<p id=”par-1_64″>After spending time on the road together, Merle Haggard fell head over heels in love with <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/dolly-parton/”>Dolly Parton</a>. She was <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/celebrity-relationships/?swcfpc=1″>married</a> at the time and repeatedly told him she didn’t return his feelings. Still, he pined after her to a point where he couldn’t think of anything else. When Parton heard about this years later, she said she wished she’d flirted more with him.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-merle-haggard-admitted-he-was-deeply-in-love-with-dolly-parton-nbsp”>Merle Haggard admitted he was deeply in love with Dolly Parton </h2>
<p id=”par-2_36″>While touring, Haggard and Parton spent a great deal of time together between shows. He said he got to know a more complex and vibrant version of her than the public sees, and he fell hard.</p>
<p id=”par-3_71″>“I didn’t just fall in love with the<a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/country-icon-said-real-dolly-parton-public-sees.html/”> image of Dolly Parton</a>,” he wrote in the book <em>Sing Me Back Home: My Story</em>. “Hell, I fell in love with that exceptional human being who lives underneath all that bunch of fluffy hair, fluttery eyelashes, and super boobs. I was like a schoolboy. I would have carved ‘Merle loves Dolly’ on every damn tree in the country if she’d asked me to.”</p>
<p id=”par-4_18″>He understood that many people felt the same way, but he hoped things would be different for him.</p>
<p id=”par-5_66″>“It was easy to understand why I was attracted to her,” he wrote in <em>Sing Me Back Home: My Story</em>. “God, every man in the country was hot for her — they still are. I thought I was different. I was fool enough to believe that she loved me back. Even now, my pride won’t let me believe that she didn’t — just a little bit.”</p>
<p id=”par-6_11″>By this time, Parton had already <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-stopped-wedding-mid-ceremony.html/”>married her husband</a>, Carl Dean.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-dolly-parton-shared-how-she-would-have-acted-if-she-had-known-merle-haggard-loved-her”>Dolly Parton shared how she would have acted if she had known Merle Haggard loved her</h2>
<p id=”par-7_67″>Years after writing his first book, Haggard wrote a second, <em><a href=”https://shop.countrymusichalloffame.org/products/my-house-of-memories?srsltid=AfmBOorl3w4ryVe6uxQFJKA8W0C1xVmy3h0mCP73oJ2-GziNIiNMBsFa&variant=40064497615043″ target=”_blank” rel=”noreferrer noopener”>My House of Memories</a></em>. In it, he addressed what he wrote about Parton, but this time added her perspective. She told Haggard’s co-writer, Tom Carter, that while she’d loved Haggard, it was a platonic love. She joked that if she’d known the extent of his affection for her, she would have flirted back, at least a little.</p>
<p id=”par-8_37″>“I didn’t realize [the crush] was to that extent, or I would’ve probably done something about it,” she said, adding, “I’d at least’ve flirted a little more or something. I’d at least’ve made it worth his while.”</p>
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<iframe title=”Always Wanting You” width=”925″ height=”694″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/5_Y5NxMmioI?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-9_30″>Despite this, Parton knew at the time that Haggard wrote “Always Wanting You” about her. He called her in the middle of the night, drunk, to tell her as much.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-she-didn-t-like-people-acting-too-flirtatious-with-her”>She didn’t like people acting too flirtatious with her</h2>
<p id=”par-10_19″>While Parton has said she loves to flirt, she reportedly disliked it when people were <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/news/dolly-parton-hated-men-flirtatious.html/”>overly presumptuous with her</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-11_56″>“I’ve never seen a man get physical with her, but I’ve seen men get very suggestive after one too many drinks,” her guitarist, Tom Rutledge, said in the book <em>Dolly</em> by Alanna Nash. “I know it really, really tees her off, but you’d never know it until afterwards, when she says, ‘That son of a b****.’”</p>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-width=”550″ data-dnt=”true”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Yeah I flirt – I’m not blind and I’m not dead!</p>— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) <a href=”https://twitter.com/DollyParton/status/250686415984279553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>September 25, 2012</a></blockquote><script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
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A Country Icon Said the Real Dolly Parton Is ‘Not What the Public Sees’ </a>
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<p id=”par-12_12″>Still, Rutledge said Parton always prevented the interactions from crossing any lines.</p>
<p id=”par-13_23″>“She’ll put him down to where he’ll lose his passion pretty quick,” he said. “She’s good at making her feelings known to someone.”</p>