Parton’s interview came less than two weeks after Parton posted a “love note to family, friends and fans” on Instagram in honor of her late husband. “Thank you for all the messages, cards and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl,” she wrote on March 6.

Dean was famously private and would seldom appear in public, let alone with his famous wife. But Parton said he would come to her theme park, standing in line to buy a ticket just like other visitors to Dollywood. “He didn’t want somebody giving him a ticket ‘cause he was Dolly’s husband,” she said.

Dolly Parton has been seen for the first time since the death of her husband Carl Dean, as the country music icon returned to the stage for a concert in Nashville, Tennessee