Originally appeared on E! Online
Dolly Parton‘s nephew Bryan Seaveris clearing the air amid drama with her estate.
After Parton’s manager Danny Nozellalleged in a restraining order request Seaver had threatened him following his firing as head of security for the country singer’s estate, the late singer’s relative spoke out to defend his name.
“The restraining order is spurious and simply a publicity stunt,” Seaver told ABC News in a Sept. 23 statement, denying Nozell’s allegations that he threated him and his associates. “I was fired.”
“After the estate negotiated with me and my company for services in perpetuity and agreed to that service provision from my company,” he continued. “A week later they fired me for these contrived ‘threats.'”
In court documents obtained by E! News, Nozell alleged Seaver “began invoking his self-proclaimed military-contractor experience, access to weapons, and capacity for violence to extort” Parton’s estate for money shortly before the Grammy winner’s Aug. 25 death.
“Those threats continued after her passing,” Nozell continued in his filing, saying that Parton’s estate “was forced to terminate Mr. Seaver” when his conduct allegedly “became threatening, destabilizing, and incompatible with any safe working environment.”
In his request for a temporary restraining order, Nozell cited a text message from Seaver saying that he was “going to set up a podcast dedicating to ruining Dolly’s brand partnerships,” as well as a Sept. 3 email from Seaver in which he referred to himself as “a killer.”
“I’m not an entertainment person. I’m a killer,” Seaver wrote in the email, which was included as an exhibit in Nozell’s filing. “I sold 27 million $ worth of ammunition and arms to the Haitian Police on the day Dolly died.”
Nozell said in court documents that he was seeking a restraining order against Seaver because the comments have “already produced the harm they were designed to cause,” with a trust and estate attorney withdrawing their involvement in Parton’s case.
In response to Nozell’s allegations, Seaver told ABC News in his statement, “I’ve never threatened anyone.”
Moreover, the son of the 9 to 5 star’s sister Cassie Parton and Larry Seaver clarified that his “killer” remark was a reference to a nickname Parton had given him.
“Dolly called me her killer. It was a joke we used around her camp,” Seaver said. “I was her ‘baby boy ninja’ and Danny Nozell took that text out of context to somehow imagine that I was threatening him.”
E! News has reached out to Seaver, Nozell and reps for Parton for comment but has not heard back.
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