Dolly Parton opens first Tennessean Travel Stop in Tennessee

Dolly Parton helped open her first Tennessean Travel Stop in Tennessee on Wednesday, bringing her brand to Exit 22 off I-65 in Cornersville, where the new site sits at 3686 Pulaski Hwy, about an hour south of Nashville and an hour northwest of Huntsville. The grand-opening week was set to run through July 3, positioning the flagship for the heavy July 4 travel period.

Parton made a surprise appearance for the ribbon-cutting and greeted the crowd in signature stilettos, turning a roadside opening into a piece of national culture theater. She also took a playful shot at Buc-ee’s, saying, “I couldn’t leave it to beavers.”

The Cornersville location is built as a 24/7 travel stop for truck drivers, families and other travelers, with fuel, Southern dining and Tennessee-made goods alongside a cafe and restaurant. The site also leans hard into spectacle and brand recognition: a main stage for live entertainment, live music, a dog park branded Doggy Parton, a mural, and a Dolly-inspired tour bus photo op. Among the signature menu and retail items are Cup of Ambition coffee and DLY BBQ.

The company describes the Cornersville stop as the first of many planned Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stops, making the site more than a single opening. Dolly Parton is in the partnership with her manager, Danny Nozell, and Gregory H. Sachs, who has owned and operated the Tennessean Travel Stop brand since 2017. The company has framed the Cornersville flagship as both a rebrand and revitalization of the existing Tennessean Travel Stop, and as a proof of concept for future locations.

That matters in a part of the country where interstates, holiday traffic and regional tourism often drive local spending. By placing a celebrity-backed brand on a major North-South corridor, Parton is extending the appeal that has long made her one of the most trusted names in American entertainment into a business model built for working travelers, family road trips and Tennessee identity. The opening weekend pushed that strategy in plain view: a highway stop with fuel, food, music and merch, designed to turn a routine pause on I-65 into a destination.