's cloud. We'll be right back.

[20:30:38]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:35:17]

COOPER: We're remembering Dolly Parton tonight, and we're going to be joined in a few moments by legendary filmmaker and music journalist Cameron Crowe. But it is also election night in America, racist night in Oklahoma, Georgia and South Carolina. So we're going to do a quick update on what is happening with the President's influence being tested in the Senate runoff between Darline Graham, who he endorsed and is standing by despite several gaffes on her part.

She holds the seat held by her late brother, Lindsey, and is facing Congressman Ralph Norman tonight. Right now, she's holding about a four-point lead with about 66 percent of the votes counted.

CNN's John King is on assignment in Colorado. He joins us with his traveling version of the metric wall. So, John, where does this race stand at the moment?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting, Anderson, you note the lead of about four points right now, a little more than four points. Senator Graham at 52 percent and the very early return. She had a big double-digit lead that it narrowed and was consistent as we started to move from the 30s and the 40s at about eight points.

But it got very close very recently, got to a four-point races. We're now at 66 percent. So how did that happen? If you look at the map right now, you look through the counties. Congressman Ralph Norman, who's running second, is winning north, central and northwest South Carolina. His home district, his congressional district is based, headquartered there, the base of it in Rock Hill.

So he is winning the part of the state where he is from. The reason he was able to close the gap so much is he's winning the most populous county in the state, which is Greenville County, which is also a very Republican county. And you see is very healthy margin there.

That is why Congressman Norman has made this a competitive race. So should they be nervous inside Graham headquarters as the vote count goes on. Of course, you want to keep going here again, just a little over a four-point race.

But if you go through the other major counties, Richland County, that's where the capital Columbia is. You see it here. She has a very healthy margin there. Then you move over to the coast down here, Charleston County, where the city of Charleston is obviously, again, along the coast down here.

Look at the healthy lead Senator Graham has there. And then the fourth largest county is Horry County. That's up here. That's home to Myrtle Beach. And again, a giant lead up there. Doesn't mean those leads will hold up. But you saw this, the charge, if you will, the closing of the gap by Congressman Norman. And you think, you know, can he come back?

But if you just look at the map right now, mathematically, maybe. But he's -- this is the same thing that happened two weeks ago on the primary. He is running very strong in and around the area near his congressional district. But Senator Graham, with no one else in the race now two weeks later, is winning every county out of the northwest corner of the state.

So it looks good for her. It's 67 percent, but it's still close. So we'll count the votes and get to the finish line.

COOPER: President Trump obviously won South Carolina by 18 points in 2024 over Harris. Is it possible to tell from this runoff how he's doing with his base? Is there anything in the numbers that would show that?

KING: If these numbers hold up, the President will end what you'd have to say is a decent -- rough stretch. Go through the entire primary season. We're almost to the end of it. A few more to come in early September.

The President overwhelmingly has had a dominant role in Republican primaries, but he has had a rough stretch of late. His candidate, Mike Lindell, lost in Minnesota governor, a couple of congressional races in Florida last week. Tennessee is another one.

You can find places on the map where the President has struggled, where his endorsement has not worked. He has invested a lot of personal time and a lot of money. His PAC has invested a lot of money here in South Carolina.

This is not a big margin for Senator Graham. So some people will say it is a sign that main street -- mainline conservatives, if you will, are, look, are rallying around Congressman Norman. But the White House will take this as a win is a win. It's been a tough year for the President.

We're 10 weeks in. So we count the votes 10 weeks from tonight in a midterm year where the President still has an incredibly hard wind dead in his face. So if this holds up, he will celebrate a win. But if the margin stays this close, it's certainly not an overwhelming win.

COOPER: And just looking beyond South Carolina toward the general, which party has the momentum, you think, to win control of Congress?

KING: Without a doubt, the Democrats have the momentum. They have to win more seats than they thought at the beginning of the year because the Republican redistricting advantage throughout this year. So if you look at the math, the Democrats need to pick up three house seats.

I'm standing in Colorado's 8th congressional district. The Republican won this two years ago. Trump carried this district by two points. This is one of the most competitive, evenly divided politically districts in the country. The Democrats hope to pick it up.

One of the questions here, the more progressive candidate won the primary, not a more moderate candidate. Some Democrats are a little nervous, as they are in some other places in the country, that they might have nominated the candidate of passion for the primary electorate. Will that candidate struggle in the general election?

But 10 weeks out, Anderson, Democrats are on a good path to take the House. The question is, can they take the Senate? They need net plus four to do that. They're a little nervous about Michigan there. So Democrats have the momentum.You can find places on the map, though, where around those Democrats, many of you draw a little question mark.

