Inside Dolly Parton’s New Travel Stop

By Jeff Lenard

The legendary Dolly Parton—country music superstar, theme park owner, award-winning actress and philanthropist—just added a new title to her long resume: Travel center operator.

On June 24, Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop opened for business, focusing on the idea that every stop on the highway should feel a little more like home. The travel stop is a joint venture between Parton, her manager Danny Nozell and Gregory H. Sachs, who has owned and operated the Tennessean Travel Stop brand since 2017. 

The travel stop, located about 60 miles south of Nashville, is a reimagined and renovated Tennessean Travel Stop and a proof of concept that will inform future locations.

Greg Sachs, Dolly’s business partner in the venture, told me at the grand opening that a few years ago he wanted to reimagine the travel stop into more of a destination. And he came to one logical conclusion.

“Who is better in the world to personify kindness and hospitality than Dolly Parton? I am extremely proud and blessed to call her my friend and my partner,” he said. 

“I’m sure some of you want to know why I wanted a truck stop,” Parton said before cutting the ribbon that officially opened the store. “Well, I couldn’t leave it to the beavers,” she joked, referencing another well-known large travel stop.

“I have spent the bulk of my life on the road, and more specifically on a bus. All the years spent visiting greasy spoon cafes, truck stops and roadside pit stops have given me an understanding of what travelers desire on the road,” said Parton in a press release announcing the site last year.

Here are a few of my observations about the new store:

• Food first: Like the rest of the industry, Dolly’s has a huge focus on foodservice. There are barbeque offerings from DLY BBQ, a full-service café and restaurant, and an ice cream and coffee concept called Cup of Ambition, whose name plays off a line in her hit song “9 to 5.”
• The destination is the stop: Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop certainly has all the elements of a c-store, whether offers at the pump or inside the store. But more than that, it is a destination in itself for all the merch that is for sale. Anything you could possibly imagine is available with either the word “Dolly” or her image, plus plenty of butterfly imagery, since they are considered her personal emblem. Beyond the merch, the store celebrates Dolly with quotes and images throughout the space, plus a gorgeous chandelier made of several dozen guitars that overlooks the main shopping area. 
• A place to feel at home: The former Tennessean was known as a hangout for locals in the small town of Cornersville, featuring dance and trivia nights, and that local feel has been expanded. For one, there is a stage that is connected to the café and restaurant, plus there are upstairs lounges and a screened in hangout area that has firepits and overlooks the main store. Whether you are local or travelling through town, it definitely had what it promised: that “Where the road feels like home” vibe.
• Instagram-ready moments everywhere: What’s the sense in going somewhere if you can’t celebrate it, right? Dolly’s presents multiple locations to take pictures that pop. There’s a customized mural right next to an old tour bus that you can walk in but either way, both had big lines of people wanting to capture the moment. And you don’t have to have a dog to enjoy the playful signage and action in Doggie Parton Dog Park. 
• A place for truckers and tourists: The site is called a travel stop, not a truck stop, but it also functions like one. Showers and other amenities are tailored toward truckers, and there is a larger parking lot for trucks to stay overnight. And with some estimates suggesting that about half of all truckers sometimes bring pets on the road, Doggie Parton Dog Park is the perfect solution. (I am assuming that no one brings their cats on long-haul trips, but I could be wrong.)

Another highlight of the store: a prominently displayed, framed NACS Magazine article from 2025 highlighting the Tennessean.

A big part of Dolly’s future is the performance area that will incorporate local or regional musicians—Nashville is about an hour away from Cornersville. Music at c-stores is rare, but not unheard of. I visited Jubitz Travel Center in Portland in 2013 to film an Ideas 2 Go video the day that Kacey Musgraves played a show at the travel center. More recently, All-American Rejects played a pop-up concert at Sheetz in 2025. No, I wasn’t there.

This also isn’t Dolly’s first connection to the industry. In 1986, she was the banquet entertainment at the 1986 NACS Annual Meeting in New Orleans. (It wasn’t called the NACS Show until the mid-1990s.)

“She was an amazingly versatile performer, as she played several musical instruments including the sax. She was an excellent entertainer in spite of her admission to me that she had a bit of a cold,” said then-NACS President & CEO Kerley LeBoeuf. “That show was also our second real exposition in a convention center and we hit the big time with our exhibitors—our early success into the ‘connections’ pillar of the real value of NACS.”

So maybe it’s time for Dolly to retitle and record her No.1 hit “9 to 5,” an ode to traditional office hours, to one that is more representative of our industry: “24/7.”

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