Dolly Parton has made it clear that she has no interest having her likeness make the rounds as a hologram after her death. Despite the recent trend of groups such as ABBA utilizing 3D versions of themselves and Mick Jagger calling virtual concerts a "technology breakthrough," Parton is not so quick to sign off on any Black Mirror-esque AI. Sure, there is a hologram of Dolly (a Dolly-gram?) at the Chasing Rainbows Museum inside Dollywood, but that laser-constructed Dolly is simply welcoming you to view her memorabilia, not touring the world singing "9 to 5" and "I Will Always Love You."
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"I think I've left a great body of work behind," she said (quote via The Independent). "I have to decide how much of that high-tech stuff I want to be involved [with] because I don't want to leave my soul here on this earth."
Parton went on to explain that she believes her songs will keep her legacy alive on earth long after she's gone.
"I think with some of this stuff I'll be grounded here forever," she said. "I'll be around, we'll find ways to keep me here."
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In true Dolly fashion, she joked that everything about her, including "any intelligence," was already artificial. See? We'd like to see some Dolly-bot try to capture the humor of a classic Dolly-ism. It can't be done and we'll only accept the real deal.
Parton has already taken steps to ensure a final goodbye to fans in the form of a secret song that's buried in a time capsule in Dollywood's DreamMore Resort. The song is under lock and key until 2045, when Parton will be 99 years old.
"It would be a song that will never be heard until 30 years from the time we opened the resort. They said, 'You'll be long dead,'" Parton writes in Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. "I said, 'Well, maybe not. I'll be 99. I've seen people live to be older than that.'"
The song is on a CD stored in a chestnut wood box created by her uncle Bill, and the box resides in a glass case.
"That's like burying one of my kids, putting it on ice or something, and I won't be around to see it brought back to life," Parton adds. "It's just burning me up inside that I have to leave it in there."
