Dolly Parton got her COVID-19 vaccine shot and shared the moment Tuesday on social media to encourage others to do the same.
“I’m old enough to get it and I’m smart enough to get it,” the 75-year-old country music icon said before Dr. Naji Abumrad gave her the shot at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“I wanted to tell everybody that you should get out there and do it, too.”
Parton received the Moderna vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Vanderbilt with a $1 million U.S. contribution from the singer.
When the Moderna vaccine was approved in the U.S. last November, a footnote in the New England Journal of Medicine report credited “the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund.”
Before getting vaccinated, Parton sang a customized version of her 1974 hit “Jolene.”
She sang: “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine / I’m begging of you please / don’t hesitate / Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine / ‘Cuz once you’re dead then that’s a bit too late.”
Parton also told her fans she is “dead serious” about the vaccine because “we all want to get back to normal, whatever that is.”
Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine. @VUMChealth pic.twitter.com/38kJrDzLqC
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) March 2, 2021