Dolly Parton has released a new song, If You Hadn’t Been There, which she has dedicated to her husband, Carl Dean, who died last week aged 82.
The new song is already up on YouTube complete with a picture of the couple when they were young. Be warned - you may need to keep a box of tissues handy.
Dolly also posted on Instagram, telling her followers: “Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end. They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him. If You Hadn’t Been There.”
Parton and Dean had a great origin story. They met outside a launderette on the same day that she moved to Nashville to pursue her dreams as a musician and songwriter.
She once described this life-changing encounter to the New York Times, saying: “I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes. I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
Later on she revealed that she wrote Jolene after a flirtatious bank teller started taking an interest in Dean.
But Dolly kept her man. They enjoyed a marriage that lasted almost six decades. Dean owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville and was content to stay out of the spotlight, while his wife became a cultural icon. “He does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton told Entertainment Tonight in 2020. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”
The singer has thanked her fans for their messages since Carl died on Monday: “This is a love note to family, friends, and fans,” she posted on Instagram. “Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl.
“I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me. He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you.”
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