Dolly Parton's Third Part of Her Memoir Is Songbird's 'Secret Swansong': 'It's Filled With Sad Farewells'

Dolly Parton's new memoir is being described as a secret swansong filled with sad farewells.

It sets out the 79-year-old star's frank reckoning with aging, grief and legacy as she confronts what she calls her "own shadow on the horizon."

The third volume of her life story, Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, has arrived after what friends say has been Parton's most reflective year, marked by the death of her husband of 58 years and recent health setbacks that have forced her to postpone a Las Vegas residency.

The book also charts seven decades of ambition, sacrifice and reinvention, offering what one longtime collaborator described as "Dolly's way of tidying her spiritual house before turning the page."

Parton said in an interview to promote the book: "You know, I have just been going so fast my whole life. And I just start thinking, 'How in the world did I even have a life? How did I even get it done?' I really realized when I was putting this book together just how much I had sacrificed in my life. I never had children, so at least I didn't have a guilty feeling. I'm thankful that I got to see my dreams come true."

Sources say the memoir was shaped by the period following the death of Carl Dean, who died at age 82 in March.

One insider said: "Dolly poured both her heartbreak and her gratitude into these pages, knowing she was writing with the weight of fresh grief. She is secretly viewing it as her swansong, as she really doesn't have much time left."

Parton has postponed concerts because of "health challenges" stemming from a kidney-stone infection. But she has forcefully pushed back against the idea illness or age will define her.

She said: "People say, 'Well, you're going to be 80 years old.' Well, so what? Look at all I've done in 80 years. I feel like I'm just getting started. I know that sounds stupid, but unless my health gives way, which right now I seem to be doing fine… I think there's a lot to be said about age. If you allow yourself to get old, you will. I say, 'I ain't got time to get old!' I ain't got time to dwell on that. That's not what I'm thinking about."

In the memoir, Parton revisits her Tennessee childhood, shaped by her tobacco farmer father, Robert, and her homemaker mother, Avie, and her headstrong journey to Nashville as a teenager determined to sing.

Parton also recounts facing industry sexism as she forged her own path, then broke into pop and film in the 1980s.

"You have to grow into things, and you have to grow out of things; that's how I handled my career," she said. "I needed to try things. A lot of people think because you're a girl, you don't always know what you're doing."

A source said the new memoir "reads like a farewell album she's singing to herself – honest, tender and edged with the knowledge that time is precious."

But Parton has insisted she is simply grounding herself after a bruising year.

"I'm at that point in my life where I just want to be able to do good things that can be carried on," she said.