Dolly Parton Wrote ‘Jolene’ After Witnessing a Real Situation With Her Husband

“Jolene” is a classic country song about a woman asking another to stay away from her man. While the song is a fictional encounter between two characters, Dolly Parton found inspiration for “Jolene” from an actual situation involving her husband. 

Dolly Parton based “Jolene” on a woman who had an interest in her husband

Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, married in 1966 and have remained together since. Shortly after they were married, Parton became troubled by an encounter her husband had with an attractive bank teller with red hair. In an appearance at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival, Parton told her audience about this encounter and how it became the inspiration for “Jolene.”

“I wrote that [song] years ago when my husband … was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be,” Parton shared. “I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.”

While Parton is thankful that the situation didn’t escalate any further, she is also grateful that it happened because it led to her writing one of her greatest hits. However, the singer-songwriter doesn’t always like to perform the song because of its true history. 

“Had it not been for that woman, I would never have written ‘Jolene’, and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene,” Parton added.

Parton named the song after one of her fans

While the track is based on the bank teller, the woman’s name may not have been Jolene. The song’s title comes from a little girl the country singer saw while on stage. In an interview with NPR, Dolly Parton recalled the night she saw the little girl and how her name became the title for “Jolene.”

“One night, I was on stage, and there was this beautiful little girl — she was probably eight years old at the time,” Parton explained. “And she had this beautiful red hair, this beautiful skin, these beautiful green eyes, and she was looking up at me, holding, you know, for an autograph. I said, ‘Well, you’re the prettiest little thing I ever saw. So what is your name?’ And she said, ‘Jolene.’ And I said, ‘Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. Jolene.’ I said, ‘That is pretty. That sounds like a song. I’m going to write a song about that.'”

“Jolene” became one of Parton’s greatest hits

Dolly Parton released “Jolene” in 1973 as the first single and title track for her album of the same name. The song became her second No. 1 hit on the U.S. Country Billboard charts and peaked at No. 60 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. 

Several artists have covered the song many times, including Olivia Newton-John, The White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, and Lil Nas X. A 2017 version by Pentatonix won the Grammy award for Best Country Duo/ Group Performance. Ironically, Parton’s version never won a Grammy, despite being nominated for the same award two years in a row for two different recordings.