# Dolly Parton new song 'If You Hadn't Been There' dedicated to husband Carl Dean: Listen

Dolly Parton is delivering a melodic sendoff for her late husband Carl Dean.

Carl Thomas Dean, the husband of country music legend Dolly Parton, has died at the age of 82. In a statement posted to Instagram, Parton mourned Dean's passing.

## Lyrics

"**If you hadn't been there** / Where would I be?" she asks in the song's opening line. "The ups and downs / We've always shared / And I wouldn't be here, if you hadn't been there."

In it, she calls Dean her "rock" and "soft-place to land," a characterization that echoes comments she made last year to The Knoxville News Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network.

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