9/24/26-Dolly Parton’s final duet!

Trusted Source: People Magazine at people.com

Parton’s duet with Bono, titled “Torn,” will appear on U2’s new album Carnaval De Luz in November

By Rachel DeSantis

Just two months before she died, Dolly Parton recorded a duet with U2‘s Bono in what would be her final recorded vocal performance. Now, that duet will see the light of day on the Irish band’s new album Carnaval De Luz.

Parton, who died on Aug. 25 at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer, is featured on the album’s closing track “Torn,” a “tender country song detailing broken family ties that holds wider resonances,” according to a press release shared on Thursday, Sept. 24.

Bono, 66, told Rolling Stone that “Torn” was recorded in June, and he was impressed by Parton’s strength as she went in to lay down her vocals.

“When she got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that,” he told the outlet. “And I can’t even listen to it now.”

The Irish star said that he’d tried to get Parton to collaborate with him on a different side project that was inspired by Irish folk music, but she felt it was “a little too Irish” for her taste.

Instead, she offered her song “Torn,” and asked if he’d be willing to listen and take it where he wanted. Bono wound up reworking the lyrics alongside Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid, and Parton agreed to sing.

“She sang her heart out and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman,” he said.

Garret “Jacknife” Lee, who produced U2’s new album, told Rolling Stone that Parton “loved” the song, and was able to approve the final mix before she died.

“She was so proud of her vocal and the recording. She was thrilled with it,” he said. “We were very nervous that she might not approve, or would be uncomfortable with it, but she loved it.”

Bono and Parton have long been friends. When she turned 80 in January, Parton shared a video to Facebook of the band surprising her with a birthday cake and bagpipe players.

“Now that’s what you call a surprise! This old bag sure feels the love! 😉💖,” she joked. “Thank you, Bono and U2 for making my birthday extra special.”

Carnaval De Luz marks U2’s 16th studio album and the first of new material in nine years.

“Roll up, roll up, roll up! Bring your purple socks, your broken hearts, your rose-tinted naivety… oh be amazed in the hall of mirrors. There will be loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms and, yes, some silver tears will make an appearance!” Bono said in a statement. “‘Cause in the near distance just outside our carnival of light there are all kinds of creatures… the same imagination that brings us our creativity can also bring us monsters. So we make the drums louder. We build a bigger fire. We make our stories wilder and funnier. We make the melodies sweeter and the songs, they better shine, because if the world is in darkness we better not be.”

The record is set for release on Nov. 13.