The Queen of Country meets the

Dolly Parton’s had enough hair-raising experiences in her life – once pulling a gun on a creepy man – to inspire her first novel with thriller writer James Patterson, set in the ruthless world of country music

On the face of it, Dolly Parton, the sparkly country music legend beloved by all, and James Patterson, the rather less sparkly mega-selling writer, would appear to have little in common. Yet with their astonishing back catalogues (Dolly estimates she’s written around 3,000 songs such as Jolene and I Will Always Love You and James is one of the biggest-selling authors of all time with more than 300 million books sold worldwide), they’ve both been at the very top of their game for decades. So, when James wanted to write a book about an aspiring country singer, the first person he turned to was Dolly.

The result of their collaboration is Run Rose Run, a thriller set in Nashville with, uniquely, a soundtrack album to go with it, and the country music capital is where the duo find themselves today. Perched on a stool in her fitted white sweater and black trousers, Dolly looks resplendent. But then, when doesn’t she? This is, after all, the woman who, while filming the 1980 film 9 To 5, would arrive on set made up to the nines, and then head straight into the make-up trailer.

Now 76, she certainly doesn’t look her age – or, rather, any age thanks to her penchant for cosmetic procedures. She’s admirably upfront about plastic surgery (‘I do nips and tucks to keep it all up. I’ll look the same if I get to be 100!’) as well as being an avid wearer of wigs. Once, when asked how long it takes to do her hair she replied, ‘I don’t know – I’m never there!’

Next to her sits James, rather awkwardly, sporting a Western-style jacket chosen to match the embellishments on Dolly’s trousers. ‘I got him dressed up almost like one of my early duet partners,’ she giggles. He had the initial idea for writing a book with Dolly back in February 2020. ‘I wanted to do a novel about a singer,’ he says. ‘I went to graduate school here in Nashville, so I know the town and the music. I contacted Dolly and she said, “Come on down! Let’s see if we like each other.” We talked for a couple of hours and made the deal right there – no agents, no lawyers.’ Then Covid struck, meaning this is the closest the pair have been for much of the writing process, which involved ‘emails, faxes and telephone calls’ flying between the two every week.

It’s Dolly’s first novel – surprising given that she appears to have done just about everything else. Not content with being a singer/songwriter, actress and businesswoman (her net worth is estimated to be roughly £450 million), we also have Dolly to thank, in part at least, for the lifting of Covid restrictions as her $1 million (£750,000) donation to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center during the early stages of the pandemic helped fund the Moderna vaccine. ‘I felt it was something I should do,’ she says.

But then philanthropy has always been one of Dolly’s sidelines. Her Imagination Library, a reading initiative she launched in 1995, has donated more than 170 million books to children worldwide, and last month she announced that her Dollywood theme park would fund the tuition costs for all employees who wanted to pursue higher education. With James also a fierce advocate for reading – three years ago he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then President Donald Trump for his championing of literacy – it makes sense that the two have combined his expertise with her insider knowledge to write a novel.

Their story follows Annielee Keyes, a young woman in Nashville, determined to become a star. After Ruthanna Ryder, one of country music’s biggest names, takes her under her wing, Annielee is on her way. But when a long-buried secret from her past threatens to rear its head, she’s soon left fearing for her life. It’s trademark James Patterson – all galloping pace and plot – and trademark Dolly Parton, too, as it lays out some of the more ruthless aspects of the music business.

There’s a lot of Dolly in feisty teenager Annielee. A scene early in the novel sees her hitchhiking to Nashville, pulling a gun on a chap and stealing his 18-wheel truck. Aside from the vehicular theft part, the story is pure Dolly. ‘My daddy gave me a gun and told me not to hesitate to use it if I knew I had no other choice,’ she says. ‘So when my best friend Judy Ogle and I went to New York for the first time, we got caught in the wrong part of town. This old guy thought we were prostitutes and he kept putting the make on me, so I pulled my gun out and told him, “If you touch me one more time, you’re dead!”’ The then 19-year-old Dolly used the experience for a scene in 9 To 5. While putting her sexist boss in his place, she threatens to change him from a rooster to a hen with one

‘I told him, “Touch me again, you’re dead!”’

shot. ‘And that’s where that line came from,’ says Dolly with some pride.

Never one to do things by halves, Dolly’s written an accompanying album for the novel with tracks such as Snakes In The Grass and Woman Up (And Take It Like A Man) dovetailing with the storyline. ‘James would write all these wonderful lines for the book and I thought, “I need to start writing some songs about the characters and scenes,”’ says Dolly.

‘I think it’s the first time anyone’s done a novel and a soundtrack to accompany it, which is cool,’ says James. There’s already interest from production companies hoping to turn the book into a film, with Dolly looking to play the role of Ruthanna.

