Dolly Parton proved she can still mix honesty with humor as she opened the new season at Dollywood on March 13.
Speaking during the park’s opening ceremony — the theme park’s 41st season — the 80-year-old icon shared a personal update after a tough year that included health issues and the loss of her husband, Carl Thomas Dean.
“I haven’t been on tour as you know,” Parton said in footage shared by WVLT 8. “I’ve had a few little health issues and we’re taking care of them.”
She explained that the emotional part of losing Dean – who she was married to for 58 years before his death on March 3, 2025, aged 82 – meant she needed time to regroup.
“I was just kind of worn down and exhausted, grieving Carl and a lot of other little things going on,” she said.
“I just got myself to where I needed to build myself up again spiritually, emotionally and physically. But everything is good. It didn’t slow me down.”
And because this is Dolly, she couldn’t help but throw in a joke.
Standing next to Dollywood Company president Eugene Naughton, she teased fans not to confuse him with her new husband until she clarified her relationship status.
“I think Carl Dean is waiting for me,” she said. “If I showed up at the pearly gates with someone else, he wouldn’t like it. He’d say, ‘Who’s the little pisser? You leave him outside the gates.” ”
Dean famously stayed out of the limelight throughout their decades-long marriage after the couple tied the knot in 1966.
Despite recent health setbacks—including postponing her Las Vegas residency and dealing with kidney stones— I will always love you the singer seems to bounce back, Dolly-style: slow, honest and with a punchline ready.
