Kenny Rogers Once Said His Relationship With Dolly Parton Was “More Electric” Than An Affair: “We Flirted With Each Other For 30 Years”

The dream team.

Of course, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers famously worked together for decades, and were beloved both individually, and as a pair, by country music fans everywhere. They had a natural, undeniable chemistry, and of course, teamed up for one of the most iconic country songs of all-time, “Islands in the Stream,” in 1983.

That song was written by the Bee Gees and released in August 1983 as the first single from Rogers’s fifteenth studio album Eyes That See in the Dark, and it eventually peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, giving each of Rogers and Parton their second pop number-one hit (Rogers had one with “Lady” in 1980 and Dolly had one with “9 to 5” in 1981).

Because they had such an obvious connection, many fans wondered over the decades if there was anything beyond an innocent friendship between them, and in an interview many years ago with Dan Rather, Kenny told how the story of “Islands In The Stream” became a duet with Dolly. It had originally been written for an R&B singer, and after they passed on it, Kenny was going to sing it solo, but he could never get it quite right on his own:

“Well, something special, but not what it sounds like. ‘Islands In the Stream’ was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, and he brought me this song. He didn’t write it for me, he wrote it for an R&B singer that didn’t do it. And he brought it to me and he said, ‘I really wanna do this song.’

I had a recording studio in LA at the time, And I sang that song for four days and I finally just said, ‘Barry I don’t even like this song anymore.’ And he said, I swear it’s like an epiphany, ‘We need Dolly Parton.’ And I thought, I had met Dolly but I didn’t really know her, and Ken Craig and who was my manager, said, ‘I just saw her downstairs.’ I said ‘Well, go get her and let’s see if she likes it.’

Well, only as Dolly can do, she marched in the room, And once she came in, the song was never the same. I mean, it was really that different when she sang with me then when I sang it by myself. It had a different meaning, a different set of values to it and musically it was so much better.”

Because they were on the subject of Dolly, Rather asked point blank if they ever had a fling or more romantic type of relationship, implying that it was pretty clear they weren’t just professional acquaintances. Rogers said “from the bottom of his heart” nothing ever went on, and he explained that they just “flirted with each other for 30 years,” which made it so “electric.”

He felt that if they would’ve ever “consummated” the relationship in any way, it would’ve ruined the magic and that’s all it was:

“I’m telling you, from the bottom of my heart. I met her husband, first of all, and I was married to Marianne through that whole time. What we did was, we flirted with each other for 30 years and it was much more electric. I think once you consummate a relationship like that, it loses something. And she and I both believe that theory. So we did some massive flirting in front of the nation, but there was never anything more than that.”

I actually totally understand where he’s coming from there, thought I don’t know if I completely believe him… but I guess I have to take him at his word and go with that. I think fans just want to believe something like that is true, and it helped them sell a lot of records, so why not play into it, right?

Kenny and Dolly remained friends until the end when he passed in 2020, and in the interview, he talked about how Dolly has “no filter” and you always know exactly what’s on her mind, which is what he loved about her:

“You know, I love her. The thing with Dolly, and I don’t know whether like this expression or not, but we just did a new song called ‘You Can’t Make Old Friends,’ that was written for us by Don Schlitz, who wrote ‘The Gambler.’ And it was written for us about our relationship and our career. And it’s wonderful and it’s very touching. It’s like, ‘what will I do when you’re gone,’ and it goes into all this stuff.

‘Once Saint Peter opens the gate,’ it’s very touching and in the middle of the song, Dolly comes over and puts her… my theory is that Dolly has no filter. If it goes in her mind, it comes out her mouth. She doesn’t stop to think, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t say that.’ She came over and put her arms around me and she said, ‘Kenny, I just want you to know something. I could never sing at your funeral.’ And I was like, ‘So we’re assuming I’m going first? Is that what you’re saying?’

But she just … that’s what’s so wonderful about her. If she thinks it, she says it. You know what’s on her mind. But she’s she’s a wonderful girl. And we’ll go three or four years without seeing each other, I mean every night someone asked me where is Dolly? You know, like we talk every day. And I’m just gonna start giving them her home phone number and say ‘Call her and ask her where she is.’ She’s a sweetheart.”

Two of the best two ever do it, and they made a heck of a pair as artists and duet partners, and friends.

They worked on countless songs and projects together, and Kenny wasn’t the only country star who ever had a crush on Mrs. Dolly… Merle Haggard was very public about his love for her, and I can’t say that I blame their one of them in the least. Like I said, I’m taking Kenny at his word, but I will probably always remain just a little bit skeptical… they either have more will power than any other two humans on the planet, or they’re two of the best actors. I guess we’ll never know, and that’s the point.

You can watch the full interview here:

“Islands In the Stream”

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