US country singer says If You Hadn’t Been There is tribute to her husband of nearly 60 years, who died this week

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Dolly Parton has dedicated her new song If You Hadn’t Been There to her husband, Carl Dean, who died this week aged 82.

The songwriter shared the tribute on Instagram earlier today, posting a picture of the couple in their youth, Parton with her arms wrapped around Dean.

She wrote: “Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end. They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him. If You Hadn’t Been There.”

The couple had been married for nearly six decades after tying the knot in a small ceremony in Georgia in 1966.

They met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat on the same day that Parton moved to Nashville at 18 to pursue her music career full-time. Parton told NPR in 2008 that she wrote the song Jolene about a flirty bank teller who seemed to take an interest in him.

Dean, a businessman who had owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville, largely remained out of the spotlight of his wife’s glowing success.

In 1984, the two-time Oscar nominee and 10-time Grammy winner 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.”

On Thursday, three days after her husband’s death, Parton wrote that she was sharing a “love note to family, friends and fans”.

She added: “Thank you for all the messages, cards and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respect for the loss of my beloved husband, Carl. I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me.”

“He is God’s arms now and I am OK with that. I will always love you.”

In 2023, she released the album Rockstar, which included collaborations with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Elton John and Sting. At the time, Parton said that Dean had enjoyed the record, which featured new versions of some of his favourite songs.

Alongside her singing career, Parton has also starred in films such as 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

Her tracks 9 to 5 and Travelin’ Thru, from the film Transamerica, were nominated for Academy Awards, while Jolene and I Will Always Love You have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.