Like Annielee, Dolly had her own early struggles. Back in the 70s, she angered country star Porter Wagoner by leaving his US TV show after having made a name for herself on it. She wrote the song I Will Always Love You as a thank you to Wagoner, but, touched as he was, it didn’t stop him from suing her. It cost her the equivalent of half a million pounds at the time to sever herself from the partnership. Dolly had the last laugh though, when Whitney Houston turned the song into one of the bestselling singles of all time, earning Dolly royalties of ten times that.

‘I’ve always been so bull-headed,’ she admits. ‘I went through a lot of heartache, but I was determined to get out – be my own star.’

It’s hard to imagine anyone messing with Dolly, even though she barely clears 5ft (when she isn’t wearing her signature skyscraper heels, of course). But such is the force of her personality, even men who tried to exploit her early on in her career soon thought better of it. ‘You can’t be a young girl in this town without people trying to take advantage,’ she says. ‘I was going to meetings where I was the only girl, but I would always say, “Look, I know I look cheap, but I believe I’ve

got enough talent to make us all a lot of money.” I never slept with anybody to try to get to the top.’ James sighs. ‘I would have slept my way to the top with anybody,’ he jokes.

James, 74, was a late starter when it came to writing, holding down a successful career in advertising before taking his writing more seriously. His first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected by 31 publishers before being published in 1976. But his output since then has been prodigious – an average of around seven books a year, a feat made possible by frequent collaborations with other authors. One of the most notable of them is Bill Clinton, with whom he wrote the recent thrillers The President Is Missing and The President’s Daughter. The two have remained friends and, having been out with Bill and his wife Hillary socially, James lets slip that they’re closer than you might think. ‘About four times during a dinner, they were holding hands under the table. I doubt that people see them that way. They just don’t see the human side,’ he says.

He’s yet to meet Dolly’s famously elusive husband Carl Dean though, who’s frequently spoken of but rarely sighted. They’ve been married for 55 years. ‘He’s shy when it’s anything to do with the business,’ she explains. ‘The first time I won an award in 1966, I’d just got married and wanted him to dress up and go with me. I got him a tuxedo, but he was so miserable, he was taking it off all the way to the car. We got in the car and he said, “Look, I want you to have anything you want, but don’t ask me to do one of these damn things

again as I ain’t doing it,”’ Dolly yelps. ‘And he never has!’

Their marriage has withstood everything from Dolly’s frantic workload to the numerous stories of her alleged affairs with everyone from Sylvester Stallone to best friend Judy Ogle. Decades in the business though have made her wily enough to deflect chatter with her well-honed Dollyisms. Of Burt Reynolds, her costar in the film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas and another supposed lover, she once joked, ‘Burt and I have a lot in common – we both have 40-inch chests and wear heels and wigs!’

Yet while Dolly is seemingly loved by everyone, James has snared a couple of high-profile detractors, including fellow author Stephen King, who declared him a ‘terrible writer’. When I mentioned this to him in an interview two years ago, James goodnaturedly replied, ‘Oh, f*** Stephen King! I like his books, but for him to say that... I feel like saying, “This is like grade school. Stop already.”’

More notably, he incurred the wrath of billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he made a rare foray into true crime. Living close to Epstein’s mansion in Florida, James heard the story of a mysterious billionaire who got a lenient deal after being charged with sex with underage girls – and couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

He dug into it, and the result was

his 2016 book Filthy Rich, the first to detail Epstein’s horrifying treatment of young girls. It received relatively little attention until Epstein was charged again in 2019 and it was then turned into a successful Netflix series. But while writing the book, James received threatening messages from Epstein’s lawyer. ‘They were about twice a month, saying things like, “Don’t do it – or you will have a lot of trouble.”’ Undeterred, he kept writing. ‘I thought, “Well, I have money – sue me!”’

He’s not wrong about the money. His and Dolly’s combined worth is estimated at well over £750 million. So why do they keep working when they could live in luxury, counting their fortunes? ‘We both feel blessed,’ Dolly says. ‘We count our blessings more than we count our money. I know so many people with much more talent than I could ever dream of who’ve never made it. And I love my work. It hasn’t really dawned on me that I’m a star.’

They’re both self-confessed workaholics (James writes seven days a week, Dolly rises at 3am to start working), and neither of them show any signs of stopping. For two people who could conceivably pool their resources to buy a small nation, they remain down-to-earth. ‘One of our jokes is that we don’t have big heads, but Dolly has big hair,’ says James. Even if, as she admits, she’s never there to do it herself.

‘Epstein’s lawyer sent threatening messages’ JAMES PATTERSON

Unlikely duo James and Dolly