Dolly Parton had a musical message for her fans as she received a shot of the Covid vaccine she helped to fund.
The 75-year-old singer broke into song while getting the Moderna vaccine in a video she shared on Tuesday, adapting the lyrics to her song Jolene.
“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate,” she sang. Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, because once you’re dead, then that’s a bit too late.”
Dolly helped fund the Moderna vaccine after donating one million dollars (about £716,000) to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennessee.
The video of herself receiving her first dose was geniously captioned on her social media accounts: “Dolly gets a dose of her own medicine.”
“I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting a while,” she said. “I’m old enough to get it and I’m smart enough to get it.
“I’m trying to be funny now, but I’m dead serious about the vaccine. I think we all want to get back to normal, whatever that is. And that would be a great shot in the arm, wouldn’t it, if we could get back to that?
“But anyhow, I just wanted to encourage everybody because the sooner we get to feeling better, the sooner we are going to get back to being normal.”
Addressing those hesitant about the vaccine, Dolly said: “I just want to say to all of you cowards out there – don’t be such a chicken squat. Get out there and get your shot.”
She then masked up before inviting a doctor, who was an old friend of hers into the room to get her jab.
After he knocked an item off the table while preparing the jab, Dolly joked: “I didn’t know you was going to be so clumsy, I hope you’re going to do better with my shot!”
Dolly also explained she was wearing an appropriate top to receive a vaccine in, as it had holes in the upper arm.
Despite her donation to the vaccine, Dolly said last month that she would not be jumping the queue to receive it.
“When I get it, I’ll probably do it on camera so people will know and I’ll tell them the truth, if I have symptoms and all that,” she told The Associated Press in an interview. “Hopefully it’ll encourage people. I’m not going to jump the line just because I could.”