COOPER: All right. John King, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Up next, more on the life and legacy of Dolly Parton. I'm going to talk to filmmaker and music journalist Cameron Crowe. Before we go to break, here's another clip from Ken Burns' interview with her for his documentary, "Country Music."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

[20:40:11]

DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN: I grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. My mother was a great singer. She had one of those old mountain voices. She used to sing all those songs from the old world, Barb'ry Allen, "Beneath the Weeping Willow Tree."

She said that's how people used to carry the news when they brought those old songs over from the old world. Those old Irish, English, Scottish, Welsh ballads. She told a great story, and it was all believable. So just watching mom was like watching TV, hearing her sing and tell all these stories.

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[20:45:24]

PARTON: Are we still on?

COOPER: Yes, yes, we're still on.

PARTON: You were talking about hair.

COOPER: Yes.

PARTON: I've always been so curious about your hair. I didn't know if you were --

COOPER: It's a wig. Actually, it's --

PARTON: No, but I want to ask you, I never can tell if you're a really young person that looks more distinguished and older, or if you're a really --

COOPER: Right.

PARTON: -- older person that looks really young.

COOPER: I'm 44.

PARTON: But you're very young.

COOPER: But I started going gray when I was about 21.

PARTON: Because --

COOPER: It started as a spot and then just like spread.

PARTON: I knew it, but it's beautiful.

COOPER: Yes.

PARTON: My husband's a gray-headed, too. I love it.

COOPER: Yes. I used to say I was prematurely gray, but unfortunately, my age has now caught up with my hair, so.

PARTON: But I just wonder, because you're beautiful.

COOPER: Wow, thank you.

PARTON: You're just beautiful, but I just couldn't tell if you were older and looked, you know, younger --

COOPER: Right.

PARTON: -- and younger look. Now we know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: She was as nice off screen as she is on screen. Dolly Parton with me back in 2012. A welcome memory on this night where so many of us feel sadness over her death. She was 80 years old.

Her publicist revealing tonight she faced a brief battle with cancer. She is forever remembered for her music, of course, her moments on the big and small screen, as well as her kindness and generosity.

Joining me now, legendary filmmaker Cameron Crowe, who started out as a music journalist when he was still in high school. Cameron, I'm wondering what is going through your mind tonight as you think about Dolly Parton's incredible career?

CAMERON CROWE, FILMMAKER AND JOURNALIST: First of all, I just love how you guys were tearing it up there in that clip you just showed. That's some chemistry you guys had going there. She was --

COOPER: She did a lot of fun.

CROWE: -- brilliant in the way. She -- clearly, you guys had fun -- but she was so clearly a brilliant user of her own popularity. She knew how to be famous and make it not feel like it was separating her fans from who she was. There was no us and them with Dolly Parton. It was us.

And I think that's why people are lined up today, all kinds of people, to say what she meant to them. And that comes from her. You know, she never did an interview where she said, it's so hard being me. I can't go to the grocery store. I'm so famous.

No, what I got from her is it's fun being me. It's fun being me with you. We're fun together. And I just think that's what fans remember. And that's why she lives forever in a warm and intimate way.

COOPER: That's such an interesting way of phrasing it. And I think it's so -- it's so true. I think everybody who met her, and even if you didn't actually meet her, you felt like you met her. You certainly felt like you knew her.

CROWE: Yes. She's in your family. You know, you just knew her, but you knew she was going to make fun of the way she looked and that was going to bring you closer to her. And, you know, then you see Ken Burns clip from his film and you just see the depth of her understanding of the music she was passing through along to generations. You know, she really knew how to occupy the job of being Dolly Parton.

COOPER: So you saw her -- I got to hear this story, you just saw her open up for Elvis Presley? CROWE: Yes.

COOPER: When, where, how, what?

CROWE: I did. I did. It was Long Beach Arena. I had seen Elvis once before. I won tickets as a little guy on a radio contest. I saw him in San Diego and it was like a wrestling crowd. Like, there was a comedian that came on first and they devoured this guy.

I mean, I think ultimately he had to say, I'm a friend of Elvis to get them to just calm down. So when I knew Dolly Parton was going to be on the show with Elvis, it was like, oh my God, this -- she's going to crawl into the lion's den. What is going to happen?

And, in fact, a brilliant thing happened. She crawled into the lion's den for 40 minutes and they forgot about the lion. It was all about Dolly --

COOPER: Yes.

CROWE: -- and these intimate songs about people. And that's -- that was one of her great tools for touching people that she was able to be, you know, the luminous personality that she was, but also know people so well. And to write about the intimate heartbreaks and joy, it's stuff that, you know, Bob Dylan sat and paid a lot of attention to.

This is how to write about people. And those songs will live forever. Along with her big heart, you know, she was a quiet genius and a quiet gift as a philanthropist. She didn't talk a lot about what she was doing we're hearing about it now. And it was a lot.

COOPER: It's -- what year was that concert?

CROWE: '76. So I was listening to this thing about, I will always love you. So it was kind of in the same vicinity --

COOPER: Yes.

