Dolly Parton: Country music star locked unreleased song in time capsule

Dolly Parton’s place in music history is already secure, but the late country music legend has one more song up her sleeve.

Even though she died on Tuesday at the age of 80, Parton planned for the future, tucking away a song in a time capsule at her Dollywood theme part in eastern Tennessee that will be opened on Jan. 19, 2046 -- on what would have been her 100th birthday, WBIR reported.

The song, appropriately enough, is titled “My Place in History,” according to The Washington Post.

“We do a lot of things at Dollywood and one year, we thought about that,” Parton said in an interview on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2022, the newspaper reported. “They asked me if I’d write a song that nobody would ever hear.”

The time capsule is a chestnut box, which is a tribute to Parton’s uncle, Bill Owens, who was passionate about restoring chestnut trees, the Post reported.

The box will contain a CD and cassette tape of “My Place in History,” according to the newspaper.

According to WBIR, a plaque at Dollywood’s DreamMore Motel spells out what will happen to the song.

“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, 1946,” the note reads in part. “Entitled, ‘My Place in History,’ only Dolly knows its melody and contents until 2046.”

Years after the song was recorded, Parton said she began having doubts about leaving “My Place in History” in a box for so many years, WBIR reported.

“I have regretted that because it was a really good song,” Parton told Fallon. “I keep wanting them to let me dig it up and put something else in it that’s not as good.”

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