In 1973, Dolly Parton wrote “Jolene”, a song that seems to tell the story of a desperate woman begging another not to take her husband away. Behind the lyrics was a real situation: according to Dolly, a red-haired bank employee had developed an interest in her husband, Carl Dean, whom she had been married to for only a few years.
Dolly explained that Carl enjoyed the attention he received every time he went to the bank, to the point that it became a joke between them. She would tease him by saying that he was spending too much time there and that she didn’t understand how he could need so much money. But the situation also awakened a very human insecurity in her: the woman was tall, red-haired, and, according to Dolly, had many of the physical characteristics she felt she lacked.
The curious thing is that the woman who inspired the story was not named Jolene. The name came from an entirely different person: an approximately eight-year-old girl who approached Dolly after a performance to ask for an autograph. The singer was struck by her red hair, green eyes, and especially her name. It seemed so beautiful to her that she told the girl it sounded like the name of a song.
Thus, a bank employee who had caught Carl’s attention and a girl who only wanted an autograph ended up being blended into the same story. Dolly used the jealousy she felt in a real-life situation and the name of that little fan to create “Jolene”, which became one of the great classics of her career and a song that entire generations have sung.
And perhaps the most interesting thing is that Dolly never presented it as a story of infidelity. On the contrary, she explained that the situation with the bank employee ultimately became, to a great extent, a joke between her and Carl. The song exaggerated that insecurity and turned it into drama: a woman who looks at another and, despite knowing that her relationship is solid, feels that she could lose the man she loves.