The world is mourning the late, great Dolly Parton.
The beloved singer, actor, author and philanthropist died today at a Nashville hospital after a brief battle with cancer.
She was 80.
Among the many artists to pay tribute to Parton is award-winning Newcastle singer-songwriter Catherine Britt, who was 18 when she first met her idol at a recording studio in Nashville in 2003.
Britt had signed with RCA Records the previous year, having famously been "discovered" by Sir Elton John in 2002 as a teen. Parton released some of her greatest hits while signed with RCA Records, including Jolene, Here You Come Again and I Will Always Love You.
"This was horrible news to wake up to. It's so sad," Britt told the Newcastle Herald while road-tripping north for this year's Gympie Music Muster.
"I went with my manager to meet Dolly at the studio when I was much younger, and she was so kind. So tiny! And so sweet.
"We took photos and I kept trying to leave because I felt guilty taking up her time, but she wouldn't let me. She acted like she had all the time in the world and she didn't want to let me go.
"It was like she wanted me to feel important. She commented on my clothes and hair and made me feel comfortable.
"She was so professional, and so kind, and so generous with her time."
The pair met again in 2005 when Britt and fellow singer Martina McBride performed for Parton when she received a Country Radio Hall of Fame career achievement award in Nashville.
"Martina sang I Will Always Love You, 9 to 5, all the big hits, and I sang some of her more obscure songs - I wanted to show Dolly I was a true fan, you know? I sang To Daddy, made famous by Emmylou Harris but Dolly wrote it, and Little Sparrow," she said.
"Dolly got up on stage afterwards and thanked us both, but she got my name wrong. I think she called me Katrina, from memory, and then she immediately corrected herself and kept apologising to me while on stage.
"She even called my manager on the way home and said to him 'It meant the world to me that she sang my songs so beautifully, I'm so grateful, please apologise to her from me'.
"And the next morning I woke up to my doorbell ringing and there was a bunch of flowers and a note from Dolly, thanking me again for my performance.
"Everything she did, she gave it 100 per cent. I don't think she ever half-arsed anything.
"I watched her perform in the Hunter Valley after I opened for her, and she ran all over the stage, back and forth, and she was playing all these different musical instruments. She didn't stop. She had so much energy.
"I remember thinking 'How does she do it?'. She was just amazing. I don't think we'll ever come across anyone like Dolly ever again. She was one of a kind."
Britt and John Williamson opened for Parton on her Blue Smoke World Tour in the Hunter Valley in 2014. She says Parton loved to make fun of her trademark over-the-top appearance, laughingly describing herself as "fake" or "artificial".
Her talent, though, was undeniably authentic.
"Dolly was one of the best singers I've ever heard live, she wrote some of the best songs ever, and she was an incredible musician. She played multiple instruments well," Britt said.
"She wasn't just glitz and glamour, she was talented. She was a good person who did incredible things, like starting the Imagination Library [which delivers free books to children in the first five years of life].
"She wanted every child to have a book, because she didn't have any as a child.
"And if you go to Dollywood, which I have done many times, everyone that works there is a family member. She wanted to give back because her family was so poor. She didn't want that for them."
Britt fell in love with country music at the age of nine when she heard the music of Loretta Lynn.
Her father then introduced her to Dolly Parton. Britt was hooked.
"I had to know everything about her. I read every book. I will always be a huge fan of hers," she said.
Britt will perform a special tribute to Parton at the Gympie Music Muster during a DJ set by Peking Duk's Reuben Styles, aka Y.O.G.A.
"He rang earlier today and asked me if I wanted to jump up on stage to do a song with him, and I said yes, but it has to be a Dolly song," she said.
