Advertisement

'He's not my biggest fan': Dolly Parton surprising admission about her husband

(ITV)
(ITV)

She’s country music’s most famous star and a living legend for hits including ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Jolene’ – but Dolly Parton says her own husband isn’t a fan of her work.

Parton was a guest on Good Morning Britain to promote the West End launch of ‘9 to 5: The Musical’, but made the surprising admission that her husband of 53 years Carl Dean was not her biggest fan.

Asked whether it was true that he’d only seen her perform once, the 73-year-old said: “He’s seen me maybe a couple or two more than that.

“For years and years he would never come to the shows because he felt like he’d get nervous if I messed up, so he never wanted to watch it. The first time he saw me perform and that I was in control of the stage, he was ok.

“He’ll come to a show usually if I’m performing at state fairs because he loves to go to the tractor pool, so sometimes he’ll ramble around and kind of hear me sing, but he’s not necessarily one of my biggest fans, of my music.”

She explained: “He’s proud of me and he loves that I love what I do, but I don’t know, it’s a touchy subject – I’m like his little girl and maybe he’s worried about that.

“He loves hard rock, he likes Led Zeppelin and bluegrass music, so my music’s somewhere in between. He doesn’t dislike it, but he doesn’t go out of his way to play my records, let’s put it that way.”

Parton also talked about how her 9 to 5 musical, which was originally a film in 1980 starring herself, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin was a forerunner of the #MeToo movement.

The plot focuses on three women who set about overthrowing their sexist boss and Parton said: “It was a little bit ahead of its time…maybe it was timely, maybe it was before its time, maybe it should have been addressed before.

“But at that time, back in the 80s, it really threw some light onto things that needed to be discussed like equal pay and harassment in the workplace, which is still going on, but now that we’ve revived this new (musical) with the #MeToo movement, I think we still have a ways to go but we’re making a lot of progress.

“I thought the movie really did a lot of good. With this new #MeToo movement, it’s good timing again.”


Read more
Dolly Parton on her new musical and being a strong woman at work
China’s #MeToo movement to get its day in court
GMB guest claims Valentine’s Day cards are harassment