Dolly Parton Says She’s Struggling with Grief, Can’t Write Music

Country music legend Dolly Parton, 79, says she's having a hard time writing music because she’s grieving her late husband, Carl Dean, who passed away on March 3, 2025, in Nashville.

The 10-time Grammy Award winner recently shared her songwriting struggles as a guest on reality-TV star Khloé Kardashian’s Khloe In Wonder Land podcast.  

When Kardashian asked if there were any unfinished projects Parton was harboring because of writer’s block, she replied emotionally, “My husband passed away three months ago.” She continued, “When you asked me if there’s stuff that I’ve started, haven’t finished, several things I’ve wanted to start but I can’t do it…I will later, but I’m just coming up with such wonderful, beautiful ideas, but I think I won’t finish it."

Parton said she “can’t do it” right now because of her schedule and “can’t afford the luxury of getting that emotional right now,” but she credits songwriting as a source of joy.

The multifaceted businesswoman previously said it’s her faith that’s allowing her to process continued grief over her late husband.

“I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday,” Parton told the Associated Press in May. “And I see him every day in my memories and in my heart, and in all the things that we used to do and all the things that we’ve built together. You just kind of have to learn to kind of make new plans, but that’s the hardest part.”

Parton explained that Dean was “ill for quite a while,” and part of her is “at peace because he’s at peace,” but “that still doesn’t make up for the loss and the loneliness of it.”

Dean and Parton met at a laundromat shortly after she moved to Nashville at 18. Two years later, they married on Memorial Day in 1966 in Georgia.

Known for avoiding the spotlight, Dean was a businessman who owned an asphalt-paving business.

Parton’s 2023 album, Rockstar, was the first rock album she released, and Dean was her muse.

AARP offers resources for people struggling with grief. You can find them here.