Country music legend and gay icon Dolly Parton has announced on her social media that her husband, Carl Dean, has died at the age of 82.
Married to Dolly for nearly 60-years, Carl died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a statement she posted on social media.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” the statement read.
The country music icon met Carl outside a launderette on the first day she arrived in Nashville as an 18-year-old aspiring singer.
Dolly, 79, recalled their first meeting, saying, “I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me). He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Two years later, on May 30, 1966, the couple exchanged vows at a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) March 4, 2025
Throughout their marriage, Carl shunned the celebrity world, choosing instead to focus on his asphalt-paving business.
Though he largely stayed out of the limelight, Carl continued to influence Parton’s work, most notably inspiring her classic hit Jolene.
She told US media in 2008 that the song was about a bank teller who developed a crush on him.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Dolly said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us—when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
Their relationship remained such a mystery that rumours started circling that he did not exist.
“A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me,” she said in 1984.
Dolly spoke lovingly of her queer fans in a 2014 interview with Billboard, adding that those who criticise and judge LGBTQ+ people are committing their own kind of sin. “[Dollywood is] a place for entertainment, a place for all families, period. It’s for all that. But as far as the Christians, if people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning. The sin of judging is just as bad as any other sin they might say somebody else is committing. I try to love everybody.”
