Dolly Parton has put her love for her husband into song, just days after he died at the age of 82.
Parton announced the release of the single If You Hadn’t Been There on Friday in an Instagram post, penned in honour of her longtime husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who died on Monday.
“I fell in love with Carl Dean when I was 18 years old. We have spent 60 precious and meaningful years together,” Parton wrote. “Like all great love stories, they never end. They live on in memory and song. He will always be the star of my life story, and I dedicate this song to him.”
The lyrics pay tribute to the support Parton, 79, received from Dean over the course of their six-decade relationship.
“If you hadn’t been there / Where would I be?/ Without your trust / Love and belief,” the song begins, before reflecting on their love story and the support that came with it.
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“I wouldn’t be here / If you hadn’t been there / Holding my hand,” she sings, “Showing you care / You made me dream / More than I dared / And I wouldn’t be here / If you hadn’t been there.”
Parton met Dean — who famously avoided the spotlight throughout their lengthy marriage — outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville when she was 18. They were married two years later, on May 30, 1966, in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Ga., and kept their marriage very private over the years.
Dean was a businessman who owned an asphalt paving business in Nashville.
In 2008, Parton told NPR that Dean inspired her classic song Jolene, which she penned after a flirty bank teller seemed to have taken an interest in Dean.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” she said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kind of 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.”
Parton spoke about her mysterious husband Dean wanting to remain out of the public eye in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“A lot of people have thought that [he doesn’t exist] through the years, because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton said at the time. “It’s just not who he is. He’s, like, a quiet, reserved person.”
— With files from Global News’ Katie Scott
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
