Ricky Schroder slammed over Dolly tribute as new song awaits in 2046
Country icon died this week at 80 after a brief battle with cancer
Author of the article:Mark Daniell
Published Aug 27, 2026 • Last updated 18 hours ago • 4 minute read
Ricky Schroder has come under fire over his Dolly Parton tribute.
Ricky Schroder has come under fire after sharing his Dolly Parton tribute. Photo by Ricky Schroder /Instagram
NYPD Blue star Ricky Schroder is catching heat after honouring the late Dolly Parton with a transphobic and anti-vaccine tribute.
“I didn’t agree with her advocating for Transgender & Covid Vaccine support…but Loved her anyway,” Schroder wrote Tuesday on Instagram, alongside a photo of two of them posing for a photo.
Schroder, 56, played a fictional version of Parton’s father in a pair of TV movies: 2015’s Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and its 2016 sequel, Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Love.
“Thank you for choosing me Dolly to be your Movie Daddy,” Schroder wrote.
Ricky Schroder’s social media tribute to Dolly Parton has drawn outrage.
Ricky Schroder’s social media tribute to Dolly Parton has drawn outrage. Photo by Ricky Schroder /Threads
After the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Parton, who died Tuesday at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer, donated $1 million to support a vaccine that was developed by Moderna.
“It was a shot in the arm,” Mark Denison, emeritus professor of pediatrics at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, told the New York Times. “We were starting this work but we didn’t have specific funding for it, and she recognized that this was a critical human problem that was going to impact the country and the world. It allowed us to quickly scale up and get into the lab.”
Parton was also a fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, telling Billboard in 2014, “The sin of judging is just as bad as any other sin they might say somebody else is committing. I try to love everybody.”
‘Not ONE positive response’
Schroder‘s post generated more than 18,500 likes, but his remembrance sparked backlash among numerous fans and celebrities.
“Man who the f*** are you? Literally, who are you?” one person asked. “Did you act in anything worthwhile or are you just another schlock actor who never made it big and blame the ‘wokes’ for lack of talent to make it big.”
“Such a trashy comment. No class. Dolly would be disgusted. Another D-list ‘celebrity’ using someone’s death to spew their hatred. Who’s the snowflake now?” another wrote.
“I have NEVER seen a ratio of negative comments like this on any post. It’s truly amazing, I mean, not ONE positive response …” a third person added.
On Threads, former Today co-anchor Katie Couric replied to Schroder‘s message with one word —“Ick.”
Alternative band Garbage, fronted by Shirley Manson, also told Schroder to “F*** off.”
Culture Club’s Boy George told Schroder to “shut up.”
Elsewhere, one Threads user called out Schroder’s “s*****, self-centered tribute.”
“Ricky, she just died. You could have honoured her without using her death to remind everyone that you disapproved of her supporting trans people and vaccines,” Steven Havre wrote.
Schroder regularly shares conservative content on social media, including a recent post in which he rebranded the Democratic Socialists of America as the “demonic socialists of America.”
In another post, Schroder published a photo of a portable bulletproof enclosure, captioning the image: “Please design this for Trump.”
Parton left one final song for fans to hear in 2046
Following Parton’s death Tuesday, TMZ reported that Parton will be buried in her signature high heels and a comfortable cotton dress at Nashville’s Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum beside her late husband, Carl Dean. Her closest family and loved ones are expected to be in attendance.
But more than a decade before her death, Parton had already chosen the song she wanted to be played at her funeral — and it was not her famous track, I Will Always Love You.
“There’s a song called If We Never Meet Again,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2014. “It’s an old country-gospel church song that talks about if we never meet again this side of heaven, I will meet you on that beautiful shore. ‘Where the charming roses bloom forever and where separations come no more.’ That was my daddy’s favourite. We did sing it at his funeral, and I would like it to be sung at mine.”
Parton’s musical contributions will also continue from beyond the grave.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had placed a secret song called My Place in History in a time capsule at her Dollywood resort in Tennessee in 2015. But the track won’t be heard until Jan. 19, 2046, Parton’s 100th birthday.
“There’s no telling what music is going to be by then,” she wrote in her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, according to Billboard. “Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing ain’t rotted.”
During an appearance on the Dolly Parton’s America podcast in 2019, Parton said that she had written “hundreds, even thousands of songs.”
“There’s enough stuff to go on forever with my music — to do compilation albums, to do actually new and original stuff,” she said, according to the AFP. “So that will go on forever. I’m one of those people that believe in being prepared.”
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20K likes, 5,251 comments - rickyschroder on August 25, 2026: "I didnt agree with her advocating for Transgender & Covid Vaccine support…but Loved her anyway. Thank you for choosing me Dolly to be your Movie Daddy.".
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enette Wilford
