Dolly Parton Wrote a Song That Won’t Be Released Until 2045

Among all of the accolades and attributes tied to country music’s patron saint Dolly Parton, perhaps her most lasting and impressive contribution is her songwriting. Over 3,000 published compositions have been penned by Dolly personally, including some of the most popular and important songs in American music history.

But there is one song from the Dolly Parton catalog we won’t get to hear any time soon. That’s because it’s purposely been locked away in a chestnut wood box made by her uncle Bill, and placed in a glass display case at Dolly’s DreamMore Resort at Dollywood that was opened in 2015. That’s right, on a CD is an unheard, unreleased track, recorded and ready to go, that won’t be revealed until 2045, or 30 years after the DreamMore Resort first opened its doors.

Dolly Parton tells the story of the unreleased song in her new book, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, saying, “They said, ‘You’ll be long dead,’ Well, maybe not. I’ll be 99. I’ve seen people live to be older than that. So I wrote this song, and I can’t say what it is. That’s like burying one of my kids, putting it on ice or something, and I won’t be around to see it brought back to life. It’s just burning me up that I have to leave it in there.”

Also interesting is that they had the foresight to also include a CD player in the box, just in case the technology at that time moves so far past CDs or physical product, they won’t be able to procure a player to hear it. “There’s no telling what music is going to be by then,” Dolly says. “Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing ain’t rotted.”

Dolly Parton is about to hit a big milestone, turning 75 on Tuesday, January 19th. If she lives to be 100, she’ll be able to witness the unveiling of the mystery song herself. “If I do, I’m going to be at that opening.”

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