People from all walks of life around the world are still mourning the death of rhinestone-clad musical genius Dolly Parton back in August.
But, from beyond the grave, she has left the world a gift: a new song.
A decade before her death, the prolific writer buried a special, chestnut box, filled with physical copies of a brand-new tune in both cassette and CD formats according to Variety.
The legend’s last number is aptly titled My Place in History.
Fans will need to be patient though. Dolly intended the time capsule be opened and the song revealed on her 100th birthday: January 19, 2046.
The box itself is significant, and serves as a nod to Bill Owens, Dolly’s uncle, who gifted Dolly her first real guitar.
When Owens died, Dolly wrote “I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t been there.”
“I can tell you for sure that I owe Uncle Billy an awful lot,” she wrote.
Owens dedicated much of his life to protecting chestnut trees.
Dolly herself confessed to Kelly Clarkson she was worried the song would “rot” in the time capsule before the time came to open it.
“I don’t know whose damn idea that was,” Dolly jested.
“I figure it’ll probably disintegrate, probably nobody’ll ever hear it. That’s what bothers me.”
Dolly passed away after a “brief battle with cancer” on August 25.
Her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, who she met outside a laundromat in Nashville at just 18, died the year prior.
Dolly said that, if she lived to be 100, she planned to be at the opening of the time capsule.
During her life Dolly is thought to have penned at least three thousand songs, including Jolene and the underrated Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That.
Dolly famously stuck to her guns when she was just 28 and Elvis wanted to record her track I Will Always Love You.
It’s reported she was initially thrilled at the prospect but was then told by Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, agreeing would mean forfeiting half the song’s rights.
She turned Elvis down, a decision that would see her make millions when Whitney Houston covered the song in 1992 for The Bodyguard.
Dolly worked right up until her death and was even planning to launch a Cup of Ambition coffee brand, a nod to her song 9 to 5 about the plight and pain of those stuck climbing the corporate ladder.
After Dolly’s death an influx of heartfelt tributes were made by various people touched by the songwriter.
“The world feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden,” artist Kacey Musgraves said.
“One of one,” wrote actor Pedro Pascal.
“If there are truly angels on earth, then we have lost one,” wrote Dolly’s Steel Magnolias co-star Sally Field.
Read related topics:Celebrity Deaths