Dolly Parton’s management company has accused her nephew of “threats, intimidation, and coercion”, revealing a bitter battle over the late star’s legacy and business interests. The accusations against Bryan Seaver, who was Parton’s head of security and was handpicked to announce her death last month, have been made public in legal documents filed this week. The company that manages Parton’s businesses and properties, She’s Alive, is seeking a temporary civil restraining order against him. In court filings, She’s Alive alleged that Seaver mounted “an obscene, deliberate and escalating campaign of threats”, claiming he would ruin her empire if the estate did not pay him.
He has denied the claims. In a statement to TMZ, external, he said that text messages and emails quoted in the case had been taken out of context to make it look like he was threatening people. “Nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by,” he said. “A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.” Seaver, the son of Parton’s sister Cassie, owns a company that provided the singer’s security detail for the last 20 years of her life.
Last week, he was fired by She’s Alive as head of security for her properties. In a statement at the time, Seaver and his company said the dismissal was “unexpected” and “unexplained”. They added: “We refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith and with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much.” The request for a restraining order was filed in Nashville on Tuesday by She’s Alive, which is run by Parton’s longtime manager Danny Nozell. The court documents quoted a series of exchanges in which someone, identified by the estate as Seaver, threatened to destroy Parton’s brand.
In one, he said he would become “the hand of retribution for my entire family”, according to the court documents. Another said: “I’m going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It’s going to be great. Or [expletive] pay me.” The papers also claimed that Seaver used his experience as a military contractor to intimidate employees.
In an exchange with one of Parton’s lawyers, he allegedly described himself as a “killer” and said that on the day his aunt died, he had sold $27m (£20m) in arms and ammunition to the Haitian police. “All I do is warfare… Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do,” he was accused of saying, according to a copy of an email attached to the complaint. In his statement to TMZ, Seaver said: “I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments.
I am a security professional and I am a killer.” But he denied making threats and said he had been “talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend”. The messages have resulted in some employees and lawyers for Parton’s trusts and estates resigning, according to the court documents. She’s Alive has also had to hire private security for its employees, including at their homes, the filing states. The BBC has contacted Seaver and She’s Alive for further comment.
Previously, Seaver was known to the public for announcing his aunt’s death in a video posted to her Instagram account on 25 August. Speaking in front of a black background, he was sombre and reflective as he introduced himself and shared the unexpected news. “This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said in the video. Seaver added that he had followed in his father Larry’s footsteps in becoming Parton’s head of security, a post he held for more than 20 years.
Nozell started working for Parton in 2004, first as a tour consultant and later as her manager. In the 2019 Netflix film, Dolly Parton: Here I Am, he said his job was to transform her from a “heritage act” into a “superstar”, and he took responsibility for reviving her international touring career. In a statement last month, he said the singer had “worked up until the day she died” on multiple projects, and envisioned a legacy that continued long beyond her death. “She loved seeing her dreams come to life, and loved knowing her work brought people joy,” he said in the statement.
“Ever the planner, Dolly worked with the team that she handpicked, for the past several years to build a project roadmap that will guide us for decades to come.” The estate now faces a public tug of war over that legacy. Dolly Parton laid to rest alongside husband in Nashville ‘If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain’: The wit and wisdom of Dolly Parton Heart, hope and a steely determination: Dolly Parton’s musical legacy
