In the spring of 1975, Merle Haggard had a No. 1 country hit with “Always Wanting You,” a quiet ballad about loving someone you can never have. Most fans did not know it at the time, but the song was about a real woman. She was one of the biggest stars in country music, and she had once fallen asleep on Merle’s tour bus with her head on his knee. Her name was Dolly Parton.
On the Road Together
In 1974, Dolly Parton left Porter Wagoner’s show to strike out on her own. Soon she was opening for Merle Haggard, and the two of them spent long stretches on the road together, playing cards on the bus and talking about life and the music business.
They traded songs, too. Merle recorded Dolly’s “Kentucky Gambler,” and it became one of his No. 1 hits. Dolly’s album The Bargain Store, which included the original “Kentucky Gambler,” also featured a Merle Haggard song, “You’ll Always Be Special to Me.”
The Girl on the Bus Floor
Somewhere along the way, Merle fell in love. In his 1981 memoir, Sing Me Back Home, he described his favorite memory of her. It was not the glitter and the wigs. It was the young woman who would sit down on a pillow in the aisle of his bus, lay her head on his knees and talk for hours about her dreams and her plan to become a star.
He wrote that he did not just fall for her image, and that he would have carved “Merle loves Dolly” on every tree in the country if she had asked him to.
There was one big problem. Both of them were married. Merle was married to singer Bonnie Owens, and Dolly had been married to Carl Dean since 1966. According to Merle’s memoir, whenever he made his feelings known, Dolly would turn him down with a simple reminder:
“I’m married, Merle.”
The 3:30 A.M. Phone Call
One night, alone after a show, Merle poured everything into two new songs, “Always Wanting You” and “I’ve Got a Yearning.” Then, at around 3:30 in the morning, he picked up the phone and called Dolly’s house.
In a 1998 interview, Merle remembered that one of Dolly’s assistants answered and told him Dolly was asleep. She suggested he call back in the morning. Merle refused. He told her to go wake Dolly up. Eventually, the assistant gave in, and Dolly came to the phone. Merle said she was as infectious as ever. Then he sang her the song he had written about her, hoping it might finally change her mind.
It did not.
A No. 1 Hit
Merle released “Always Wanting You” as a single from his album Keep Movin’ On. On April 12, 1975, it reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart and stayed there for two weeks. He never named Dolly in the song, but the feelings in it were completely real.
Over time, the story behind the song became one of the worst kept secrets in country music. And by many accounts, writing and releasing it was what finally allowed Merle to let his feelings for Dolly go.
Dolly Finds Out
When Merle’s memoir came out in 1981, his descriptions of Dolly were so colorful that People magazine excerpted them. Dolly’s response was classic Dolly:
“I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or flattered.”
In her 2020 book, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, she told her side of the story. She said she had heard Merle had a crush on her, and that his wife, Bonnie, once told her so directly at a BMI banquet. But Dolly said she had honestly never thought about him romantically. To her, they were just buddies:
“He reminded me of my brother Denver, so I really related to him.”
She added that she was honored and flattered by his feelings, and sorry if they had ever caused any problems.
Dolly’s Song for Merle
Dolly did eventually write Merle a song of his own. She knew how much he loved trains, a passion that went back to his childhood, when his father worked for the railroad and young Merle hopped his first freight car. So she wrote “My Love Affair With Trains,” and Merle made it the title track of his 1976 album.
Merle had written her a love song. She wrote him one back, about locomotives. Fans have been chuckling about it ever since.
Friends to the End
Whatever disappointment Merle felt, the friendship lasted. He later appeared on Dolly’s late-1980s variety show, and he never stopped singing her praises. In a later interview with Garden & Gun, he called her the most charismatic human being alive and Marilyn Monroe with a guitar.
Merle Haggard died in 2016. Dolly Parton passed away in August 2026. “Always Wanting You” remains one of the most honest love songs he ever wrote, about the one he could never have.
Did you know “Always Wanting You” was written about Dolly Parton?