Garth Brooks‘ daughter, Allie, revealed to fans that her “biggest fear” is her father dying, and then being publicly mourned like Dolly Parton.
“My greatest fear in life is the day my Dad loses his life and I have to see the world mourn a man they never knew the way I knew him,” Allie, herself a singer, wrote on Instagram. “To the personal family and friends of Mrs. Dolly you have all my love and condolences today and forever going forward.”
She added: “What a huge, beautiful, special life to have loved and to grieve. Thank you for sharing her with us all.”
The social media post came not long after Parton’s family confirmed her death on Tuesday. The country music icon died following a “brief battle with cancer” at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville after being hospitalized there Aug. 21.
It was among a flood of tributes for the Queen of Country, though Allie’s post was met with some backlash.
“Difference is you won’t have to worry about that. Dolly is being mourned worldwide, your situation won’t be that way. So relax,” one person said, with Allie responding to the comment with a clown emoji.
“Maybe I’m confused? How is this a good way of putting it? No one is allowed to be sad except the family? That’s wild,” another wrote.
Brooks’ daughter also acknowledged this commenter, writing: “this is my account— I am saying I don’t know how to respond to these things in my industry because of my life experiences. I’m not telling anyone else how to grieve. I’m just acknowledging the family. You do you babe.”
Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, separately paid tribute to Parton by declaring Sept. 25 at their Nashville bar — Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk — “Dolly Day.” The date references her hit song “9 to 5.” What’s more the bar’s profits that day will be donated to children’s literacy.