Dolly Parton paid tribute to her late husband Carl Dean on Thursday with the release of a soaring new ballad honoring him.
The song, If You Hadn’t Been There, was released just three days after the 79-year-old country music icon revealed that her reclusive husband had died at 82.
Dolly announced the release of her single on Instagram and revealed the artwork, an old photo showing her standing up behind Carl and wrapping her arms around her neck while beaming for the camera.
‘Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,’ she sweetly captioned the post. ‘They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him.’
The new single opened with delicate piano, acoustic guitar and pedal steel guitar before Dolly’s opening line, which restated the title.
‘If you hadn’t been there / Where would I be?’ she sings.
Dolly Parton, 79, paid tribute to her late husband Carl Dean on Thursday with the release of a soaring new ballad honoring him, If You Hadn’t Been There; pictured in 2019 in LA
The singer shared the artwork for If You Hadn’t Been There on Instagram just three days after her husband’s death at 82
She goes on to praise Dean’s ‘trust, love and belief,’ even though they’ve gone through their share of ‘ups and downs.’
In the second verse, Dolly sings a variation on the title: ‘If you hadn’t been you / Well, who would I be?’
After leaving her voice exposed with just piano and guitars, the drums jump in to accompany her on the second verse, beefing up the instrumentation.
She goes on to praise her love for ‘always see[ing] the best in me.’
She recalls how ‘Your loving arms have cradled me’ and ‘You held me close’ as the music begins to swell behind her.
‘ Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,’ she sweetly captioned the post. ‘They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him’; seen in 2019 in LA
