When Will Fans Hear Dolly Parton’s Hidden Song From the DreamMore Time Capsule

The world is still coming to terms with losing Dolly Parton. Her nephew Bryan Seaver confirmed the news in a video this week, speaking for the Parton and Owens family. He introduced himself as the son of Cassie Parton and said he was announcing the passing of his aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, the woman the family knew as Sister, Sis, Granny and Gigi.

Seaver said Dolly had asked him years ago to make that announcement when the time came. He had been her head of security for more than two decades, a job his father Larry held before him. Representatives later confirmed she had been diagnosed with cancer and died at the same medical center where she was admitted days earlier.

Even now, one last piece of her music is still waiting. Back in 2015, when Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort opened in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dolly wrote and recorded a song called “My Place in History.” She sealed it inside a chestnut “Dream Box” along with a CD, a cassette, and players so people in the future could still hear it. The box sits on display at the resort. It was made as a tribute to her uncle and mentor Bill Owens, who worked to save the American chestnut tree.

Dolly talked about the song in her 2020 memoir Songteller: My Life in Lyrics and again on television in 2022. On The Kelly Clarkson Show she said she had to write something nobody would hear for decades and it bothered her more than people realized. “I want to go dig that up so bad,” she said. “It’s a really good song. I don’t know whose damn idea that was.”

On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon she joked about whether she would still be around when the box opened. She said she would be 99 by then and maybe she would still be hopping around. She also admitted it felt strange to write a song she might never hear herself. “Hopefully it’ll be special,” she said. “It’s a good song.”

Most reports now say the capsule is meant to stay sealed until January 19, 2046, which would have been her 100th birthday. Some earlier accounts tied the opening to the resort’s 30th anniversary in 2045. Either way, fans will have to wait nearly two decades before anyone outside that wooden box hears “My Place in History.”