The Dolly Parton Hits That Were Inspired By Her Husband

Dolly Parton and husband Carl Dean have been married for over 50 years, so it's safe to say that her long-time love has inspired at least a handful of songs. But according to Parton, he's inspired way more than a handful. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2016, the music legend revealed that the entirety of one of her more recent albums, Pure and Simple, came to life because of their relationship. "I was just trying to think about all the different colors of love through the years," Parton told the magazine. "I thought, 'Well I'm going to write about mine and Carl's relationship. It's just a pure and simple relationship,' so it started with that and then I thought, 'Well why don't I just write a whole album of love songs?'"

According to Rolling Stone, "Forever Love," "Say Forever You'll Be Mine", and "Tomorrow is Forever" from Pure and Simple were written about her marriage. Referring to "Forever Love", Parton revealed she thinks of it as their wedding song as she wrote it for their 50th wedding anniversary vow renewals. "I purposely tried to write a wedding song and I thought it would be a good wedding song for anybody's wedding," the songstress admitted.

However, beyond Pure and Simple, the Independent reports that Parton's husband also inspired one of her most well-known songs, "Jolene". At Glastonbury, the singer supposedly said, "I wrote that [song] years ago when my husband... was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be. I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry. ...Had it not been for that woman I would never have written 'Jolene' and I wouldn't have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene." 

According to Country Living, 'Jolene' represented a receptionist who worked with her husband. "She had everything I didn't, like legs — you know, she was about 6 feet tall. And had all that stuff that some little short, sawed-off honky like me don't have," Parton told NPR in 2018.