Dolly Parton's One Yes Changed My Life: Former Dollywood Staffer Recalls His Unforgettable Duet with the Country Legend

Dolly Parton's former Dollywood employee Aaron Crisler knows a thing or two about shooting for the stars. Today he's a successful Nashville publicist, but Crisler tells PEOPLE that long before that, he was an aspiring singer and lifelong Dolly Parton fan.

"I grew up a little boy in a trailer park on the outskirts of Atlanta. My mom was a Dolly Parton fan and first saw her in concert with the Porter Wagoner Show back in the day," he says. "The very first song I ever sang was '9 to 5.'"

Thus, in the early 2000s, when Crisler got the opportunity to audition to be a performer at Dollywood, Parton's Tennessee amusement park, he jumped at it. For a year, he performed in the show Let the Good Times Roll and in The Mistletones for Christmas, an a cappella singing group. He encountered Parton a few times, always in awe of the legendary star. "She came through the theater and said hello to everybody, poked her head into the dressing room. I was just in awe," he recalls.

But that didn't stop the aspiring young singer from boldly taking a chance a couple of years later. "I recorded a solo project, and I had the crazy idea to ask Dolly Parton to sing on it with me. I told some friends of mine, and they're like, 'You are crazy. She's not going to sing on your solo project.' I was like, 'Well, I sang at Dollywood. She knows who I am. We talked a few times. I mean, the Bible says you have not because you asked not, so why not ask?'"

And that's exactly what he did. "I wrote her a letter and I called her secretary Teresa at her publishing office. She said, 'Well, Dolly gets all of her own mail. She's out of the country right now, but she'll read your mail. And if she wants to do it, she'll say yes. And if she doesn't want to do it, she'll say no.'"

The Letter That Changed Everything

After a little over a month, Crisler got his answer. "In August of 2003, I got a letter at my post office in my tiny town of Austell, Georgia."

'Dear Aaron, I have just been going through my mail that has piled up and came across your letter. I'm honored that you want to sing one of my songs. If it's not too late, hopefully I can make time to sing on it with you. Stay in touch with Teresa, my assistant, and we'll try to work it into my schedule. Good luck with your solo album. Love Dolly.'

"I couldn't believe it," he says.

At the time, Crisler was working as a bagger at Winn-Dixie and had no money. He followed up with Teresa and had saved up $500 to book studio time in Nashville. "I did not sleep the night before. Me and my mom, we didn't have money to get a hotel room so we woke up the morning of and drove to Nashville to do a duet with Dolly."

Once in the room together, Parton was the same giving, consummate professional the world knows her to be. "She spent an hour and a half with me in the studio," says Crisler of her helping him recreate her gospel song "High and Mighty" as a duet for his album. "I just remember her going, 'Now, is this good for you? Is it like you want me to sing it?' And I was like, 'It's your song!' And she goes, 'I want to make it perfect for you.'"

When they were done, Crisler says he just had to ask, "'Why did you do this with me? I'm nobody special.' And she goes, 'Well, I remember you from Dollywood. I remember you as a good singer and I figured I'd do it for everybody else. Why the heck not do it for you, too?'"

Little did Parton know, she gave much more than her voice that day. "Through the years I have realized that Dolly's one yes completely changed my life," says Crisler, now 48, who went on to become a photographer and music publicist. "I've always been a confident person, but Dolly's one yes to a little boy who grew up in a trailer park taught me that anything is possible and the sky's the limit."

A Full Circle Moment

Last year, exactly a year from the day the star died after a "brief battle with cancer" on Aug. 25, Crisler got the chance to tell her that face-to-face. During Nashville tryouts for her self-titled Broadway musical, Parton's manager invited Crisler to stay behind after the show. "I got to spend 10-15 minutes with her and tell her how I feel like God used her to change my life and how I carry that yes with me every single day and that it inspires me to push and to keep going and to always go for it."

To that, "she hugged me and said, 'Well, God works everything out, don't he?' And I said, 'Yes, he sure does.'"

Crisler still holds onto the memorabilia from that day the letter, the photos, the memories. He carries the lesson with him every day: that a single yes from someone you admire can change the trajectory of your life. Dolly Parton's kindness, generosity, and belief in a young man she barely knew has rippled through his entire career and personal journey.

As he reflects on that moment, Crisler says it's not just about the duet. It's about what it represents: the power of asking, the power of believing, and the power of someone else believing in you. "I carry that, yes, with me every single day," he says. And it's clear that he always will.