Carl Dean, 82, who was married to Dolly Parton for nearly six decades, has died.
Dean passed away Monday in Nashville, according to the 79-year-old “9 to 5” singer‘s social media accounts.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton said in a statement shared online. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Dean will be buried during a private ceremony attended by family, according to Parton’s post. The pair married in 1966. In addition to Parton, he is survived by a brother and a sister.
Dean kept a low profile since meeting Parton at a laundromat the day she moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. They married two years later in Ringgold, Ga.
Dean, who ran an asphalt-paving business, was so rarely seen with her in public that the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted musician joked with the Associated Press in 1984 that a lot of people don’t believe he exists.
But Parton’s 1973 hit “Jolene” was inspired by a bank teller whom she said noticed her husband more than she would’ve preferred.
“He just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention,” she told NPR during a 2008 interview. “It was kinda like a running joke between us.”
Dean also inspired Parton to record her 2023 “Rockstar” album, which broke with her traditional country western sound.
“He’s a big rock and roller,” she told the AP when that album was released.
Parton described Dean to People as a “loner” in 2016, but said he was always supportive of her stardom.
“He’s just always asked me to leave him out of all this,” she said “He does not like all the hullabaloo.”
Dean’s cause of death wasn’t given.