In 1984, Parton told The Associated Press, “A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me.”
Parton and Dean maintained a high level of secrecy about their relationship for decades. She made a joke about wanting to be photographed with him on a magazine cover.
“So that people could at least know that I’m not married to a wart or something.” Parton told AP in 2023 that Dean served as an inspiration for her “Rockstar” album that year.
Her words, “He’s a big rock and roller,” “One of my husband’s favorite songs that I ever wrote,” Parton added, was “My Blue Tears,” a tune she composed.
While performing with “The Porter Wagoner Show” in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “I thought, ‘Well, I better put one of Carl’s favorites of mine in here.”
During the brief break from country music, she also sang covers of some of his favorite songs, like “Free Bird” by Lynard Skynyrd and “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.
