Harry Styles gave credit where credit was due.
The "American Girls" singer took a few moments to pay homage to the late Dolly Parton toward the end of his Together, Together residency debut at Madison Square Garden on Aug. 26.
The country music legend died a day earlier, on Aug. 25, following abrief battle with cancer
. Styles joined the parade of A-listers who have paid their respects to the "Jolene" singer in recent days.Watch Harry Styles honor Dolly Parton: 'We love you'
After a sincere discourse about his appreciation of his fans and band, Styles thanked the musicians who have influenced him, raised his arm in a semi-salute and said, "We love you, Dolly."
The Grammy winner then stepped into the shadows to allow Parton's emotion-soaked warble to blast through the arena as "I Will Always Love
You" evoked all the feels.
The tribute paired poignantly with Styles' "Sign of the Times," his breakthrough solo hit from nearly a decade ago that remains a ruminative anchor of his catalog.
Harry Styles says there's nowhere like NYC
Ahead of his 30-show stint at MSG, the crooner admitted that New York tends to operate "at (a) higher frequency than I do."
"At times, I find it quite a lot. But for that reason, I’ve always loved performing there so much. You really feel the city during the show, this swelling of energy," Styles said.
Styles added, "I’m not going to do this forever. It feels very singular, and that’s allowing me to really be in it. During the shows, there’s a lot more moments where I’m standing there taking it in, when I’m in the room with the crowd, seeing this energy they’ve made."
Styles said he is aware that the atmosphere and fans' energy extends far beyond "the shows, the songs, the tour—everything."
"It’s like, ‘You did this more than I did,’ in a lot of ways. I can show up and play as many times as people buy tickets for," he said. "Doing this many shows in New York is solely because of them."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch Harry Styles honor the late Dolly Parton: 'We love you'
