Thirty years of flirting, a funeral tribute, and a weird Trump comparison. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers were one of the most iconic duos in music history. But were they just musical partners, close friends, or more?
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00:0030 years of flirting, a funeral tribute, and a weird Trump comparison?
00:04Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers were one of the most iconic duos in music history.
00:08But were they just musical partners, close friends, or more?
00:12Music royalty is filled with legendary pairings — John Lennon and Paul McCartney,
00:16Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Daryl Hall and John Oates,
00:21and, of course, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. There's something undeniably electric about their
00:25onstage appearances. Watch them perform together, and it's clear that they not only truly love what
00:30they do, but they genuinely adore each other. Their successful friendship and musical partnership
00:34has led to some memorable and enduring classics, and their combined stardom lit up the country
00:39music world for decades. Parton and Rogers' obvious chemistry led to persistent rumors
00:43that they were romantically involved. Parton has been wed to her beloved husband Carl since 1966,
00:48and Rogers married five different women in his 81 years. Rogers commented on his inability to
00:54stay committed to one woman in a 2012 interview with Anderson Cooper, saying,
00:58I don't think I hurt anybody. I don't think I was fair to them."
01:03Both Rogers and Parton had to answer questions about their relationship many times since they
01:07first met, and went on the record repeatedly to talk about it. And while it's hard for us now to
01:11even imagine a world before Kenny and Dolly, she was already a well-established star, and he was a
01:15rising talent when they first met. That first encounter came when he appeared on her television
01:20show Dolly in 1976. Rogers admitted that he and Parton didn't necessarily hit it off right away,
01:26telling The Atlantic,
01:27I would like to say that we became immediate friends, but we didn't.
01:30I was just another guest in the mix of her very busy schedule."
01:33Fast forward to 1983, when the Bee Gees, Barry, Robin, and Morris Gibb,
01:37brought a song they had written to Rogers, who couldn't quite make it work on his own.
01:41He told Taste of Country in 2013,
01:43And I finally said, Barry, I don't even like this song anymore. And he said, we need Dolly Parton.
01:49Ken Cragen, who was at the time both Rogers and the Bee Gees' manager,
01:52said he had seen her in the studio offices, and Rogers told him,
01:55I said, well, go get her. And Dolly, in her inimitable fashion,
01:59marched into the room, and the song was never the same.
02:04The rest, as they say, is music history. Rogers later wrote in his memoir,
02:08I've lived through earthquakes in California, twisters in Kansas,
02:11and hurricanes in Georgia, but nothing prepared me for working with Dolly.
02:16Islands of the Stream was released in 1983. Kenny and Dolly went on tour together,
02:20did a Christmas album and special, and recorded more duets. All the while,
02:24their undeniable chemistry kept rumors flowing about whether they were just friends or something
02:28more. But knowing more about their common experiences growing up definitely explains
02:32why they became so close so quickly as adults. Parton was one of 12 children and grew up in
02:37the Tennessee mountains. Money was always scarce for the Partons, but young Dolly discovered her
02:42love of music and church. She was given a guitar as a gift, and with her incredible talent,
02:46there was no looking back. Rogers was one of seven children and spent his early years living
02:51in a federal housing project in Houston, Texas. It was up to Kenny to buy himself his first guitar,
02:55which he finally was able to do in high school. Parton got an earlier start. She was just 10
03:00years old when she started performing on local TV and radio stations, and appeared alongside
03:04her uncle Bill Owens at the Grand Old Opry when she was just 13. She told A&E's biography that
03:09neither she nor Rogers had forgotten where they came from, and their common upbringing brought
03:13them closer.
03:14He, like me, was brought up very poor. We understood that world and how much we wanted things.
03:20Despite the fact that Parton had been happily married for the entire time she's known Rogers,
03:24she has constantly faced questions about their relationship. She always insisted that they
03:28were good friends, and even noted that their friendship extended to their respective touring
03:32groups. She told People in 2013,
03:34We'd eat, hang out, and we found we really liked each other. It was a wonderful group of people.
03:39My band members, his band members, everybody was like family.
03:42Kenny was always like a relative to me."
03:44Rogers certainly felt the temptation, but told HuffPost Live host Mark Lamont Hill that any
03:48lingering tension only added life to their friendship.
03:51We just teased each other, and we flirted with each other for 30 years.
03:56He went on to say that Parton was truly one of the most valued people in his life,
03:59and someone with whom he felt an enduring and unbreakable connection.
04:02Given how close they were as friends and how much they enjoyed working together,
04:05Rogers didn't want to disrupt that first shot at romance. He told People,
04:10We may have been tempted, but we didn't want to ruin a good friendship. I think it would have."
04:13Parton agreed, saying that they had both seen too many friendships ruined by going to the next step.
04:18We never did go there. There was always so much other stuff going for us. So much love and
04:22friendship. Rogers always acknowledged that Parton was already married and had been for a long time
04:27when they first met. As for any possibility that she might stray in his direction, she said,
04:32He's been married about 40 times. I couldn't catch him between wives."
04:35The pair even joked about the idea on The Today Show. Rogers claimed,
04:39First of all, she's hard to look out for me.
04:41Parton responded that she wasn't Rogers' type, to which he countered,
04:44I'm a believer that tension is better if you keep it than if you satisfy it.
04:48And then secondly, she said no to me. But Parton set the record straight,
04:51saying that they were too close to get together in that way.
04:53You know what? We were almost like brother and sister. So we just never went there.
