Jennifer Aniston reveals 'dear friend' Dolly Parton's heartfelt words of advice that she tries to live by

Jennifer Aniston paid tribute to Dolly Parton this week, and revealed the nuggets of wisdom shared by the late country singer that she tries to live by.

While hosting a Q&A in New York City with her boyfriend, Jim Curtis, Jennifer couldn’t help but stop to honour the legacy of her "dear friend" - joking that everyone in the world was suffering from “post Parton” blues. Despite the sadness, Jennifer thought of Dolly when she was asked what’s the best piece of advice she could give.

She shared that Dolly would often say, "'I chased a few rainbows and I caught some, I caught a few.'" The Friends star movingly added, "Go chase your dreams and go catch some rainbows. You’ll catch a few. [Dolly] did that, for sure."

Jennifer is paraphrasing one of Dolly’s famous quotes that was also a song lyric from her 2014 track, Try. In the inspirational song, Dolly sings, "I've chased after rainbows, I've captured one or two. I've reached for the stars, I've even held a few”.

Dolly and Jennifer became friends when they collaborated on the 2018 Netflix movie, Dumplin’, which featured Dolly as an off-screen influence and inspiration for the title character. The movie even featured existing and original music from the singer.

True to Dolly’s nature, Jennifer revealed at the time just how generous she had been during the making of the film. “She was only supposed to write one song and she ended up writing six,” she said. “The movie wouldn’t have been made if she said no.”

The two would even record together for the film, and Jennifer earned Dolly’s respect. “She did good, though, I have to say,” Dolly told Entertainment Tonight at the time. "She was a little nervous at the start, but she walked in there like she does everything else, like a real pro."

For Jennifer’s part, she recalled that she “burst into tears” after getting the chance to sing with Dolly, a hero of hers. In fact, Jennifer once had a dog named after Dolly.

When she appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show back in 2018, Jennifer shared, “I loved her since I was little. You know, sang into a hairbrush singing Dolly Parton. I told her that I named my dog after her.

She added, “Dolly and I were doing press and somehow that came up. And then… she was like, ‘I know when she said I named my dog Dolly after you, I don’t know how I felt about that.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, God, I’ve insulted her.'"

Fortunately, Dolly couldn’t have been too insulted. The pair remained friendly and reportedly gave Jennifer her blessing for her planned remake of Dolly’s movie, 9 to 5. It’s reported that Jennifer has been working on a reimagining of the 1980 comedy film which co-starred Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

In 2025, Dolly said of the remake, “I love Jennifer. I think it’ll be a wonderful thing… I do wish her the best, because the script I read, I thought, was really good and a new and different take that really brings the office up to date the way that people live now”.