Dolly Parton and James Patterson on “Run, Rose, Run”

Nashville Bluebird Café is home to some of the best storytellers; after all, history is what makes a great country song. And every writer, especially the acclaimed, like the novelist James Patterson, knows how difficult it can be. “In fact, I tried to write some country-western songs,” he said.

Correspondent Lee Cowan asked, “Have you ever played them?”

“No!”

That’s because, in part, Patterson was too busy becoming a novelist. He has written or co-written over 200, and has more bestsellers than anyone.

He is at home in Music City. He earned his master’s degree from Vanderbilt University, and has never forgotten the faces of aspiring country stars walking from bar to bar: “You couldn’t sit in one of these bars for more than 10 minutes without someone coming in. from the street, sitting, and playing. “

For his latest novel, Patterson decided to write about someone coming to Nashville with dreams of becoming someone. He even admits that it’s a story as worn out as an old pill, and that’s why he needed a co-writer who would have really lived that life to give the book a little shine.

“I asked, ‘Why do you need me? You’re doing pretty well on your own! “Said Dolly Parton.

Patterson pointed out, “She said, ‘He’s the guy who writes about serial killers, right? “

“Yes, I knew it.”

At first it may seem like a strange couple: the girl from the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, who became one of the queens of country music, teaming up with a former Manhattan ad executive turned worm of books, who has barely played a guitar in his hands. life.

They hadn’t met until 2019, when Patterson flew to Nashville to present the idea to Parton. He even picked him up at the airport. “I’m always there to pick him up. I wouldn’t dream of letting him come to town.”

“That’s very sweet,” Cowan said.

“But that’s what you do out of respect. But I just won’t send anyone after him if I can be there.”

“If you hadn’t clicked and didn’t particularly like it, would it have worked?”

“It wouldn’t have happened, no,” Patterson said.

“No, we shouldn’t have done that,” he said. “I don’t make as many friends. Many of my old friends have continued. And I have some friends, you know, but trusting them after being famous, you don’t know who a friend is and who he is. No.”

Her collaboration is called “Run, Rose, Run,” the story of a young country singer named AnnieLee who arrives in Nashville, only to discover that the music industry can be as heartbreaking as the secret she carries.

AnnieLee finds solace in a retired country music icon named Ruthanna, read in the audiobook by who else? – Parton herself.

He pointed to a perfect nail and blood red in Annie Lee’s heart. “Here’s my advice for you, AnnieLee Keyes,” he said. “Make the hell out of Nashville while you still can.”
AnnieLee swallowed. “Forgive me?” she gasped.
“It’s a tough, tough business,” Ruthanna said. “Something as small as you? You’ll chew and spit like a piece of cartilage.”

“I hope to be able to play this character when we make a film out of the book, which we hope to do at some point,” Parton said.

“The book is, in many ways, a kind of story about the music business,” Cowan said.

“It is. It shows a lot on the dark side that people who have been there, like me, you know, because you’ve experienced it.”

“Have you experienced much of this?”

“Oh, yes,” Parton said. “You see all this. All the directors, people who will scam you, try to steal your songs, they’ll trick you, they’ll do whatever it takes. I’ve seen it all.”

It was a country music research repository for Patterson, but as it has been all his life, Parton doesn’t get into anything just halfway through: “If I get a job, a partnership with someone, I’ll do it. “How could I have promoted this book if I hadn’t participated? How would I have allowed it? Because if people asked me, I would have felt like the biggest liar in the world.”

Instead of just writing dialogues or helping block chapters, Parton added songs.

Cowan asked, “Did they come to you quite easily?”

“Oh yeah. Songs come easy to me, especially if I know what he’s writing about.”

Patterson’s characters were modeled on the letters Parton wrote herself.

To listen to Dolly Parton perform the song “Dark Night, Bright Future” from the album “Run, Rose, Run”, click on the following player:

Patterson said, “A couple of days after I got there, he sent me the seven-song lyrics.”

“Are you writing seven songs in a couple of days?”

“Well, he was sending me pages and I would have ideas for the songs,” he replied. “And suddenly it was like, yes! You write songs, he writes books. And so I just started doing it, I didn’t think about anything. “

The album of the 12 original Parton songs will be released this week along with the novel. This is a rarity.

Writing is where Parton and Patterson are more alike than you might think; it is not a task for either. It is both a joy and a necessity.

Cowan asked, “Do you still write almost every day?”

“Oh, I write all the time,” Parton said. “I’m always writing something.”

“Just write things on the back of the envelopes …?”

“Oh, I write about everything. Anything. Chewing gum papers. Kleenex boxes. All writers do.”

“Yeah, they do,” Patterson said.

“Do the same?”

“Uh-huh. Yeah, what I don’t do anymore is I don’t get up in the middle of the night and write things down,” he said. “My belief is that if it’s good, I’ll remember it. There are too many times I get up in the morning and look at it and say, ‘What?'”

Parton added, “When you dreamed it. Yes, I dreamed things, but I’m not lazy enough like some people not to get up.”

They are both advocates of literacy: Parton’s father could not read, so he loved all the books that came into his house: “I write a song about everything, so I wrote (singing) ‘Books, books. M’ “I love books. The way they smell, feel and look. From the first glance, I was hooked on books, books, books.” A little song for my kids. “

For the past 25 years, her imagination library has donated more than 150 million books to children under the age of five. For his part, Patterson has quietly donated millions of dollars to school libraries, as well as independent bookstores and more.

“Only 45% of children in this country read at grade level,” he said. “That’s a shame.”

Thus, two of the most important names in their respective fields not only share a cause (and a line of reference), but a lot of mutual respect.

Parton said, “Well, I learned he’s better than me. And I expected him to be. Honestly, he’s very smart. He’s really cool. He listens very well. And he accepts. … ”

“I know who’s in charge!” he laughed.

Parton gave Patterson an autographed guitar for his birthday. He says he never learned to play it, preferring to let his co-writer sing to us like only a Nashville legend could do:

From “Woman Up (And Take It Like a Man)”:

It’s easy, no, it’s not,
I can fix it, no, I can’t.
But I’m sure I won’t lie down …
I’m going to lift the woman up and take her like a man.
I’ll put on my belt, it’ll be hard enough,
but to take control and make demands.
She looks like a woman, she thinks like a man,
be it as good or better than,
I will lift up the woman and take her as a man

READ AN EXTRACT: “Run, Rose, Run” by Dolly Parton and James Patterson

For more information:

• “Run, Rose, Run” by Dolly Parton and James Patterson (Little, Brown), in hardcover and e-book formats, available March 7 via Amazon and Indiebound; also available in audio format, read by Dolly Parton, Kelsea Ballerini, James Fouhey, Kevin T. Collins, Peter Ganim, Luis Moreno, Soneela Nankani, Ronald Peet, Robert Petkoff, Ella Turenne and Emily Woo Zeller
• Album: “Run, Rose, Run” by Dolly Parton (Butterfly), available on Amazon
• dollyparton.com
• Dolly Parton Imagination Library
• jamespatterson.com
• The Bluebird Café, Nashville

Story produced by Reid Orvedahl. Editor: Steven Tyler.

In:
• James Patterson
• Nashville