Long before Zachary Wood ever stood backstage with Dolly Parton, worked on one of her dresses or sat with her on her tour bus, he felt as though he already knew her.

As a child growing up in Moore County, Wood remembers riding country roads with his grandfather while listening to Parton on cassette. One album in particular, “Eagle When She Flies,” became part of those childhood memories.

“My grandfather and I would go on little country roads when I was a kid,” Wood recalled. “I admired the picture of Dolly on the cover of that cassette, and it was almost like a person I had never met, a relative that I felt like I knew for a lifetime.”

Wood dreamed of meeting her someday.

Years later, that dream came true. Then it became something he never could have imagined as a child.

In 2016, Wood received meet-and-greet passes for his birthday to Parton’s Pure & Simple Tour stop in Charleston, South Carolina. I was there with Zach that night, not knowing it would be the first of several times our paths would cross with Parton.

For Wood, though, this was the moment a childhood dream became reality.

“I often tell people the first time I ever met Dolly was like looking at an angel,” Wood said. “I still remember the moment I laid eyes on her. She sparkled. She lit up the entire room, from her voice to the perfume and just the light that she put off.”

For Wood, finally standing face-to-face with the person whose music had been part of his childhood was a milestone he never expected to reach.

“It meant a lot to me emotionally because I admired her for so long,” he said. “From a little cassette to getting to finally meet her in life felt like a milestone. It was a true dream come true that I never in a million years thought I would ever get to achieve.”

Wood brought something with him that day: an orchid arrangement he had made especially for Parton. He had hand-rhinestoned the container holding the flowers.

“I felt that I was finally getting to meet my idol, so the least I could do would be to bring her something beautiful,” he said.

It turned out to be more than a gift.

During that experience, Wood became friends with Parton’s longtime creative director, Steve Summers. Summers noticed the work Wood had put into the rhinestoned container, and eventually Wood’s creativity would open a door he never expected.

While visiting Summers in Nashville, Wood was asked to help finish rhinestone work on one of Parton’s dresses.

That dress would be worn by Parton at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“It was a bit overwhelming, but at the same time very exciting,” Wood said. “I could feel inside my body was just shaking because there was a dress of Dolly’s in front of me that I was rhinestoning by hand alongside Rebecca Seaver, Dolly’s niece.”

Then came the moment Wood saw Parton wearing it on television.

“My idol was on television with the dress that I touched,” he said. “It was just an overwhelming experience.”

His friendship with Summers would lead to other opportunities to lend a hand with Parton’s wardrobe.

One of the most memorable came at Dollywood following the devastating 2016 wildfires in the Gatlinburg area.

Summers needed help with last-minute work on one of Parton’s costumes and handed Wood a project: wings.

“He presented the project to me, the wings, and basically showed me what his vision was, and he gave me the full run to create from there,” Wood recalled.

Wood created the wings, but what happened next became another moment he could never have imagined during those childhood drives through Moore County.

He received a call telling him that Parton and Summers wanted him to come to Parton’s tour bus and see the wings on her before the public did.

“It was a bit of an overwhelming moment, because here I was, just a small-town country guy creating wings for Dolly for a costume,” Wood said. “It was a very heartfelt moment and very touching moment. And seeing her wear something that I created was quite fascinating, and it felt like a dream that I never thought would be accomplished.”

For about 10 to 15 minutes, it was just Wood, Parton, Summers and me on the bus.

There were no crowds of fans, managers or public relations staff around. It was simply a private moment spent talking and laughing away from the public spotlight.

For Wood, it provided a rare glimpse of one of the world’s biggest entertainers in private. What he discovered was that the Dolly Parton people saw on television and on stage was the same person behind the scenes.

“Dolly was a what-you-saw-in-public-is-what-you-got-in-private type person,” Wood said. “She was just such a bubbly person, very humble, polite and inviting.”

And then came a feeling Wood had experienced before.

“She was like being around someone I’ve known my entire life,” he said.

It was a remarkable full-circle moment.

As a child riding through Moore County with his grandfather, Wood had looked at Parton’s picture on a cassette and felt as though she were someone he had somehow known for years.

Now he was sitting on her tour bus.

And despite the decades of hit records, movies, awards and worldwide fame separating the woman on that cassette from the superstar sitting in front of him, Wood said Parton had a way of making all of that disappear.

He wasn’t made to feel as though he was spending time with a global superstar. He felt as though he was simply spending time with someone he had known forever.

Years later, one of the outfits Wood helped create would take on another significance.

The outfit featuring the wings was included in Parton’s 2023 book, “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones,” which chronicled her life and career through some of her most memorable fashions.

For Wood, seeing something he helped create preserved in a book about the woman he had admired since childhood was difficult to put into words.

“Someone who admired Dolly his entire childhood got to see true dreams come true,” Wood said. “Dolly has always said that dreams can come true. And mine did. And that meant the world to me.”

Following Parton’s death, those memories have taken on even greater meaning.

Wood hopes people remember more than the rhinestones, music, movies and larger-than-life image. He wants them to remember the kindness he says was just as genuine away from the spotlight.

“I want people to remember Dolly just as she was, very humble, polite, loving, caring, seeing the bright side of things in the world, spreading more love and sharing kindness with each other,” Wood said. “I think Dolly would want us to remember her just as she was, and that’s something we can continue to do with her legacy that she’s created and left behind with us.”

Wood also hopes those looking for a way to honor Parton will consider supporting one of the causes most closely associated with her legacy: Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The program provides free, age-appropriate books mailed to children from birth to age 5. The Imagination Library operates in North Carolina, including here in Moore County, where local children are among those who benefit from the program.

For Wood, supporting that work is one way people can help carry forward the generosity and love for others that he saw firsthand.

His own story with Parton, though, will always come back to those childhood rides with his grandfather.

A little boy from Moore County listened to Dolly Parton on a cassette, looked at her picture and somehow felt like she was someone he had known his whole life.

He dreamed that maybe one day he would get to meet her.

He did.

And when that dream eventually grew into something much more, allowing him to work on her clothes, see his creations worn by his idol and spend time with her away from the spotlight, Wood discovered something about the woman he had admired since childhood.

She still made him feel like he had known her his whole life.

“I feel very honored and blessed to have been graced with Dolly’s presence,” Wood said, “and I feel that her legacy will forever live in our hearts.”

Editor’s note: Zachary Wood is the husband of Moore County News Publisher Patrick Priest. Priest also knew Parton and was present for several of the experiences described in this story.