Dolly Parton Wants to Unearth the “Really Good Song” She Buried in a Time Capsule

Dolly Parton has a secret song she really wants to unearth – literally.

Sitting down on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Parton shared that back in 1986 in honor of the opening day of Dollywood, the theme park in her home state of Tennessee, she wrote a song that was buried in a time capsule on site, alongside relics from the time including a cassette and CD player. She promised not to open it until 2045 when she turns 99 years old.

“I have to honestly say, it was an odd feeling to be asked to write a song that nobody was going to hear,” she told Clarkson. “That has drove me crazy. I had to write this song that nobody was going to hear until then, and you have no idea how that has bothered me.”

Parton is currently 76-years-old, meaning we have another 23 years before the song will be heard by any ears. “I want to go dig that up so bad,” she continued, noting that it’s a “really good song.”

“I don’t know who’s damn idea that was. … They weren’t expecting me to be there at all and I probably won’t be,” she added with a giggle. “That’s what bothers me to think that it’s going to be a song that nobody’s ever going to hear if it rots in there before they open it. Hopefully, it’ll be special and it’ll still be there.”

It turns out that Clarkson has some experience with time capsules too, revealing that she gifted fellow The Voice coach Blake Shelton a time capsule on his birthday in 2021 and instructed him not to open it until his birthday a year later. When he did, he found a Team Kelly jacket from The Voice inside. “He kept throwing it away and I was like, ‘You’ve had this for a year, joke’s on you,’” Clarkson quipped.

Parton will close out 2022 by appearing as co-host on Miley Cyrus’ Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party airing on NBC on December 31.

Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic