Dolly Parton, 77, is a household figure in country music as well as the celebrity world.
The Tennessee native has become nothing short of a legend, and despite having spent her whole life performing and singing, she has always enjoyed entertaining her millions of admirers.
However, the renowned superstar has formally confirmed that she will no longer tour, despite continuing to create new music.
Dolly Parton announced her retirement from touring in a recent interview with Pollystar. She elaborated:
“I’ll perform a few special shows here and there. Perhaps a long weekend of shows or a few shows at a festival. But I have no plans to embark on a full-fledged tour.”
Dolly Parton, who rose to the pinnacle of world entertainment while growing up in poverty in the Appalachian Mountains, will undoubtedly be missed on stage.
However, the 77-year-old country music legend will continue to compose music and, rather than touring, will devote her time to her beloved husband, Carl Thomas Dean.
Dolly met Carl Dean outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964. Dolly was 18 years old at the time, and Carl was 21. Carl noticed something special about the young lady right away.
“My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’” Dean said of the moment they met, according to Entertainment Tonight.
“My second reaction was, ‘Lord, she’s pretty.’ That was the start of my life. “I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for anything.”
Dean was sitting in his pickup vehicle when he saw Dolly and “hollered” at her, she recalled in a 1976 interview with the New York Times.
She, however, declined a date with him. Instead, she asked him over the next time she babysat her nephew. It was the beginning of an unending love story.
“I’ve done that my entire life, and it takes a lot of time and effort.” I prefer to spend more time at home with my hubby. We’re both getting older, and I don’t want to be gone for four or five weeks at a time,” Dolly explained, adding:
“Something might happen. If I were gone and someone needed me, I would not feel right about it. Or I’d feel horrible if I had to quit a tour because someone got sick at home and needed me and I had to abandon the fans.”
Dolly, on the other hand, dismissed her discomfort as “female problems.” Her doctor advised her to take a rest before a concert in Indianapolis in 1982. But Parton refused to listen and continued with the act, defying the doctor’s recommendations. She collapsed on stage and was airlifted to New York for medical attention. Her health difficulties forced her to cancel the final 30 dates of her 35-city tour in the United States and Canada.
