Stephen Colbert burst into tears while listening to Dolly Parton sing during an interview on The Late Show that turned unexpectedly emotional.
Parton was discussing the kind of songs her late mother used to sing to her when she began an impromptu rendition of the song 'Bury Me Beneath the Willow'.
Colbert began to cry as Parton sang, dabbing his eyes with a tissue as he chuckled at how the tune had caught him off guard.
At one point, the television host mimed to someone off camera that the performance was giving him goosebumps.
"Oh, you're crying?" Parton said. "I better hush before you cry yourself to death and we can't finish the show."
The television host said that Parton "got his tripwire", explaining: "Like a lot of Americans, I'm under a lot of stress right now, Dolly...that was pretty beautiful."
Parton sympathised with Colbert's reaction, saying that her mother's songs used to bring her to tears, too.
"We used to cry when mama would sing. Mama would cry, we'd cry. Those old songs were just amazing," she said.
"Isn't it funny that sometimes there's nothing happier than a cry?" Colbert asked Parton.
"Yeah, I think that cleanses your soul," Parton replied. "Water washes it out. That's what tears are for, I think."
