Dolly Parton's own nephew threatened to destroy the country icon's brand and business empire unless he got paid, according to court filings submitted Tuesday — before his aunt was even in the ground.

The dispute lays bare what happens when family bonds dissolve into extortion and entitlement. Parton died of cancer on Aug. 25. Within weeks, the nephew she handpicked to announce her passing to the world was allegedly leveraging paramilitary threats against the people carrying out her wishes.

She's Alive, the entity that manages Parton's professional property and business, filed for a temporary restraining order against Bryan Seaver in Nashville. Seaver runs Squadron Augmented Protection Services, which provided Parton's security detail. She's Alive, run by Parton's longtime manager Danny Nozell, fired Seaver on Sept. 15, citing his "terrorizing conduct."

The court documents include screenshots of messages Seaver allegedly sent to Nozell starting before Parton's death. In a Sept. 1 text, Seaver wrote: "I'm going to set up a podcast dedicated to ruining Dolly's brand partnerships and telling the violations these people have done on us. It's going to be great. Or f——— pay me."

He called himself "literally an international arms dealer and mercenary" and threatened to "ratfuck every [business party] entity" that helps operate Dollywood, according to the filings reviewed by Variety. He told Parton's entertainment attorney: "I'm not an entertainment person. I'm a killer." He claimed to have dozens of employees with military-grade weaponry.

The threats worked in the short term. Parton's trusts and estates attorney quit. Employees of She's Alive resigned. The entity had to hire private security for its own people — at their homes.

Seaver didn't respond to requests for comment from the AP or Variety but issued a statement to TMZ calling the lawsuit's characterization unfair. "I am a career soldier and military contractor and do conduct arms deals for foreign governments," he said. "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... A lot of these messages are two guys having rage talk and crying on the phone together while we were grieving."

Breitbart's coverage focused on the legal filings and the escalating threats. Variety included Seaver's defense and the fuller catalog of messages, including his apparent delight at his newfound fame from the death announcement video — "now I'm the biggest social media post in human history."

The restraining order asks that Seaver stay 1,000 feet away from She's Alive employees, attorneys, and business partners and stop interfering with its business relationships.

A man entrusted with his dying aunt's most intimate moment — announcing her death to the world — now stands accused of turning that trust into a shakedown. Seaver says it was grief talk. The texts say pay me. A Nashville judge will sort out which version sticks. The deeper question is how many American families are one funeral away from the same rupture.