CROWE: -- 76. So I was listening to this thing about, "I Will Always Love You" --

COOPER: It's amazing to me --

CROWE: -- so it was kind of in the same vicinity --

COOPER: Yes.

CROWE: -- of that. So I have to dig into this a little bit more and get where it stood in the history of it, but it was a surprising kind of a combination. But it was a clear look at how she knew how to control an audience, erasing the line between star and the people sitting in the seats.

COOPER: It's so interesting a cut --

CROWE: She need still --

COOPER: -- given the backstory with that song of "I Will Always Love You," which Elvis wanted to record.

[20:50:39]

And as we talked about earlier in the program, his manager called her up and said, you know, Elvis doesn't record something that he doesn't own, or at least own half of, and she passed on selling him any rights to that song very wisely.

So it's cool that she was opening up for him as well. And also that she could do 40 plus minutes and in front of that audience that didn't -- wasn't there to see her. They were there to see Elvis. That's amazing.

CROWE: It is amazing. And the fact that she was so savvy as to go up against Colonel Parker and say, no, no, I know the value of this song. I -- I'll opt out of that. That's someone that knew her value and knew how to graciously step aside and let the song have a life in a different way. Really a stunning move on her part.

COOPER: It's, you know, she did have a Hollywood career as well. I knew her manager in Hollywood, Sandy Gallin. She was in, you know --

CROWE: Yes.

COOPER: -- she became known to audiences in a whole other way as an actress, as an actor.

CROWE: So natural too. So natural and funny. And it's not easy to do that. You know, not a lot of people cross over and are able to understand what it's like to be, you know, compelling and funny, just with, you know, with a big honking camera, you know, a foot and a half away from you, but she stepped right into it.

And I think it was just a matter of her humanity because the camera picks up all that stuff. And sure enough, there it was, you know, on big screens everywhere. You could really feel her empathy and her caring for the other characters.

It's very hard to separate yourself from the job you're doing and be that person for everybody to relate to, you know, on it, on the big, big screen. And man, she did it. She did it and made it look easy. Like so much of her other stuff that is not easy to pull off.

COOPER: Yes. Yes, she sure did. Cameron Crowe, I love talking to you. Thank you so much.

CROWE: Best. Thank you, Anderson. Great to see you.

COOPER: All right, you take care. Cameron Crowe.

Coming up, our Randi Kaye takes a closer look at Dolly Parton's remarkable life and some of those songs that Cameron described so well. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:14]

COOPER: A growing memorial tonight outside Dolly Parton's home in Brentwood, Tennessee. We have been remembering the queen of country who died today at a hospital nearby in Nashville at the age of 80. According to her publicist, she was surrounded by loved ones and had faced what her publicist called a brief battle with cancer.

Here's Randi Kaye with more on Dolly Parton's life and incredible legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was quite simply an American original. In her 70-year show business career, Dolly Parton sang, acted and charmed her way into the hearts of millions and built a music catalog for the ages.

PARTON: I love that I can write because I can express everything.

KAYE (voice-over): Among her iconic hits, a plea to a local bank teller Dolly thought might have eyes for her husband.

(SINGING)

KAYE (voice-over): Always true to her Tennessee roots, she was also a pioneer in the world of country pop crossover artists. Dolly's songs were so popular, in fact, not only were they hits for her, they became hits for others.

(SINGING)

KAYE (voice-over): In time, the movie industry beckoned.

(SINGING)

KAYE (voice-over): It turned out Dolly Parton was as memorable on the silver screen as she was on the stage.

PARTON: Well, why wasn't he? He's got you for poisoning him and me for robbing him and you for acting like he was first prize at a turkey shoot.

Well, thank goodness, because this is going in the hair new hall of fame.

KAYE (voice-over): She was so beloved that in 2019, the New York Times declared that if there was one thing Americans could agree on, even in hyper polarized times, it was their love for Dolly Parton. And if there were those who didn't take her seriously because of the hair and the makeup and the outfits, well, that didn't bother Dolly, who famously said it takes a lot of money to look this cheap. And made it clear early on that she was in on the joke. PARTON: I know exactly what I'm doing and I can change it at any time. I make more jokes about myself than than anybody, because I enjoy, I know. Like I say, I am sure of myself as a person.

KAYE (voice-over): As for her legacy, Dolly Parton pointed to her Worldwide Imagination Library program funded by her Dollywood Foundation. The program gives books away to preschool age children every month.

PARTON: That's been a wonderful program because my dad couldn't read and write. And so that's what inspired me to do that program. When you think of me when I'm gone, I'd like you to smile and think, oh, she was funny. I just like to be known for what I think I am --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PARTON: -- which is just a regular person.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PARTON: I always say I'm a workhorse that looks like a show horse. I just hope I leave something good behind for other people to enjoy.

KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: What an incredible life.

That is all for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. I'll see you tomorrow.