Dolly Parton's management company filed court documents alleging her nephew Bryan Seaver sent threatening texts that caused employees to flee, resign, and hire private security, claims Seaver disputes as grief-fueled "rage talk."

She's Alive, LLC., the company that manages Parton's business affairs, filed the documents Tuesday in support of a temporary restraining order against Seaver and his security company, Page Six reported. Separately, Parton's longtime manager Donny Nozell filed his own lawsuit seeking a restraining order against Seaver, accusing the nephew of extortion and invoking his "self-proclaimed military-contractor experience, access to weapons, and capacity for violence" to demand money.

The filings paint a picture of an organization in crisis barely a month after Parton's death. Staff members stopped coming into the office. Parton's trusts and estates attorney withdrew entirely. Other personnel resigned. The company hired private security for employees, including at their homes.

She's Alive, LLC. described the result in court papers as "continuing operational paralysis" and argued it cannot manage Parton's legacy if employees and business partners remain fearful of Seaver.

Seaver allegedly called himself "a killer" and vowed to destroy Parton's brand

The court documents detail a string of alleged text messages from Seaver that went far beyond a family disagreement. He allegedly called himself an "international arms dealer and mercenary," told Parton's longtime entertainment attorney, "I'm not an entertainment person. I'm a killer," and warned broadly that "Everyone needs to be worried about what I might do."

He also allegedly vowed to "destroy the entire brand" and used a vulgarity to describe what he planned to do to "every entity" connected to Parton's business operations. Breitbart reported that Seaver allegedly threatened in a September 1 text to "set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly's brand partnerships" unless he was paid, writing: "It's going to be great. Or f, pay me."

Nozell alleges the threatening behavior started a few weeks before Parton even died, meaning the nephew was allegedly making demands while the country music icon was still alive and battling cancer.

Parton's death on August 25 was a moment of national mourning for a woman who had become one of America's most beloved cultural figures. Nashville's airport board had already voted unanimously to begin renaming the airport in her honor, a measure of the esteem in which the public held her.

Seaver himself broke the news of her death in an Instagram video that day, a role he said Parton had asked him to fill years earlier.

"As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven't truly felt it until now."

He described the announcement as "something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality." About three days later, he attended her memorial in Nashville alongside roughly a dozen of her closest relatives.

Fired on September 15, Seaver now faces two separate legal actions

Fox News reported that She's Alive, LLC. fired Seaver on September 15, citing what the company called "terrorizing conduct." A Tennessee judge granted a temporary restraining order against Seaver, pointing to the alleged threats, his claimed access to weapons, and stated intention to retaliate.

Seaver is the son of Parton's sister Cassie. His father, Larry Seaver, held the head of security role before him. Bryan Seaver had served in the position for more than two decades, a tenure that made the rupture all the more jarring for the organization.

The days after Parton's death also saw her Walk of Fame star vandalized, another indignity visited on the memory of a woman who spent decades building goodwill across every corner of American life.

Just The News reported that Seaver allegedly claimed on the day of his aunt's death to have sold $27 million in arms and ammunition to Haitian police, a boast apparently meant to reinforce his self-described background as a military contractor.

Seaver calls the messages "rage talk" between grieving friends

Seaver has pushed back against the allegations. In a statement to TMZ, he denied the messages amounted to threats and framed them as raw, private exchanges between two men processing grief.

"Nothing in this lawsuit were threats and most of the comments I stand by. I was talking frankly in a private way with Danny who I thought was my friend and he fancies himself a gangster. A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving."

Seaver referred to the manager as "Danny," though court filings and news reports identify him as Donny Nozell, Parton's manager of over 20 years. Whether the discrepancy reflects a nickname or a transcription issue is unclear.

In a separate statement, Seaver and his team struck a more defiant tone.

"We refuse to be intimidated by those whose actions we believe are being taken in bad faith and with the intent to profit from the life of someone who willingly gave so much."

That framing, casting the management company and Nozell as the ones acting in bad faith, stands in direct tension with the court filings, which describe an organization so rattled by Seaver's messages that its own attorneys walked away and its staff required armed protection at home.

Parton's legacy hangs in the balance of a family feud

Dolly Parton spent a lifetime building something rare: a brand rooted in genuine generosity that crossed every political and cultural divide in America. Her Imagination Library shipped millions of free books to children. Her theme park employed thousands in East Tennessee. Commentators had long argued she deserved a monument befitting her contributions to American life.

Now, barely a month after her death, the organization charged with protecting that legacy says it can barely function. Its attorneys have left. Its employees have scattered. And the man at the center of the disruption is not some outside threat, he is family, entrusted by Parton herself with the solemn duty of announcing her passing to the world.

The Parton family has already endured loss in recent years. Her older brother Coy "Denver" Parton died at 82, one of many reminders of the tight-knit Appalachian family that shaped the singer's identity and music.

Several key questions remain unanswered. The specific court and jurisdiction handling the filings have not been publicly identified. The exact terms Seaver allegedly demanded have not been disclosed. And the role of Pinnacle Bank, referenced in connection with Seaver's firing but not explained in available filings, remains unclear.

What is clear is that the people Dolly Parton trusted to carry her legacy forward are now at odds with each other in open court, while the staff who kept the operation running are gone or guarded.

Dolly Parton built her empire on the idea that decency and hard work could outlast anything. The people fighting over what she left behind would do well to remember that.