Dolly Parton Was a ‘Great Snuggler’ With Members of Her Band
In the 1970s, Dolly Parton embarked on lengthy tour legs with members of her band. They traveled together by bus and spent weeks at a time away from home. Though Parton was married by this point, it didn’t take long before people began to whisper rumors of her flirtations with members of her band. Her former guitarist spoke about the affectionate way she treated people.
Dolly Parton was affectionate with members of her band
When Barbara Walters interviewed Parton in 1977, she asked the singer if there was any “hanky-panky” on the tour bus.
“Well, that depends on what you mean by hanky-panky,” Parton responded, per the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “We do a lot of celebratin’ on the bus. Let’s put it that way. If there’s really something to celebrate, if we want to stop and buy some wine or some champagne, if there’s somethin’ really nice. So it’s all fun, but, it’s very rare that anybody in the bus … I don’t have anybody in my group involved with each other as lovers. I have worked in groups where there were people, the musicians or singers, whatever, were involved. It makes it very hard for everybody because if they have a lovers’ quarrel or that sort of thing, then it affects everything.”
Though Parton said nobody was dating each other, her former guitarist, Don Roth, said she was highly physically affectionate. Some reporters even claimed to have seen Parton and her band leader, Gregg Perry, holding hands.
“See, Dolly’s a great snuggler,” Roth said. “But she’s totally loyal to [her husband] Carl Dean. Maybe not totally loyal in the sense that a Southern Baptist would say you should be loyal, but totally loyal in her own mind.”
She met up with her husband on the road
While Parton was affectionate and flirtatious, Roth believed she only had eyes for Dean. Her band got to know him well, as he spent some time with them on the road.
“Dolly really loves Carl, besides all that. He’s a neat man,” Roth said. “Carl’s one of those rare individuals who could be married to Dolly Parton because he’s got his head on straight.”
She was far more affectionate with Dean than she was with anyone else.
“When we’d be playing some place, like in Missouri, he’d drive up and Dolly would jump off the bus when she saw the car there,” Roth recalled. “She’d say, ‘Now I don’t want any of you botherin’ me. I’ve got some serious [expletive] to do,’ and she’d head straight for the room with Carl. She doesn’t mince words, and she doesn’t have a particularly clean mouth.”
Dolly Parton admitted to having an emotional affair with her band leader
Parton has danced around rumors of infidelity for years, but she once admitted to having an “affair of the heart” with Perry.
“Gregg and I became very close,” she said, per the book Dolly on Dolly: Interviews and Encounters With Dolly Parton. “I had never spent so much time with such a well-educated and knowledgeable man… I let myself get completely wrapped up in him.”
Parton got Perry a job as the music director for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but he quit as they were working on it. This decision left Parton devastated.
