Orville Peck Delivers Poignant Performance Of Dolly Parton’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ In London

Orville Peck paid tribute to Dolly Parton during his solo concert at Rough Trade East in London on Tuesday, hours after news broke of the country music icon’s death at age 80. Peck addressed the crowd about Parton’s influence before opening the set with a cover of her signature ballad, “I Will Always Love You.”

Before the performance, Peck spoke to the crowd about Parton, saying:

“I’m going to be really just quickly real with you guys and say I’m a little bit of a mess right now. I don’t know, maybe some of you have heard. Yeah, Dolly Parton passed away.

“I think the thing about Dolly that’s really sad, that she’s gone, is I think she was like the most universally loved person, and she really just stood for kindness, and I think that’s something that is really lacking in the world these days, and so I think that’s really sad. And I hope we can always remember that’s what she stood for.

“I don’t think I ever thought of the concept of having a hero, and I think Dolly was my hero, because I think as a gay man coming into country music and feeling sort of alone, the thing that always felt comforting was just knowing Dolly existed in country. It made me feel like I had a friend there.

“So, we love Dolly.”

Peck’s nine-song set opened with “I Will Always Love You” and continued with “Out of Time,” “Already Gone,” “Hexie Mountains,” “Blush,” “Lafayette,” “Dead of Night,” “Kalahari Down” and “Daytona Sand.”

On of her best known songs, “I Will Always Love You” was written by Parton and recorded for a single she released in 1974. The song became a massive hit for Whitney Houston, who recorded a version of it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard, co-starring Houston and Kevin Costner. Houston’s version is among the most worldwide popular and best-selling releases of all-time.

Watch Orville Peck express his admiration for Dolly Parton and portion of his performance of “I Will Always Love You” from the intimate show at Rough Trade: