The country music legend Dolly Parton has been married to her husband Carl Dean since 1966, yet he never attends public events with her. In a new interview, Parton is revealing why the man who she’s been married to for 57 years is so eager to avoid the spotlight.
Dolly Parton next to her husband Carl Dean, around 1960s. pic.twitter.com/qsidrmRXKV
— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) November 16, 2023
Dean Avoids The Spotlight
“Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it,” explained Parton, 77, according to E! Online. “He don’t like it.”
Parton went on to recall the moment soon after her marriage that led to Dean deciding to stay out of the limelight for good.
“He went to one thing with me early on when we first married to a BMI Song of the Year, and he came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie, and all that, and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,’” she remembered. “I never asked him and he never did.”
Though Dean stays out of the public eye, he still gives Parton advice about her music.
“I had done a couple of things in the past, just some rock things. He said, ‘It’s okay. It’s okay.’ He’s very honest,” she stated. “We have such a great relationship. I know not to ask him if I don’t want an honest answer.”
Today, in Unsung Heroes of Masculinity:
Carl Thomas Dean, the man content to be known as “Dolly Parton’s husband.” He runs (or ran?) an asphalt laying company in Nashville, and has always been secure enough in himself to never try and hog her well-earned spotlight. pic.twitter.com/IJe3QLWaDN
— dave, who is called dave (@itwasagooddave) February 18, 2022
Dean recently tried to convince Parton not to do a cover of one of his favorite band Led Zeppellin’s most iconic songs.
“Years ago, I was doing covers of some of these rock albums in a more bluegrass country way, and I told him I was doing ‘Stairway to Heaven,’” she explained. “He said, ‘I don’t think you need to do that,’ and I said how I was going to do it.”
Parton ultimately ended up doing the cover anyway, and Dean was not happy with the result.
“I played it for him and he said, ‘It’s okay.’ He said, ‘Are you sure that’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or ‘Stairwell to Hell?”” she recalled.
Check out Parton’s version of “Stairway To Heaven” in the video below.
Dean Staying Home Helps Marriage
When previously asked by Fox News if Dean staying out of the spotlight helped keep their marriage strong, Parton replied,“Well, I think it does. And, one, the fact that he’s not in show business at all. So we’re not in competition on that. We don’t have to deal with it.”
“He’s kind of a homebody,” she continued. “He loves working on the farm. He loves working on his tractors and his trucks and all that. He was in asphalt paving for years. And then he went in kind of doing some real estate, but he didn’t want to be in the spotlight.”
Parton went on to clarify that while Dean has no interest in being famous himself, he is “very proud of and for me. So it’s all good. But I laugh. But, you know, he said, ‘That’s for you, not me.’”
Dolly Parton and husband Carl Thomas Dean#1970s pic.twitter.com/gbxNBKAlu7
— Retro Coast (@RetroCoast) May 10, 2022
Dean Speaks Out
Back in 2016, Dean celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with Parton by issuing a rare public statement.
“My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’” he recalled of first meeting Parton, according to US Weekly. “My second thought was, ‘Lord, she’s good-lookin.’ And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
Dolly Parton & Carl Dean celebrate their 55th Wedding Anniversary today. She’s impossible not to love, I get it Carl.
@DollyParton #goals pic.twitter.com/egbAk03bDv
— Saint Anne (@AnneMcCarthy) May 30, 2021
We can certainly understand why Dean would want to avoid all the craziness that comes with being in the public eye. In the end, he and Parton have been married for nearly 60 years, so this was clearly the right call!
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