{"id":16354,"date":"2025-05-07T21:46:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T21:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=16354"},"modified":"2025-05-07T21:46:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T21:46:58","slug":"dolly-parton-has-just-opened-her-heart-like-a-well-worn-diary-pouring-raw-emotion-into-a-brand-new-song-dedicated-to-her-late-husband-carl-dean-with-every-note-every-lyric-she-turns-love-and-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new50.info\/?p=16354","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton has just opened her heart like a well-worn diary, pouring raw emotion into a brand-new song dedicated to her late husband, Carl Dean. With every note, every lyric, she turns love and loss into music, leaving listeners clutching their hearts and wiping away tears."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just four days after the death of her husband Carl Dean, Dolly Parton\u2018s husband of nearly 60 years, the country music icon wrote and recorded a tribute for him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,\u201d\u00a0Parton wrote\u00a0on her social media, along with an early picture of the couple and the title of her new song. \u201cThey live in memory and in song,\u201d added Parton, \u201cand I dedicate this to him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"If You Hadn\u2019t Been There\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cEbLzz7Y4Uk\" width=\"350\" height=\"235\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-origwidth=\"350\" data-origheight=\"235\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-instagram wp-block-embed-instagram\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe id=\"instagram-embed-0\" class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DG4sVjMMuB8\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=540&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Flitaglobal.com&amp;rp=%2Flehieu%2Fdolly-parton-has-just-opened-her-heart-like-a-well-worn-diary-pouring-raw-emotion-into-a-brand-new-song-dedicated-to-her-late-husband-carl-dean-with-every-note-every-lyric-she-turns-love-and-l#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1614.3000001907349%2C%22ls%22%3A1387.3000001907349%2C%22le%22%3A1550.1000003814697%7D\" height=\"924\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"h-where-would-i-be\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Where would I be?\u201d<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cIf You Hadn\u2019t Been There\u201d is a heartbreaking ballad, where Parton reflects on the impact he had on her life and career and questions where she would have been without him.<\/p>\n<p><em>If you hadn\u2019t been there<br \/>\nWhere would I be?<br \/>\nWithout your trust<br \/>\nLove and belief<br \/>\nThe up\u2019s and down\u2019s<br \/>\nWe\u2019ve always shared<br \/>\nAnd I wouldn\u2019t be here<br \/>\nIf you hadn\u2019t been there<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you hadn\u2019t been there<br \/>\nWell, who would I be?<br \/>\nYou always see the best in me<br \/>\nYou\u2019re loving arms have cradled me<br \/>\nYou held me close, and I believe<\/p>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t be here<br \/>\nIf you hadn\u2019t been there<br \/>\nHolding my hand<br \/>\nShowing you care<br \/>\nYou made me dr\u0435am<br \/>\nMore than I dared<br \/>\nAnd I wouldn\u2019t be h\u0435re<br \/>\nIf you hadn\u2019t been there<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9004111231559080\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9004111231559080\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyloaded wp-image-9004111231559080\" src=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dolly-and-Carl.jpg?w=662\" alt=\"\" width=\"662\" height=\"457\" data-expand=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/americansongwriter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Dolly-and-Carl.jpg?w=662\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9004111231559080\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Carl Dean and Dolly Parton (Photo: Dolly Parton\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<h3 id=\"h-dolly-and-dean-1964-2025\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dolly and Dean (1964 \u2013 2025)<\/h3>\n<p>Parton first met Dean the day after she moved from her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee to Nashville in 1964. \u201cI met him the first day I got to Nashville, in 1964,\u201d\u00a0recalled Parton\u00a0in an interview with\u00a0Andy Warhol\u00a0and Mary Moynihan for<em>\u00a0Interview<\/em>\u00a0magazine in 1984. \u201cI graduated on a Friday night, went to Nashville on a Saturday morning with dirty clothes and I went to a Laundromat looking for\u00a0anything\u00a0but love. I had just left two boyfriends back home and I wasn\u2019t looking to get involved because I had gone to Nashville to really get started in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parton continued, \u201cI met him at the Why Washy and he\u2019s been wishy-washy ever since. We dated for two years before we got married. I often get myself in love trouble because I\u2019m so passionate\u2014I love so much and so deep. But Carl\u2019s a special guy, I didn\u2019t have any problems with him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two married on May 30, 1966, during a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia. Throughout their marriage, Dean kept a mostly low profile, keeping their relationship as private as possible, and continued working for his asphalt paving business in Nashville. \u201cA lot of people say there\u2019s no Carl Dean,\u201d\u00a0Parton said\u00a0in 1984, \u201cthat he\u2019s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though he wanted to remain mostly out of the public eye, Dean always supported Parton and her career. He even inspired some songs that Parton wrote early on, including her 1974 hit \u201cJolene,\u201d inspired by an\u00a0<em>auburn<\/em>-haired bank teller, who developed a crush on him in the late \u201960s. Throughout the decades, Parton also penned more songs about Dean, including \u201cForever Love,\u201d \u201cSay Forever You\u2019ll Be Mine,\u201d \u201cFrom Here to the Moon and Back,\u201d and \u201cMarry Me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dean died on March 3, 2025, at age 82.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe is in God\u2019s arms now, and I am okay with that,\u201d\u00a0wrote Parton following Dean\u2019s death. \u201cI will always love you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just four days after the death of her husband Carl Dean, Dolly Parton\u2018s husband of nearly 60 years, the country music icon wrote and recorded a tribute&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dolly Parton has just opened her heart like a well-worn diary, pouring raw emotion into a brand-new song dedicated to her late husband, Carl Dean. 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