Dolly Parton‘s Rockstar album will be out next month, but the record won’t be backed by a massive tour — or any tour for that matter. The 77-year-old says her days of crossing the country on a bus are history, for several reasons, including her husband of 57 years, Carl Dean.
“I don’t tour anymore,” Parton tells Good Housekeeping. “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.”
Parton spent much of her lengthy career on the road, which is why she no longer feels the need to hit the road in support of Rockstar, or any of her future projects.
“You got to be committed to that,” she says. “And I did that all my life.”
Parton might not be planning on touring, but she is not at all ready to stop working. In fact, the Country Music Hall of Fame member says she will likely never fully retire.
“I might take off a month instead of a week,” Parton says. “But no, I don’t plan to ever retire unless my husband was sick and really needed me, or I was sick. That’d be the only two reasons I would ever quit. And let’s hope that never happens.”
Last year, Parton first revealed her days of touring were over, due in part to her husband’s health.
“I like to stay a little closer to home with my husband,” Parton previously told Pollstar. “We’re getting older now, and I don’t want to be gone for four or five weeks at a time. Something could happen. I would not feel right about that, if I were gone and somebody needed me. Or I would feel bad if I had to leave a tour if somebody got sick at home and needed me and then I had to walk out on the fans.”
Parton’s success has far surpassed most artists, of any genre, a testament, she says, to her unwillingness to do anything that felt inauthentic to her.
“I’ve always been true to myself,” Parton recently told The Guardian. “That was what my mama always used to say: to thine own self be true. I put a lot of stock in that. Everything I do, whether it’s my personality, how I conduct myself and business, or whatever, if I do it my way, according to what I understand and believe, there’s a strength in that. You can think, ‘I can stand by this, I can live by this.’”
Parton’s Rockstar album will be out on November 16. Pre-order the record, and find all of her music, at DollyParton.com.
Read ‘Dolly Parton: 11 Things to Know About the Country Music Queen’ here.