Reba Gets Emotional Talking About How Dolly Parton Offered Her Whole Band To Keep The Tour Going Following Tragic Plane Crash In 1991

Dolly Parton is as real and good as they come.

On March 16th, 1991 seven of Reba’s band members, as well as her tour manager, were tragically killed in a plane crash flying from a show near San Diego, California. They had performed for a group of IBM executives, and had planned to go straight from there to Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her tour manager Jim Hammon, keyboardist and bandleader Kirk Cappello, fellow keyboardist Joey Cigainero, drummer Tony Saputo, guitarists Michael Thomas and Chris Austin, bassist Terry Jackson and backup singer Paula Kaye Evans, as well as the two pilots, Donald Holmes and Christopher Hollinger, were all killed that day.

Reba almost ended up on the plane, as well, but had decided last minute to stay the night in San Diego because she was still dealing with a bout of bronchitis. Her then-husband, Narvel Blackstock, and stylist, Sandy Spika, stayed the night with her. The rest of her crew left in two separate planes from a private airport, but the first of the two that took off crashed just 10 minutes from the airport.

The tragic incident led her to write an album, For My Broken Heart, dedicated to her beloved band and crew members, which she added in the liner notes was:

“A form of healing for all our broken hearts.”

In her 1994 autobiography Reba: My Story, she says that she was jolted awake at 2AM by her hotel phone ringing. At first, she thought an excited fan had gotten the number to her room, or that someone possibly had the wrong number.

But it was Roger Woolsey on the other line, Reba’s pilot, who wanted Narvel to come up to his room immediately. Roger quickly got dressed to go up there, and he couldn’t even answer any of Reba’s questions about what was going on as he hurried up to get more details. She recounted some of the details from that night in her book:

“I sat upright in bed. I wouldn’t lie down again until the next night at my home in Tennessee. Later, Narvel would describe Roger as being white as a sheet when he walked into his room.

‘I watched everybody get on both planes,’ Roger said to Narvel. ‘Both planes taxied to the end of the runway and I got in my car to come back to the hotel.’”

Ultimately, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that Holmes, the main pilot, had called an FAA service specialist to find out how long he needed to wait to take off.

He was told he could take off immediately if he used if he used “visual flight rules,” which means he was required to know the area and terrain. He called back two more times before they took off, but mainly because he wanted to confirm he wouldn’t cross into the complex map of controlled air space in the region. According to Biography.com, he was told it was fine to direct the plane northeast and remain below 3,000 feet. A few minutes after takeoff, around 1:45AM, they were flying at 3,300 feet when the left wing clipped an outcropping of 3,500-foot Otay Mountain, sending it into the rocky peak with a massive explosion.

It was an awful tragedy that still deeply affects Reba to this day, and shortly after the crash, Reba would go on to win ACM Female Vocalist of the Year in 1991, and she dedicated that win to her band:

It was an extremely traumatic situation, obviously, and though Reba went onto have a legendary career, it was her friend Mrs. Dolly Parton who showed up big-time during Reba’s time of need and sadness.

In a recent interview with Variety, Reba recalled some of the times she has gotten to work with Dolly in the past, notably on the duet the reimagining of the duet “Does He Love You” in 2022, and Dolly even appeared on Reba’s hit self-titled sitcom many years ago, though it was how Dolly stepped up in the early 90’s that still makes Reba emotional.

She explained that Dolly called her right after the crash to offer comfort, and also offered to let Reba use her band and do anything else she needed to try to keep her career obligations going as best as she could during that awful time. Reba was visibly emotional talk abut how Dolly ultimately sent her band leader, Gary Smith, to help put a new band together.

Along with Vince Gill, who also offered to play with her as well as letting her use his band, Reba says they were “right there for me the whole time”:

“I also got to record ‘Does He Love You’ with Dolly Parton. She is a dream come true, getting to work with her. I mean, she beat you there. That was so aggravating to me. I was going to be there ready to go, shoot the first thing that we were gonna do, and then Dolly would come in. Well, for some reason, the trailer I was gonna use on set, the air conditioning broke down or something was wrong.

And so I had to go by my office, get ready there, and then come to the set. Dolly was already there. I wanted to beat her there so bad to show her the hospitality, welcoming and everything, but she’s a sweetheart. She did the ‘Reba’ TV show with me, came on an episode. When I lost my band in ’91 to a plane crash, Dolly called me, she said, ‘What do you need? Do you want my band?’ She sent Gary Smith, her band leader, to put a band together for me. She and Vince Gill were right there for me the whole time.”

Just impeccable person, and another example of Dolly’s pure heart and genuine kindness that makes her so special. You can tell how much that gesture still means to Reba to this day, and it’s inspiring to hear about how Dolly has always gone out of her way to help others:

@varietymagazine Reba McEntire talks about collaborating with Dolly Parton. #PowerOfWomen ♬ original sound – Variety

“Does He Love You”

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