Dolly Parton Retires from Touring to Spend Time with Husband

Dolly Parton, the legendary country music star, has announced her retirement from touring to prioritize spending time with her husband of over fifty years, Carl Dean. At 77 years old, Dolly has no intentions of giving up work entirely, but she wants to avoid long stretches on the road, keeping in mind her advancing age and her husband’s.

In an interview with Good Housekeeping, she shared her reasons for stepping away from the touring life, saying, “I don’t tour anymore. I’ve got so many business things I’m doing. And my husband and I are getting older – he’s a little older than I am – and I kind of need to be with him … You got to be committed to that [touring]. And I did that all my life.”

Dolly’s last tour, the ‘Pure and Simple’ tour, took place in 2016 and 2017 and comprised 65 shows across North America.

Although she’s retiring from extensive tours, Dolly Parton intends to continue performing at one-off shows and festivals. In an interview with Pollstar, she mentioned her plans, stating, “I’ll do special shows here and there, now and then. Maybe a long weekend of shows or just a few shows at a festival. But I have no intention of going on a full-blown tour anymore … I don’t want to be gone for four or five weeks at a time.”

Dolly recently expressed her hopes to continue working and performing until the end of her days. During an interview on Greatest Hits Radio with Ken Bruce, she revealed her ambition, saying, “I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’. I would never retire. I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage someday, hopefully, one I’ve written.”

She added, “But anyhow, that’s how I hope to go, we don’t have much of a choice in that but as long as I’m able to work, as long as my health is good and my husband is good, the only way that I would ever slow down or stop would be for that reason. But in the meantime, I’m going to make hay while the sun shines.”