U2 guitarist The Edge says he hears something older than country music at the end of Dolly Parton's final recorded vocal, calling it "like keening at the end." The comment comes from Rolling Stone's new U2 cover story.
Parton recorded the song, "Torn," a duet with Bono, in early June, less than three months before her death. It closes U2's new album Carnaval De Luz. The Edge compares the sound to the Irish keening tradition at funerals and says Parton "has that in her blood." The final words she sings are "Every heart is torn."
That line was already familiar to fans. U2 shared it on Instagram shortly after her death, in a post that teased the song.
The album is due November 13, and the lead single, "Silencio," came out September 24. It is U2's first collection of new songs in nine years, with 12 tracks produced by Garret "Jacknife" Lee.
Bono says Parton approved the final mix before she died. "Torn" is described as a country song about broken family relationships, with Daniel Lanois on pedal steel.
Parton grew up singing gospel in her grandfather's Pentecostal church, so it fits that her last recorded words are a line of shared grief.
Related Article: Bono Reveals Dolly Parton Left Her Sickbed to Record Her Final Song With U2
