Dolly Parton Reveals the Real Reason Why Her Husband Doesn't Attend Events with Her: 'Don't Ever Ask Me to Go to Another'

Mar. 15, 2025

Dolly Parton in June 2024.Photo:Jason Kempin/Getty

Jason Kempin/Getty

Dolly Partonis opening up about her “homebody” husband,Carl Thomas Dean.

On the Monday, Dec. 9 episode ofBunnie Xo’sDumb Blondepodcast, the country music icon, 78, revealed her notoriously private husband, 82, refuses to attend award shows with her.

“He loves music, but he’s not the least bit interested in being in it. And he told me that right up front,” the “9 to 5” singer told the wife ofJelly Roll.

Dolly Parton and husband Carl Dean.Dolly Parton/Instagram

Dolly Parton/Instagram

“I begged him to go with me in ‘67. We’d got married in ‘66. So, that’s when I won the first award for the BMI song of the year,” she said, referring to her 1966 hit “Put it Off Until Tomorrow.”

“And I rented him a tux and, you know, begged him to go, and he did,” added Parton. “And, oh, he was so uncomfortable the whole night.”

The"Jolene" singer continued, adding that as soon as they got home from the event, “He started pulling off stuff.”

“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,” she recalled.

Dolly Parton.Jason Kempin/Getty

“So we just kinda have that respect, and I respected that because I didn’t know he was gonna be that uneasy, but he doesn’t even like to go out to, you know, to big dinners or anything like that,” Parton told Bunnie, 44.

The couple, whorenewed their vowsin 2016 at their home in Nashville, have been married for 58 years.

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In 2018, the Grammy Award-winner told PEOPLE in acover story exclusive, “I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love. I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”

source: people.com