Key Takeaways
- Dolly Parton’s longtime manager, Danny Nozell, asked a court to bar her nephew and former security chief Bryan Seaver from contacting business partners or coming within 1,000 feet of company offices.
- Nozell alleges Seaver used his military background, access to weapons, and statements including “I’m a killer” to pressure him for money, while Seaver maintains his comments were not threats.
- The filing follows Seaver’s September 15 firing from Parton’s properties amid a broader dispute over the DP Dean Trust and the late singer’s estimated $650 million fortune.
Dolly Parton's longtime manager has asked a court for a temporary restraining order against the late singer’s nephew, Bryan Seaver.
According to TMZ, Danny Nozell filed suit Tuesday (September 22) through the entity She's Alive, LLC. The filing is asking a judge to bar Seaver — who besides being Parton's nephew, also ran security at her properties for more than two decades — from interfering with Parton's business or contacting its business partners, and to order him to stay 1,000 feet from the offices.
Nozell alleges Seaver invoked his self-described work as a military contractor, his access to weapons, and his capacity for violence to pressure him into handing over money.
Among the alleged messages attributed to Seaver in the filing is a blunt line about what he does for a living. "I'm not an entertainment person. I'm a killer," one message reportedly reads, while another says: "All I do is warfare ... everyone needs to be worried about what I might do."
The filing also quotes Seaver allegedly threatening to take the family dispute public: "I'm going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly's brand partnership and telling the violations these people have done on us."
Seaver is said to have responded by confirming his background and rejecting the characterization of his words: "I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments. I am a security professional and I am a killer... However, nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by."
Seaver is the son of Dolly Parton's sister, Cassie Parton, and he had become one of the singer's most trusted relatives. He was the family member who announced her death on August 25, telling fans that "Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus."
Nozell alleges the intimidation started several weeks before Dolly Parton died and carried on after her death. Seaver was terminated September 15, and a new security team took over her main Nashville home, her museum, a downtown residence, and a warehouse.
The termination letter cited changes in ownership of the Parton properties and said the decision came from the DP Dean Trust Group to protect the trust and its beneficiaries as a whole.
That trust, named for Parton and her late husband Carl Dean, holds the properties and business interests at the center of a dispute over her estimated $650 million fortune.
The legal fight lands days after Parton's posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award video screened at the Ryman Auditorium, and after her sister Stella Parton pushed back publicly on misinformation circulating about the family.
Seaver's own beneficiary interest in the DP Dean Trust remains intact, and the co-trustees said they would contact him about it in the near future.
