“That has drove me crazy,” Parton said of her secret song in a time capsule, which won’t be released until 2045.
Singer Dolly Parton dies at 80
Music legend and singer songwriter Dolly Parton has died, according to a statement from her family.
Dolly Parton died on Aug. 25 at age 80, but heartbroken fans can still look forward to hearing new music from the country music legend. We’ll just have to wait nearly two decades.
Parton wrote and recorded a top-secret song that’s buried in a time capsule at her Dollywood resort. The track won’t be unearthed until 2045, when Parton would have been 99.
“That has drove me crazy. I’ve written a song that nobody’s going to hear until I’m 99 years old,” Parton said on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in 2021, adding that she hoped to be alive for the music unveiling. “I might be there, I might not be.”
Parton said the secret song had driven her crazy, not just because she (and the world) has to wait – but also because she was petrified the song would “disintegrate” in the capsule.
“I don’t know whose damn idea that was,” Parton added. “They won’t be expecting me to be there at all, and I probably won’t be. … They said, ‘You’ll be long dead.’ I said, ‘Well, maybe not. I’ll be 99.'”
Parton wrote the mystery track for the 2015 opening of Dollywood’s resort and spa, adjacent to her famed Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The song was sealed in a box along with a CD player and cassette player, with instructions on how to use the outdated machines: “I wanted to preserve how we played those at the time,” she said.
The time capsule will remain closed until the spa and resort celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2045.
Parton told “The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon in 2023 that it’s hard to leave the song alone because it’s a sure-fire hit.
“I have regretted that, because it was a really good song,” Parton said. “I’m serious. I keep wanting them to let me dig it up and replace it with something else that is not as good.”
Parton told “The Tonight Show” audience that they will be in for a treat in 2045.
“If any of you are still around when they open that box,” Parton said, laughing. “I hope you enjoy my song.”
Contributing: Patrick Ryan