Dolly Parton’s nephew, who revealed her death in a video message, is pushing back against her estate’s claims of threats and extortion.
Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, served as the music legend’s head of security for over 20 years before appearing in the Instagram video announcing her death on August 25, at age 80. Seaver inherited the security role from his father. Soon after Parton’s death, however, Parton’s manager, Danny Nozell, fired him and then sued him for allegedly making “violent” threats against the estate.
Now, Seaver is calling the suit a “publicity stunt.”
“We remain unshakably resolved to fulfill her final directive to protect her family,” Seaver told TMZ, “and 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.” He later told ABC News, “I’ve never threatened anyone,” adding, “They are my friends and my brothers and colleagues.”
Still, he admitted in his previous statement, “I am a security professional, and I am a killer.”
As for the email and text message correspondence Nozell included in the lawsuit, which shows Seaver stating, “I’m literally an international arms dealer and mercenary. All I do is warfare. Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do,” and “Her money better be bigger than I can make elsewhere or I’m going to f--- everyone,” Seaver said that he was just “grieving.”
“Nothing in his lawsuit were threats, and most of the comments I stand by,” he told ABC News. “I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny, who I thought was my friend... A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving.”
Seaver, a former police investigator who describes himself as a “career soldier and military contractor,” oversaw the security of Parton’s main home in Nashville, as well as her museum, downtown residence, and warehouse until Nozell accused him of harassment and violent threats following Parton’s death.
Seaver explained his reputation as a “killer” was “a joke” among Parton and her team.
“Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp,” he added to ABC. “I was her ‘baby boy ninja,’ and Danny Nozell took that text out of context to somehow imagine that I was threatening him. He’s always called me ‘The Killer.’”
