Bono has opened up about collaborating with the late Dolly Parton on U2’s new song, “Torn.”
The song, which closes the band’s forthcoming album Carnaval de Luz, is reportedly the final vocal that the Queen of Country recorded before her death in August at the age of 80.
In a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, 66-year-old frontman Bono explained that the band had originally approached Parton about working together on a different song, that he described as being for a “Celtic Irish folk project.”
Bono continued: “I got in touch with her and we were discussing some of the songs, just her and I, across the phone line. One of the songs was called ‘Lifelong.’ I think it was kind of like a marrying song, like a wedding song. And she said, ‘That's a little too Irish for me, if you don't mind.’ And I said, ‘You're from the Appalachians, aren't you all Scots Irish?’ She said, ‘Yeah, but I'm talking about my voice.’”
He went on to explain that Parton came back with the suggestion for “Torn,” saying: “And she said, I got a song started called ‘Torn.’ Now you can take it somewhere else and I'd like to see where you could take it or something like that.”
Bono said that when the band received the song from Parton, it was “quite traditional and we really took it somewhere else. I was really surprised that she ran with it. That's because not only was it sort of, not just American families, but arguing at the kitchen table and two brothers not speaking. You know, had some real friction of the times in it.”
He added that the group did not know how sick Parton was, explaining: “I was surprised that she ran with it and she sang it like she just took flight. Amazing vocal. And she was ill at the time. We didn't know how ill, of course. And she got out of bed to sing this song. And it meant a lot to us at the time, just knowing she was ill, that she would even consider doing something with us.”
Parton was hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville in with “kidney and autoimmune issues” five days before she died. It was later revealed she had died after “a brief battle with cancer.” The type of cancer has not been disclosed.
Aside from the U2 collaboration, Parton recorded another song before her death, which has been sealed inside a time capsule that won’t be opened until the year 2046. The track, titled “My Place in History,” was deposited by the late queen of country in a wooden box at Dollywood’s DreamMore resort, which opened back in 2015.
In her book Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Parton reveals that the resort’s staff have been specifically instructed to leave the box unopened until the date she specified: what would have been her 100th birthday on January 19, 2046.
U2’s Carnaval De Luz is set to be released November 13.
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