Dolly Parton Recalled Confronting Late Husband Carl Dean Over the 'Beautiful Red-Headed' Woman Who Inspired 'Jolene' in Resurfaced Video

Dolly Parton got candid about confronting her late husband, Carl Thomas Dean, over the real-life woman who inspired her song "Jolene" in a resurfaced video.

"[Carl] kept going down to the bank," Parton recalled in a resurfaced video from a March 2022 show in Houston, Texas. "And I kept thinking, 'Why is he spending so much time at the bank? I know we ain't got that kind of money yet.'"

The "9 to 5" singer decided to pretend to go to the bank, where she saw her husband sitting at a desk next to a "beautiful red-headed long-legged girl."

"And I thought, what is he doing in there, so I kind of casually walked in, and I say, 'Hey, I didn't know you was here.' I said, 'What are you doing in here?'" she recalled. "He said, 'Well, I'm talking to her, trying to get a loan for a roller for his asphalt paving [business].'"

Parton was instantly skeptical, asking him, "Oh you are? Don't you think you might have talked to some of those hairy-legged boys about a roller for your asphalt paving company?"

"I said, 'You better get to the house or it is going to be your a-- and your fault,'" she continued. "So I wrote this song, 'Jolene,' you remember her? I did a lot of banking over her though. She made me a long of money."

Parton's 1973 classic hit "Jolene," about a woman begging a stranger not to steal her husband, is one of the country icon's most successful songs.

The "9 to 5" singer often teased that her husband loved going to the bank for the attention, with the pair eventually turning it into a running joke.

Though the song was based on a minor real-life situation, the name "Jolene" actually came from an eight-year-old fan who asked for an autograph.

Parton was married to Thomas for 58 years before his March 2025 death.

Following the Steel Magnolias star's death on August 25, she was laid to rest next to her husband at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville, Tenn.