“Country Hunk.” — How Dolly Parton Turned Her Crush On Billy Ray Cyrus’s Mullet Into A Sassy 1993 Hit About Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places.
In the early 1990s, country music was in the middle of a cultural mood swing. Line dancing was everywhere, mullets were having a moment, and Billy Ray Cyrus had become an unlikely global heartthrob thanks to “Achy Breaky Heart.” While much of Nashville scrambled to keep up with the trend, Dolly Parton did what she has always done best: she flipped the script.
Rather than dismiss the phenomenon as a passing fad, Dolly saw opportunity—specifically, an opportunity to have fun. The result was “Romeo,” a playful, high-energy single released in 1993 that turned the male heartthrob into the object of desire and made female gaze the punchline. It was cheeky, self-aware, and unmistakably Dolly.
At its core, “Romeo” is a song about looking for love in all the wrong places. The narrator is instantly undone by a man who walks into the room and commands attention without saying a word. Dolly made the reference crystal clear, winking directly at Cyrus’s breakout hit with the lyric about a “hillbilly with an aching heart.” It wasn’t subtle—and that was the point.
What made the moment truly iconic was that Dolly didn’t just write the song with Billy Ray Cyrus in mind. She personally called him and asked him to star in the music video as the titular “Romeo.” Instead of the usual country video dynamic—where women orbit a male star—Dolly engineered a rare role reversal. Cyrus became the eye candy.
She didn’t stop there. Dolly assembled a dream lineup of female country powerhouses—Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tanya Tucker, Kathy Mattea, and Pam Tillis—turning the video into a playful chorus of women openly admiring, teasing, and yes, objectifying the male lead. Shot in stark black-and-white, the video leaned fully into its theatricality, making the joke impossible to miss.
At a time when country music was still deeply traditional in its gender dynamics, “Romeo” felt quietly radical. It allowed women to be loud, flirtatious, and in control, all while wrapping the message in humor instead of confrontation. That balance is classic Dolly—sharp without being bitter, progressive without losing warmth.
The song also proved that Parton’s Slow Dancing with the Moon era was anything but sleepy. “Romeo” reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot Country chart, earned a Grammy nomination, and even carried a philanthropic angle, with Dolly donating her proceeds to Hurricane Andrew relief efforts.
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Perhaps the most Dolly twist of all is the irony behind it. Despite writing a song celebrating a “country hunk,” she has always insisted that the only Romeo in her real life is her husband, Carl Dean. The flirtation was never personal—it was performance, humor, and mentorship rolled into one.
By turning Billy Ray Cyrus’s mullet-era fame into a knowing joke, Dolly Parton didn’t just stay relevant in 1993. She reminded Nashville—once again—that she wasn’t following trends. She was setting the rules.
