Dolly Parton’s last recorded vocal will appear on U2’s new album. The track is called“Torn,”a duet with Bono, and it closes out“Carnaval De Luz”when it arrives November 13, 2026. A press release confirms it’s her final recorded performance.
The song has a long history. Parton originally gave it to Bono, a country tune about broken family ties, when he was trying to recruit her for an Irish folk project. U2 kept it, reworked it with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, and brought in Daniel Lanois on pedal steel. Bono told Rolling Stone that when Parton got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song.“And you can hear that,”he said.“And I can’t even listen to it now.”
After Parton died in August 2026, U2 shared a drawing of her with the caption“Every heart is torn.”At the time it read like a tribute. Now we know it was a lyric, a quiet preview of what was coming. Which raises the question: what song would you want playing as your final word to the world?
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Local Lawton
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