 In 2019, the podcast "Dolly Parton's America" had an episode addressing the question of whether the narrator's focus on Jolene's beauty and desirability is indicative of her own romantic longings.A musicologist wrote and performed a fourth verse which makes this interpretation explicit; when the podcast's hosts played audio of this performance for Parton, she responded that this was "another take on it".According to Parton, the song was inspired by a red-headed bank clerk who flirted with her husband Carl Dean at his local bank branch around the time they were newly married.