U2 Tell Jimmy Kimmel How Dolly Parton Shaped "Torn"

U2 appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, Nov. 12, to talk about Carnaval de Luz, their new album. The record ends with "Torn," a track that features Dolly Parton's last-ever recorded vocals.

Bono described how the song came together, and it did not start with the song U2 expected to bring. The band first pitched Parton a folky number called "Lifelong," which Bono called a "dizzy, drunken marriage song." Parton turned it down, in Bono's telling, saying it was "a little too Irish for me." She then offered a song she had already started and let U2 finish it. Billboard reported the exchange from the show.

Guitarist The Edge said the band aimed for a "sci-fi country" sound on "Torn." He called Parton's willingness to work that way a "real shock." Bono went further on the show, saying the song is a sort of prayer for America, and for any place where politics has divided people. He quoted one of its lines, "Nothing hurts a mother more than a family at war," and said Parton's hope is that listeners "reach across the table and find common purpose."

Bono also said the band was "blessed to be given her last vocal." He described Parton as "a mythical figure who actually existed recently," and asked whether anyone else "the whole world is going to agree upon" was left.

The song's visual side is also now public. U2 released a lyric video for "Torn" on Friday, Nov. 13. It mixes still images of Parton with footage of Nashville and the countryside. A lyric video shows the words on screen as the song plays.

Parton's estate has also agreed to a fan project. Through the website dolly.u2.com, people can submit clips for a crowdsourced video, meaning one assembled from many contributors' footage. The format follows Johnny Cash's 2010 video for "Ain't No Grave," which used the same approach to build a video from fan material.

For listeners, the story is less about a chart target and more about how a record gets made. A band brought one idea, a legend said no, and the final song came from her half-finished one. The album and the video are now out, and the fan project is open for submissions.