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Dolly Parton wants to ‘dig up’ secret Christmas song she stashed away in time capsule

‘I figure it’ll probably disintegrate and nobody will ever hear it, that’s what bothers me’

Peony Hirwani
Wednesday 21 December 2022 00:24 EST
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Dolly Parton’s Christmas on The Square trailer

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Dolly Parton said she wanted to “dig up” her secret Christmas song scheduled to be released in 2045.

During a chat with Kelly Clarkson this month, Parton, 76, opened up about the top-secret Christmas song she wrote and buried in a time capsule seven years ago.

“You have no idea how that has bothered me,” Parton said. “I wanna go dig that up so bad. It’s a really good song!

“I don’t know whose damn idea that was,” she joked. “They weren’t expecting me to be there at all, and I probably won’t be. I might be there, who knows. I figure it’ll probably disintegrate and nobody will ever hear it, that’s what bothers me. If it rots in there before they open it.”

Parton announced the existence of the song in her 2020 book Songteller: My Life in Lyrics.

The “Jolene” singer wrote that putting the surprise track in the capsule felt “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”.

Earlier this month, Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol opened at the Southbank Centre.

The musical combines Charles Dickens’s characters and Parton’s music.

(Getty Images for The Rock and Ro)

“Bringing our reimagined Charles Dickens classic to London feels like a homecoming. My songs weave the music of my beautiful Smoky Mountains into this timeless Christmas story, and I can’t wait for London audiences to hear them as we tell that story, set in a place that is truly special to me,” Parton said of the carol.

Read The Independent’s review of the musical here.

Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol runs at the Southbank Centre until 8 January 2023.

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