Dolly Parton Put Secret Song in a Time Capsule to Be Released in 2045

Emphasizing that “it’s a really good song,” Parton quipped, “I don’t know whose damn idea that was.”

Still, the “Jolene” singer knew she wrote the song for future audiences to enjoy. 

“Hopefully it’ll be special,” she added. “I have to honestly say, it was an odd feeling to be asked to write a song that was not going to be heard ‘til [2045]. But it’s a good song.”

“I won’t be around to hear it,” she said at the time, telling Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that same year, “I’ll be dead and gone—well I might not be, ’cause I’ll be 99. You know me, I might still be hoppin’ around.”

But while Parton—who released 49 solo studio albums in her lifetime—was prolific for her songwriting, she was more proud of her Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library organization, which provides free books to kids. 

“Of all the things I’ve done in my life—and it’s been a lot because I’ve been around a long time,” she said in her 2020 documentary The Library That Dolly Built, “this is one of the most precious things and the proudest I’ve been of any program I’ve ever been involved in, working with these kids.”

Indeed, the 9 to 5 actress even shared which title she preferred among the many hats she wore.

“The book lady,” she said on the Todayshow in 2019. “I have loved doing this for the kids. There’s nothing more important than our little kids, to make an impression on them when they’re young and to teach them the right things early on.”

Beyond her impact on kids and songwriting, read on to see how others remember Parton…