Zac Brown Band's first show after Dolly Parton died fell at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City, and the frontman used it to play the song the two of them made together. "Butterfly", from the band's 2025 album Love & Fear, had not been aired on this tour before. It got its tour debut on a Thursday night, two days after Parton's death in Nashville at 80.
The staging of it mattered. Brown spoke about Parton and about working with her, then began the song alone at the piano before the rest of the band came in behind him. That is a deliberately exposed way to open a song in a stadium, and it separated the tribute from the rest of a long, busy set.
The show was the first of two nights at Forest Hills. Alongside "Butterfly", the band played four more from Love & Fear: "I Ain't Worried About It", "Animal", "Hard Run" and "What You Gonna Do", the last of which launched an acoustic segment that also took in a Mumford and Sons cover.
The second electric stretch opened with the tour debut of "Jump Right In" from the 2012 album Uncaged, then moved through "Free", paired with Van Morrison's "Into The Mystic", plus "Knee Deep", "Colder Weather" linked to the Eagles' "Take It To The Limit", and "Chicken Fried". The band closed the night on a run of covers, taking in Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On", Beck's "Loser", Bad Bunny's "Titi Me Pregunto" and finally Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird".
Brown's tribute did not stop at the stadium. He appeared on CBS Mornings to talk about "Butterfly" and posted a tribute of his own on Instagram, which puts him among the more visible of the artists who worked with Parton directly rather than admired her from a distance.
The band repeated the gesture two nights later in Philadelphia, where they brought out Grace Potter and Amos Lee at The Mann and played "Butterfly" again. Their dates sit alongside the rest of the country and rock calendar on the tour guide.
Parton's death has produced a fortnight of these moments across every format. Her own story is here, and the tributes have run from arena encores to state fair karaoke. Brown's was one of the few that could reach for a song the two of them actually recorded.
The facts
- Zac Brown Band played Butterfly, their Dolly Parton collaboration, at Forest Hills Stadium
- It was the song's tour debut and the band's first show since Parton's death
- Butterfly appears on the 2025 album Love & Fear
- Brown began the song alone on piano before the band joined
- The set closed with covers including Bad Bunny's Titi Me Pregunto and Free Bird
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