04:57The bottom line? They just meant too much to each other to jeopardize their friendship,
05:01marriages, and professional success.
05:04If anyone would have had a right to be jealous of Dolly and Kenny's friendship,
05:07it would have been their spouses. Rogers was married to Mary Ann Gordon from 1977 until
05:121993, when he and Parton were recording their biggest hits and touring together.
05:16But Gordon told Closer Weekly that she never worried about her husband having an affair
05:19with Parton, saying, I never felt uncomfortable at all. I just knew him so well.
05:23She admits their divorce was difficult, but insists Parton had nothing to do with it,
05:27blaming it on Rogers' simultaneous midlife and career crises. Apparently, at that time,
05:32Rogers was even having nightmares where he came out on stage only to find an empty theater,
05:36and he genuinely feared the end of his career would come. But she remains fond of their time
05:39together, saying, He was so sweet. I always felt his total focus was on me.
05:44Even country music legends like Dolly Parton have had celebrity crushes.
05:48In an interview with The Big Crush, she confessed to having pined for another Tennessee music
05:52megastar long before she was famous herself. Parton met Johnny Cash when she was first
05:56starting out in the music business, and to the wide-eyed 13-year-old, he was nothing short of
06:00magical. She told The Big Issue,
06:02Johnny was all strung out on drugs and everything, but he was so magnetic, so sexy.
06:06He was my first male grown-up crush. He just really moved me. He always got a kick out of
06:11that. While Cash found it hilarious that he'd been Parton's first love, she was more fortunate
06:15in her first meeting with Rogers, telling Biography,
06:18You never really know when you're gonna run across somebody that's just gonna be partners for life.
06:22Parton and Rogers have spoken candidly about their feelings for each other,
06:26and it's pretty adorable stuff. Parton told country fan cast in 2017 just how close they
06:30were, saying,
06:31Kenny's friendship means more to me than our hit records. Actually, we're kind of soulmates.
06:35She used the same word again to describe her relationship with Rogers in the intro to the
06:40You Can't Make Old Friends video. She thought the song summed up their relationship perfectly,
06:44telling Pop Matters,
06:45That song was very emotional because of our relationship and the fact that we're both older.
06:49And when we were talking about when St. Peter knocks on the door and you come walking in,
06:53it makes you think.
06:54Songwriter Don Schlitz, who also wrote Rogers' biggest hit, The Gambler,
06:58said penning the song was one of the high points of his career, saying,
07:01It's a great honor to be a part of that.
07:03Like any other close friends, Kenny and Dolly have had some awkward moments.
07:07Parton has always refused to come right out and say just what her political stance is.
07:11She usually deflects questions with a joke, or just says outright that she has too many
07:14fans from all walks of life to alienate anyone by coming down on one side of the fence or the other.
07:19She told WJHL in Johnson City, Tennessee in 2018,
07:23You'll find me and my opinions, you know, in a lot of the songs,
07:26but most of it's based on love and acceptance and lifting people up.
07:30On the other hand, Rogers made it clear that he was a Donald Trump supporter.
07:34He told The Guardian in 2015,
07:36I really like him. I think his problem is that he says what everyone wants to hear,
07:39but he doesn't say it well. I love what he says, I have to admit.
07:42Still, it was pretty surprising when Rogers compared Parton to Trump during one of his shows,
07:47saying,
07:47She has no filter. If it goes in her mind, it comes out of her mouth,
07:50and that's what makes her special. She's become the Donald Trump of country music.
07:54She addressed the comparison in an interview with Rolling Stone in her typical disarming way,
07:58saying,
07:58Me and Donald kind of have the same hair. He could have meant that, too.
08:02Parton didn't let that one awkward comment disrupt their amazing friendship and has
08:06never been shy about letting Rogers know how much he meant to her. Rogers told Southern
08:10Living that during the recording sessions for You Can't Make Old Friends, he noticed
08:13she had left her booth.
08:14She came into my part of the studio and she put her arms around my neck and said,
08:17Kenny, I think you should know I could never sing at your funeral. I love her,
08:21I love her for that. You never know what she's going to say, but it always comes from love."
08:25That love came out in each and every one of the powerhouse duo's performances,
08:29and it continued to shine right through their very last time on stage together.
08:33Rogers officially retired in 2018, citing health reasons. His final performance came
08:38in a star-studded tribute special called Kenny Rogers, All In for the Gambler,
08:42which was filmed in 2017 and aired in June of 2021, more than a year after his death.
08:47Parton joined him for several songs, and the duo wrapped up the show with a smash
08:51hit that started it all, Islands in the Stream. The concert was full of touching moments,
08:55like Parton's performance of I Will Always Love You, which she led off by telling Rogers,
09:00I have a spot in my heart for you that's never, ever going to be touched by anybody else."
09:04Rogers told Closer Weekly that the show was a farewell gift from his old friend,
09:08who wasn't going to let him disappear without a celebration. Rogers was grateful, saying,
09:12You either have old friends or you don't, and I've always had a friend in Dolly.
09:17When Rogers died in March of 2020, he had sold more than 100 million records and logged more
09:22than 50 Top 40 country singles. Parton found out about his death the same way the rest of us did,
09:27by turning on the news. She posted a touching video tribute to her Twitter feed, saying,
09:32I'm pretty sure he's going to be talking to God sometime today, if he ain't already,
09:37and he's going to be asking him to spread some light.
09:40Parton was clearly devastated by the loss of her longtime friend and collaborator, and added,
09:44My heart's broken, and a big old chunk of it has gone with him today.