Dolly Parton’s new album is inspired by her love for her husband Carl Dean.
The 70-year-old country music superstar’s LP ‘Pure & Simple’ is out next Friday (19.08.16), and while writing her lyrics she found herself thinking a lot about her spouse, with whom she will celebrate 50 years with this year.
In an interview with The Sun newspaper, the ‘9 to 5’ hitmaker said: "I based it on our relationship. I even pulled in two songs written about him from the 70s, ‘Say Forever You’ll Be Mine’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Forever’, because I thought they fitted so well.
"I decided this is a good year to do love songs because I’ve been married for 50 years.
I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just do a whole album of love songs’, because I’ve never done that before.
"The album is like love in many colours, even the cheat songs and even the friends with benefits songs like ‘Outside Your Door.’"
Dolly has always kept Carl, 74, out of the limelight for the sake of their relationship but she has mined their life together for inspiration before.
Her most famous track ‘Jolene’ deals with a red-headed bank clerk who always flirted with her man.
She recalled: "A lot of my songs are based on some truth and Jolene was about a girl that was flirting with my husband back then. She was working down at the bank and he was spending a little more time down there than he should.
"So I put a stop to that! I wrote the song about Jolene and I did a lot of banking after that, but not with her bank."
Elsewhere, the ‘Coat of Many Colors’ singer opened up on how much she was interested in music as a child and that she was just as playful back then as she is now. She also admitted that she tries to instil that passion in her nieces and nephews, encouraging them to pick up a musical instrument.
She said: "I was playful, always having a great sense of humour and all my friends loved hanging around me because I’d play guitar and sing.
"I could make up funny stuff right on the spot, and was good around a camp fire or a picnic because I’d play guitar.
"That’s why I always encourage all my little nieces and nephews by saying, ‘Learn to play the guitar or the ukulele or something’, even if they’re too involved in all the technology."
Dolly Parton’s new album inspired by Carl Dean
