Nancy Dillon
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Dolly Parton and Danny Nozell on Feb. 8, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Michael Kovac/Getty Images/The Recording Academy Dolly Parton’s longtime manager has dropped his lawsuit alleging that the singer’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, posed a threat to her business empire after her death.
In a notice of voluntary dismissal filed Thursday, Danny Nozell and his lawyers said they were abandoning the claims without prejudice, meaning they could bring them again. The filing came shortly before Nozell’s deadline to respond to Seaver’s forceful denials of the allegations, and ahead of a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Lawyers for both sides did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment on the reason for the dismissal or whether the parties had reached a settlement.
At the hearing, a Nashville judge was expected to consider extending a prior restraining order that barred Seaver from coming within 1,000 feet of Parton’s employees and business partners, entering private property controlled by her posthumous company, She’s Alive LLC, or engaging in disruptive or harassing conduct.
The bitter legal feud spilled into public view in September when Nozell sued Seaver in Nashville Chancery Court, accusing him of waging an “obscene, deliberate, and escalating campaign of threats” intended to create “fear and chaos to extort money for his personal gain.” Nozell, who worked with and managed Parton for about two decades, is the sole manager of She’s Alive, a company that oversees the Dollywood theme park in Tennessee and the SongTeller hotel in Nashville, which houses a museum dedicated to Parton. Seaver, the son of Parton’s sister Cassie, vehemently denies threatening anyone.
The initial complaint, filed Sept. 22, cited a series of provocative messages sent by Seaver, which included statements such as, “I am about to become the hand of retribution for my entire family,” and “I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer.” In one message, Seaver allegedly threatened to launch a podcast aimed at damaging Parton’s brand partnerships, ending with the apparent demand: “Or fucking pay me.”
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Seaver forcefully disputed the allegations in court filings last month. He said his “pay me” remark referred to $251,000 he was owed for security services he had already provided to Parton and reflected his frustration with a bank’s new invoicing requirements. He further acknowledged that some of his private messages were profane, but he argued Nozell had taken them out of context to discredit him. Seaver said he was grieving Parton’s illness and death when he sent them, and he claimed that Nozell had encouraged some of his sentiments and even “hearted” a text in which Seaver said he was an arms dealer and mercenary. “Clearly, he wasn’t frightened or intimidated,” Seaver said of Nozell.
Seaver was the family member who announced Parton’s Aug. 25 death in a prerecorded video posted to her Instagram account that drew millions of reactions. According to court filings, he previously worked for private military contractors and provided security for Parton and her properties through his company, Squadron Augmented Protection Services.
In granting the initial temporary restraining order in September, Judge I’Ashea L. Myles said the messages cited in the complaint appeared to combine threats with demands for payment. In her ruling, she cited one message allegedly sent Aug. 19, about a week before Parton’s death at age 80. “I’m going to destroy the entire brand if you don’t get these [Dollywood business partners] out of our bit,” Seaver allegedly wrote.
In his response, Seaver included more context for the texts. In the same text where he mentioned he would “destroy the entire brand,” he went on to say, “I’ll earn you more money by virtue of their exit. Embarrassment on them at every turn is the answer. Let me keep at them. It costs you nothing. I am your ally. This is long game you need to start doing on them. The Dollywood brand is dying.”
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But the judge said the messages appeared to establish a “repeated course of conduct” in which Seaver allegedly coupled “threats with demands for payment or other action,” while invoking “his claimed access to weapons, experience with violence, and intention to retaliate.”
