Country music legend Dolly Parton’s voice is being heard once again nearly three months after her death, with her final recorded vocal performance making its country radio premiere Thursday.
Parton teamed with U2 frontman Bono for “Torn,” an emotional country-influenced duet that will close the Irish rock band’s upcoming album, “Carnaval De Luz.”
The song officially arrives Friday, but a special “Kent Wells Version” received an exclusive country radio premiere Thursday across major broadcasters and SiriusXM channels. Parton recorded her vocals at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios in June, approximately two months before her death from cancer on Aug. 25 at age 80.
U2 said the session became the final vocal performance Parton ever recorded. “Torn” was co-written by Parton, U2 and Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid and explores broken family relationships, divided loyalties and the emotional consequences of conflict between loved ones.
Jacknife Lee produced the track, while longtime U2 collaborator Daniel Lanois contributed pedal steel guitar. The recording features Parton and Bono on vocals, The Edge on vocals and guitar, Adam Clayton on bass and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums.
Parton apparently knew the recording was special before her death. In a June 2 message to Bono subsequently made public, Parton told the U2 singer she hoped he liked what she had contributed and encouraged him to use whatever parts worked best. “I love the song, and I think it could be something really special,” Parton wrote.
She closed the message by thanking Bono for including her in his life and expressing her longtime affection for him. The circumstances surrounding the recording became considerably more emotional following Parton’s death.
Bono revealed that Parton was already seriously ill when she recorded the song, although U2 did not realize at the time just how sick she was. “When she got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song. And you can hear that,” Bono told Rolling Stone in September.
He said Parton poured so much emotion into the performance that listening to the finished recording became difficult after her death.
“We did not know she was critically ill,” Bono later told Ireland’s RTÉ. “She was still funny, even though she was ill. She was full of spunk and sort of sassiness about the song.”
Dolly Parton’s final recording ever is a collab with U2 and it drops tomorrow. 80 years old and still singing her heart out like that, no notes. https://t.co/OXPX1UYkV8
— Z100 New York (@Z100NewYork) November 12, 2026
Bono said the collaboration originated with Parton herself. “She started the song,” he said. “And I can’t even listen to it now,” he added. “She sang her heart out and I cannot believe that’s an 80-year-old woman.”
Parton presented Bono with the idea for “Torn” and encouraged him to take the composition in another direction, leading to the collaboration with McDaid and the rest of U2.
Bono described its subject as a form of “civil war at the kitchen table,” centered around family members divided against one another.
The theme extends beyond American political or cultural divisions, he said, because families throughout the world experience similar conflicts.
Parton died peacefully at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville after what her representatives described as a brief battle with cancer.
Her husband of nearly six decades, Carl Dean, died in March 2025 at age 82. Parton had continued working despite her illness, leaving behind music that has been released after her death.
“Torn” now carries particular significance because representatives for Parton confirmed it was the last vocal performance she recorded.
The song will serve as the 12th and final track on “Carnaval De Luz,” U2’s 16th studio album and its first collection of entirely new material in nine years.
The album arrives Friday as U2 celebrates its 50th anniversary. For Bono, the unexpected collaboration also highlighted Parton’s unusual ability to transcend musical, cultural and political divisions. “This is probably the only thing the world can agree on,” Bono said of Parton.
