Country queen Dolly Parton has recorded a secret song and locked it in a time capsule for music fans to hear in 2045.
The 9 to 5 hitmaker has sealed the track in a special box, created out of chestnut wood by her Uncle Bill, at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort, the Tennessee retreat she launched in 2015, and officials are under specific instructions not to open it until the 30th anniversary of the venue's opening.
In her book, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, published last year, Parton revealed marketing executives came up with the unique idea to withhold the song, and she was intrigued.
She explained: "It would be a song that will never be heard until 30 years from the time we opened the resort. They said, 'You'll be long dead.' I said, 'Well, maybe not. I'll be 99. I've seen people live to be older than that.'"
The superstar, who turns 75 on 19 January included a CD player in the vault to allow future generations to listen to the recording, but she admitted it's been tough having to leave a new song unheard and untouched in the box for so long.
"That's 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," she wrote, adding: "It's just burning me up inside that I have to leave it in there."
She then joked: "Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing (CD and player) ain't rotted (sic)," and remarked, "Anyway, it's kind of weird or strange that they would ask me to write this mystery song. I don't know if I want to live to be 100 or not. But you never know. I might, and if I do, I'm going to be at that opening."
