The ‘Cute as Hell’ Joke Dolly Parton Made About Her Husband
Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have been together for decades. Parton has spent a good deal of their married years on the road, touring and making movies. Many people have hardly even seen Dean, let alone witnessed the couple together. One of the people who has, Parton’s former guitarist Don Roth, shared why he thought they were a perfect pair.
Dolly Parton cracked a joke to her band when her husband visited
After attending an industry event with Parton, Dean informed her that he didn’t want to be a part of her life in show business. Still, he would visit her when she had shows within driving distance of their home.
“When we’d be playing some place, like in Missouri, he’d drive up and Dolly would jump off the bus when she saw the car there,” Roth said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “She’d say, ‘Now I don’t want any of you botherin’ me. I’ve got some serious [expletive] to do,’ and she’d head straight for the room with Carl.”
Roth said she would crack a joke to her band as she walked to the room. He believed this perfectly encapsulated what Parton was like.
“She doesn’t mince words, and she doesn’t have a particularly clean mouth,” he said. “But to show you the true Dolly Parton, what makes her so damn neat is that as she was walking down the stairs of the bus, she turned around and looked at everybody and said, ‘I sure talk a good story. Hope I can live up to it,’ and walked off toward the motel room. I thought that was cute as hell.”
Dolly Parton’s band member believed her husband was the perfect man for her
Roth acknowledged the rumors of Parton’s alleged infidelity, but he believed Parton and Dean were a good match.
“Carl is the perfect husband for Dolly because he doesn’t demand anything of her, and he’ll always be there to come home to,” he said. “They seem to have a very stable relationship. I don’t know if she would ever leave Carl because somebody better came along.”
Roth didn’t think a separation between the two was out of the question (though, they’ve been together for four decades after he made the remark). Still, he believed Parton needed someone like Dean in her life.
“And Dolly really loves Carl, besides all that,” he said. “He’s a neat man. Carl’s one of those rare individuals who could be married to Dolly Parton because he’s got his head on straight. He’s a good old country boy, extremely funny man. Kind of guy you can say, ‘God, Carl, you’re a country bumpkin.’ And he’ll just smile and say, ‘Yeah, probably right,’ and put the gold American Express card in his pocket and go fishing.”
Don Roth didn’t think Parton would ever be unfaithful
Parton spent long stretches of time away from home and had flirtatious relationships with various men. Still, Roth didn’t think she would ever be unfaithful to her husband.
“[S]he’s totally loyal to Carl Dean,” he said. “Maybe not totally loyal in the sense that a Southern Baptist would say you should be loyal, but totally loyal in her own mind.”
He believed her love for Dean and moral compass would keep her faithful.
