Carl Dean, husband and longtime muse of country icon Dolly Parton, passed away Monday at the age of eighty-two, bringing to a close a romance that spanned decades.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton wrote in an Instagram post yesterday. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Parton and Dean met at the WishyWashy laundromat on her first day in Nashville in 1964. The pair soon became inseparable and married in 1966, just as Parton’s singing career took off. Although he preferred to live a private life, Dean was well known among Parton’s fans as her devoted partner and refuge from the spotlight.
“It is important to have someone there in your corner and you know they’ll love you for just who you are,” Parton told E! News last year. “There’s a great comfort in knowing that someone loves you exactly for who you are—because he fell in love with me before I became a star.”
Over the years, Dean provided the inspiration for several of his wife’s classic songs. (Interestingly, “I Will Always Love You” was not one of them; Parton wrote the iconic ballad when parting ways with her former manager and business partner, Porter Wagoner.) Here are five tunes—plus a brand-new track sure to prove just as timeless—she wrote with Dean on her mind.
“Jolene”
Parton scored one of her biggest hits with “Jolene” in 1973. Written as a plea for a paramour to leave her husband alone, the song was inspired by the real-life incident of a bank teller flirting with Dean. Although the specifics of the lyrics are fictionalized, the stirring minor-key ballad strikes a relatable nerve in its depiction of a jealous lover turned heartfelt supplicant.
“Forever Love”
Penned to commemorate her fiftieth wedding anniversary, Parton included “Forever Love” on Pure & Simple, an album of love songs inspired by Dean and released in 2016. “I purposely tried to write a wedding song, and I thought it would be a good wedding song for anybody’s wedding,” she told Rolling Stone that same year.
“Say Forever You’ll Be Mine”
Originally recorded with Porter Wagoner for their 1975 album of the same name, this doe-eyed love song sprang from the early years of Parton’s marriage to Dean. Parton re-recorded the tune for Pure & Simple with acoustic guitar and fiddle accompaniment, stripping away the high-gloss Nashville production and letting her breathy, emotive vocals take center stage.
“From Here to the Moon and Back”
Parton recorded “From Here to the Moon and Back” as a piano-driven ballad for the movie Joyful Noise in 2012. But for her album Blue Smoke two years later, the tune begins with the unmistakable sound of Willie Nelson’s weathered guitar, Trigger. The Red Headed Stranger shares lead vocals on a tender reinterpretation of the song Parton dedicated to Dean.
“Marry Me”
This homage to Dean and Parton’s eastern Tennessee home brings together the star’s two greatest loves in song. A standout on her 2001 album Little Sparrow, which blends the Appalachian folk, bluegrass, country, and gospel she grew up on, “Marry Me” is a bona fide hoe-down, with mandolin and dobro guitar accents adding contrast to Parton’s soaring vocal harmonies.
“If You Hadn’t Been There”
Early in the morning on March 7, Parton took to Instagram to share a sweet throwback photo of the couple and announce the release of a new song dedicated to Dean. The ballad conveys both grief and gratitude and leaves no doubt about the role he played in her life. “If you hadn’t been there, where would I be?” she begins, her voice a tremulous warble that eventually swells into a triumphant, still-effortless belt. “Oh, you are my rock, a soft place to land / My wings, my confidence, you understand / Your willingness beyond compare / No, I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been there.”
