On Thanksgiving 2023, Parton dressed up as a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and performed at halftime (Image: Getty)
Dolly Parton was known for her wicked sense of humour and it would seem that even in death she still has a trick or two up her sleeve.
In a 2022 interview with US comedian and chat show host Jimmy Fallon, Parton divulged that she has one more song tucked away somewhere safe at Dollywood, with the never-before-heard track to be released once she had passed away.
The song, called My Place in History, was written to be her last and has never been heard by anyone aside from Dolly herself.
But, even though the iconic all-American songstress has passed away at age 80, we’re no closer to hearing it.
Instead, the wooden box containing her last-ever recording will remain tightly sealed for almost 20 more years. Parton recorded the track in 2015 to celebrate the grand opening of her Dollywood DreamMore resort. The secret song will drop in 2045, exactly 30 years after the resort opened its doors to the public.
Dolly Parton on The Kelly Clarkson Show (Image: Getty)
As well as the sole recording of her last-ever song release, Parton also placed both a CD player and cassette player into the time capsule, which is hidden somewhere inside Dollywood.
Speaking on the Kelly Clarkson show in 2022, she said: “We do a lot of things at Dollywood, and one year we thought about it and they asked me if I’d write a song that no one would ever hear hear.
“I’d be dead, I’d be gone – or I might not be. Well, maybe not. I’ll be 99, you know me! I might still be hopping around! Anyway, I wrote a song and I put it in the box to be opened.”
The titan of country music added that she already regretted locking the song away, telling Clarkson that the track is a good one and that she wished she could replace it with something else.
“I don’t know whose damn idea that was,” Parton said of the secret track. “I figure [the song] probably disintegrate and nobody will ever hear it, that’s what bothers me. If it rots in there before they open it.”
She added in her 2020 memoir, entitled Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, that locking the tune away felt like she was “burying one of my kids” or like “putting it on ice or something”.
“I won’t be around to see it brought back to life,” she said, adding that it was “burning me up inside that I have to leave it in there”.
Parton, on stage as she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 (Image: Getty)
The singer-songwriter superstar herself said her last-ever song will be shared with the world when she’s 99.
“This chestnut ‘Dream Box’ is a repository of Dolly’s memories and wishes for the future. It will not be opened until Dolly’s 100th birthday on January 19, 2046,” reads a description next to the box, according to the fan photo.
“The Dream Box itself is a tribute to her original mentor and uncle, Bill Owens, who has worked tirelessly to preserve the American Chestnut tree. s a final tribute, Dolly has placed a song which she has written to be released as her last. Entitled, ‘My Place in History,’ only Dolly knows its melody and content until 2046.”
