Listen: Dolly Parton Offers Rare Details About Love Story With Late Husband

Dolly Parton shared a rare insight into her 60-year relationship with husband Carl Dean just a few months before his passing.

Parton, 79, confirmed on Monday evening (March 3) that she’s mourning the loss of her beloved husband, who died in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82. Dean, who kept his life private over the decades as Parton became a globally-beloved star, will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family in attendance, per Parton’s statement.

Just a few months before losing her husband, Parton spoke about the couple’s love story with Bunnie Xo on an episode of Dumb Blonde, a podcast named with inspiration from the “I Will Always Love You” singer. Parton said in the podcast episode that made its debut in December a boyfriend was “the last thing” on her mind when she moved to Nashville to pursue her dreams of becoming a country artist.

“I left two boyfriends back home that had wanted to marry me, and I kept saying, ‘no, I’m gonna move to Nashville.’ …I thought, ‘well, the last thing I want is a boyfriend.’ I’m leaving two boyfriends here, and I kept saying ‘no, I’m going to Nashville,’” the East Tennessee-born singer-songwriter said. “And so, I got here, and I thought, ‘that’s the last thing I’m gonna get caught up with some boy,’ you know, until I get my feet on the ground (and) get things going. And the very day I got to Nashville, I met Carl Dean. And 60 years later, I’m still with Carl Dean. We’ve been together 60 years, we’ve been married 58.”

Parton and Dean met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville. They got married in a “simple” and “private” Georgia wedding on May 30, 1966.

“He’s a good guy. He’s quiet and I’m loud. We’re funny — oh, he’s hilarious — and I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years, we love each other. We respect each other. But we have a lot of fun,” Parton continued on Dumb Blonde. “Any time things get too — too much tension going on, either one of us can find a joke about it to where it’ll break the tension. …We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing. I’ve seen it in so many people. And I thought, ‘I will never start that.’ I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take. It would hurt because I’m a very sensitive person, toward other people and myself.”

Bunnie Xo asked Parton what’s the most important, yet overlooked, aspect of her years-long relationship with her husband?

“He was a homebody, and that worked well for us. …He loved to go places if we were gonna drive across the country or if we had planned anything, but boy, he never could wait to get home. He wanted to be around home, and I’m a gypsy by nature. I just love to go and love to see what else is out there,” Parton said. “He loves music, but he’s not the least bit interested in being in it. he told me that right up front. I begged him to go with me in ’67, we got married in ’66, so that’s when I got my first award for BMI Song of the Year. And I rented him a tux and begged him to go, and we did. Oh, he was so uncomfortable. …He said, ‘look, now I want you to do everything you want to do, and I wish you the best. But don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ And he never did! So, we just kind of have that respect, and I respected that because I didn’t know he was going to be that uneasy. But he doesn’t even like to go out to big dinners and anything like that. So, even on anniversaries and stuff like that, we really stay home and make something special…or go to McDonald’s, or go somewhere we want to go that’s comfortable. We will go to Mexican restaurants. He will go in, sit in a booth and do that. He loves that. …But anyway, he’s just special to me, and I just love him like he is.

“He’s good. Everybody loves Carl.”

Though Parton shared some heartfelt insights into her decades-long relationship with Dean, she still opted to respect his privacy. When asked whether there’s anything the world doesn’t already know about her husband, Parton said, “he don’t want me to tell the world nothin’ about Carl.” Find the full podcast here.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton said in a statement when she announced her husband’s passing on Monday evening. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”