Health permitting, Dolly Parton has no plans to retire. The country legend rebuffed the idea of hanging up her hat in a recent UK radio interview, proclaiming that she intends to perform until the end of her life.
“I’m not one to sit around doing nothing,” Parton told host Ken Bruce, discussing her upcoming rock album and fashion book. “I would never retire. I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song on stage someday.”
“Of course, we don’t have much of a choice in that,” Parton conceded. “But as long as I’m able to work, as long as my health is good and my husband is good, the only way that I would ever slow down or stop would be for that reason. But in the meantime, I’m gonna make hay while the sun shines.”
That hay includes Rockstar, an album comprised of original rock songs and covers of classics that features Sting, Steve Perry, Stevie Nicks, Debbie Harry, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and more. The star-studded LP, which Parton recorded after being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, arrives November 17th and includes the singles “World on Fire,” “Bygones” featuring Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, and a cover of Heart’s “Magic Man” with Ann Wilson.
Meanwhile, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, a book detailing Parton’s most iconic costumes, hits shelves on October 17th. Don’t expect any holograms of the artist when she does pass, either: Parton plans on taking her soul with her when she leaves Earth.