Randy Ines still remembers what it felt like to play bass behind Dolly Parton as she sang “Jolene” inside Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. The 2019 charity event, where Ines and his band Bull City Syndicate backed the country music icon, ended up reshaping his life so thoroughly that he eventually walked away from a full-time 9-to-5 job to focus on music.
The performance took place on March 2, 2019, when Parton appeared as the featured guest at Smart Start’s 25th Anniversary Gala, according to Catering Works. The gala marked the statewide expansion of Parton’s Imagination Library program, and Bull City Syndicate — the North Carolina horn and event band Ines manages and plays bass for — provided musical entertainment for the evening, as first reported by WRAL. That event, per WRAL, highlighted the importance of early childhood education, and Parton reportedly opened up to Ines and his bandmates, even speaking about the passing of one of her brothers.
WRAL’s report notes that Ines has described the encounter as the moment he decided he wanted to become a better person, musician, and Christian. The station’s account details how Ines left his 9-to-5 job following the 2019 experience, choosing instead to teach music to children and pass on what he describes as Parton’s legacy of music.
A State-Funded Program Behind the Stage
Parton’s appearance in Raleigh was not a standalone celebrity visit — it was tied directly to a significant piece of North Carolina policy. State lawmakers allocated $10.5 million over two years in 2017 to fund and administer the Imagination Library across all 100 North Carolina counties, according to Catering Works, working through the Smart Start network, a statewide public-private partnership created in 1993 to help children enter kindergarten healthy and prepared to learn…