Porter Wagoner Didn’t Let Anyone Ask Dolly Parton Questions on ‘The Tonight Show’
Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner began working together in 1967 and formed a very close professional relationship. They had such good chemistry on The Porter Wagoner Show and in their duets that many wondered if they were having an affair. Parton denied this, but she admitted that they fought like a married couple. Wagoner was also extremely possessive over Parton. During an appearance on The Tonight Show, he didn’t allow anyone to ask her any questions.
Porter Wagoner didn’t let Dolly Parton talk during an interview
Part of the reason Wagoner hired Parton was for her image, and he wanted to make sure she kept up appearances. He was “totally protective — both of her and of her image,” said Nashville agent Dolores Smiley in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. He wouldn’t even allow her to appear on the cover of a magazine that included advertisements for clubs that served alcohol.
The pair of them appeared on The Tonight Show in 1970, and Wagoner fielded every question. He didn’t want Parton to answer anything.
“I just sat on the panel and slung my foot, as usual,” she later said of the experience.
When asked if Wagoner really was as possessive as people believed, Parton brushed off the question.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “It was a long time ago.”
Rumors flew about the two of them
Wagoner’s protective nature and chemistry with Parton led to endless rumors about an affair between the two of them. Some believed that even if the rumors were not true, Wagoner may have been in love with Parton.
“The main reason Dolly had such a hard time disentangling herself from Porter is because he was in love with her,” one journalist said. “Porter was really torn up over losing Dolly. Really torn up. Because he really did love her, and I don’t think he’d ever been in love with anyone but himself. And about Carl Dean, well, you know Porter was the main man in Dolly’s life all the years she was with him.”
Parton said that while there was love between them, it wasn’t romantic in nature.
“I have been married for a long time, and I figure that if there had been anything between me and Porter my husband would have been the first to know it, because you cannot deceive people,” she said. “Like I say, there was a love of a kind. We never tried to disguise that, because it was as much a respect. We got to know each other and knew our bad side and our good side, we knew our weak points, our strong ones, we knew hang-ups.”
Dolly Parton said her relationship with Porter Wagoner was a constant challenge
While Parton said she loved Wagoner, their relationship was not easy. They fought often and intensely, with members of their backing band recalling being able to hear them shouting through the halls of hotels.
“Porter and I fought like cats and dogs,” Parton wrote in the book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. “My husband and I have never fought, and Porter and I did nothing but fight. So when I would write love songs, it wasn’t so much about Porter. Some were. Some were based on love. But people always assume it. And you do have a love affair, of a sort.”
Their relationship also ended on a sour note. After Parton ended their working relationship, Wagoner sued her.
