Dolly Parton has always given it throughout her brilliant and extraordinary career. At the stroke of midnight, the country music icon reminded us what we were sorely missing with the release of “Torn,” Parton’s posthumous collaboration with U2.
The duet between Dolly and Bono, the leader of U2, is the closing song of Luz Carnival (which translates to “Carnival of Light”), the sixteenth and final studio album by the Irish rock band.
Co-written by U2, Parton and Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, “Torn” is the country great’s final recorded vocal performance, and it connects the full 24-track deluxe version of the project, followed in sequence by the surprise EPs. Days of Ashes And Easter Lilyin double album.
Dolly brings it together to create a spiritual whole. “You feel a border crossing,” remarks Bono in a press release. “And so you move from the south to the north, and Dolly Parton sings to you as you cross the border.”
Luz Carnival is U2’s first album of new material in nine years. To celebrate its release, Island Records is sharing several versions of the country-tinged “Torn,” including the “Kent Wells Version” and the “T Bone Burnett Take,” all featuring Dolly’s incomparable vocals.
Speaking ahead of his release, Bono said rolling stone that the recording was, admittedly, almost too difficult for him to hear.
“When she got sick, she got out of bed to sing this song,” Bono remarked. “And you can hear it. And I can’t even listen to it now.”
Parton recorded her vocals for “Torn” in June, just two months before her death. Bono was blown away by his talents. “She sang with all her heart,” he said RS“and I can’t believe it’s an 80 year old woman.”
Parton approved the final mix before passing away on August 25 at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer.
“It’s very moving to have had these intimacies with such a character,” Bono explained to rolling stone. “The fact that they’re not here now, in any way that you can recall, other than through his songs, is sobering.”
Luz Carnival comes 50 years after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note to the message board of Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, with the fateful message: “Drummer looking for musicians to form a band.”
What happened next is the stuff of legend.
With their political hearts exposed on their collective sleeves, Bono, The Edge, Mullen and Adam Clayton would arguably become the biggest band in the world in the second half of the 1980s, a crown they managed to wear well into the 90s despite the explosion of grunge, indie, alternative rock, hip-hop and electronic music.
The group has sold 175 million albums, according to Island Records, and won 22 Grammy Awards. Along the way, they landed 34 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including two chart leaders, as well as eight No. 1s on the Billboard 200 chart. Induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame took place in 2005.
U2 had the honor of being the first band to play at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which they opened in September 2023 with the residency, U2:UV Achtung Baby in concert at Sphere.
According to representatives, the quartet is currently working on plans to translate the new album Carnaval De Luz Presents: The Greatest Show On Earth World Tour, a live tour in 2027.
Stream U2’s ‘Torn’ Featuring Dolly Parton and the New Album Luz Carnival.
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