Dolly Parton drops four never-before-released tracks to mark her 78th birthday: ‘Gonna give you a present!’

Dolly Parton released four previously unreleased songs to celebrate her 78th birthday on Friday.

The music icon took to Instagram with a message that read: ‘Hey fans and friends, it’s my birthday so I’m going to give you a present!

‘For my birthday, I’m releasing four unreleased songs from the Rockstar Deluxe album, plus a few others you may have heard before that weren’t on the album. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you all have a happy birthday to me! LOL.

The additional songs include: Rockin’ It (Live), Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Mama Never Said, Two Tickets To Paradise, Jolene (with Måneskin), Stay Out Of My Bedroom, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Entertainer and Sweet Dreams (made from this).

She first released Rockstar in May 2023 and said, “I’m so excited to finally present my first Rock and Roll album Rockstar!

The music icon took to Instagram with a message that read: ‘Hey fans and friends, it’s my birthday so I’m going to give you a present!

“I am deeply honored and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers and musicians of all time and to be able to sing all the iconic songs on the entire album was an extraordinary joy.

“I hope everyone enjoys the album as much as I enjoyed putting it together!” she added.

This comes after Dolly insisted she hasn’t ‘missed’ having children, admitting her career would have been put on the back burner if she had started a family.

The hitmaker and her husband Carl Dean met in 1964 at a laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee, and tied the knot two years later.

They had no offspring, with singer Dolly, 77, saying having little ones was not a “burning” desire for her.

She said Saga Magazine: ‘I didn’t miss it like I thought. As a young couple you think you’re going to have children, but for me it just wasn’t that burning thing. I had my career and my music and I was traveling.

‘If I had children, I would have stayed home with them. I’m sure, and I was worried sick about them.

The additional songs include: Rockin’ It (Live), Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Mama Never Said, Two Tickets To Paradise, Jolene (with Måneskin), Stay Out Of My Bedroom, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Entertainer and “ Sweet dreams are made of this)

‘With everything going on, I would hate to bring a child into this world right now!

“I always say that God didn’t let me have children so that all the children could be mine.”

It comes after Dolly revealed the secrets of her nearly 60-year marriage.

Speaking on Zoe Ball’s BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show last month, Dolly was clear about why her marriage to 81-year-old Carl has lasted.

“We’ve been together for 59 years, we dated for two years, and then we celebrated our 57th anniversary on May 30,” she told Zoe.

‘But I think that’s mainly down to the fact that we’re honest and open and have a twisted sense of humour!’

“He’s crazy, he’s so funny and smart. And I have a great sense of humor from both sides of my family, so I think the humor has always been good.”

She went on to say that mutual “love and respect” for each other has always been the foundation of their romance.

The hitmaker and her husband Carl Dean met in 1964 at a laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee, and married two years later

“There’s the respect and the love and I just like him!”

“You know, I would have liked him if he wasn’t my husband, if he was someone else’s husband, I say, ‘You know that Carl Dean, isn’t he funny? Isn’t he a good guy?’, so I think it’s just mutual respect and we just like each other.’

Dolly says that she values ​​her husband’s opinion very much, but that he never gives her an honest answer ‘in a cruel way’.

“When I ask him if he likes my hair – ‘too stringy for me’ or ‘it looks too important’ – you know, if it’s too stiff… he always calls it this: ‘It looks too important matter’, but I know that if I ask him, he won’t just do it willingly, but if I ask him, he will tell me the truth.’

It comes after Dolly revealed the secrets of her nearly 60-year marriage (Dolly and Carl pictured at their 1966 wedding)

Zoe wanted to know what her very honest husband thought of her new album.

“To be honest, I was a little nervous,” Dolly admitted as she played it for him.

‘When I finished the whole album, he said, “It’s really good.” And to me, that would be like someone else jumping up and down and putting stars on the wall or something.”

“But for him to just say it’s good, that it’s really good, meant the world to me.”