Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reflected on Wednesday morning that Dolly Parton's 2011 Australian tour would not have proceeded without his intervention, as tributes flowed for the country music legend who died earlier that day.
Parton, who passed away at age 80, only toured Australia three times in her six-decade career: 1979, 2011, and 2014. Her 2011 tour faced a significant hurdle when her two tour buses, which she brought with her due to her aversion to flying, exceeded Australian vehicle standards. The 14.5-meter-long buses were found by customs to be nearly two meters too long, five centimeters too wide, and overweight for Australian roads. Officials in New South Wales also raised concerns about the buses' doors opening into traffic, as they were designed for U.S. conditions with doors on the right side.
Parton's U.S. management threatened to cancel the three-week tour, which included stops in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, the Hunter Valley, Melbourne, and Brisbane. "The message was kind of, 'No bus – no tour,'" recalled Matthew Lazarus-Hall, boss of Chugg Entertainment, at the time.
Local promoters contacted Albanese, then the Transport Minister, who intervened to ensure the tour could proceed. "She was going to cancel the tour and it was worth in excess of $30m – tickets had already been sold," Albanese recalled in 2024. "She has a bus that is larger than the regulations and the bureaucrats say is not allowed on NSW roads and on roads in Australia, so I intervened."
Parton vowed at the time to give Albanese "a huge cuddle" and later personally thanked him during a press conference upon her arrival in Australia. "Now I don't know if he's here today but if he is you can come up here and I'll smear lip gloss all over you," she said, a playful remark that has since been widely recalled.
Albanese recounted the interaction on ABC's Spicks and Specks in 2024, joking, "What goes on tour stays on tour." He also made a lighthearted comment about the buses: "They were too wide and too long... I was like 'for goodness' sake, can't you get one of those vans in front with the sign Big Bus Coming?' And so, we got her in."
Reflecting on the incident on Wednesday, Albanese said, "Dolly Parton made our world a better place in so many ways, it’s hard to imagine the world without her." He praised her talent as a singer, songwriter, actor, author, and philanthropist, noting her "big, radiant heart" and compassionate personality. "One of the joys of my time in government was when I was able to help Dolly overcome a bit of red tape and get her tour bus onto Australian roads in 2011. It was a magical experience meeting her, but what was even better was seeing her among her legions of local fans." He concluded by encouraging people to listen to her music and stating, "May the great Dolly Parton rest in peace."