Dolly Parton and James Patterson on teaming up for new novel Run, Rose, Run

Click the play button above to hear Dolly Parton and James Patterson's full conversation with Tom Power.

When bestselling author James Patterson approached Dolly Parton to collaborate on a novel, the country icon didn't know why he'd need her help. After all, he's written more than 300 books since 1976 and sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide.

"I said, 'Well, what do you need me for? You seem to be doing OK,'" Parton recalled alongside Patterson in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "Anyway, he says, 'Seriously, I have some thoughts and I would like to write something with you if you're interested.'"

Their new novel, Run, Rose, Run, is about a young woman who wants to make it as a singer-songwriter in Nashville. Patterson said it was while he was attending Vanderbilt University that he got the idea of setting a book in the city, but when he decided to write about an aspiring country singer, he knew he'd need help from a co-writer who had actually lived those experiences.

"I totally relate to [the main character, AnnieLee Keyes,] because I remember exactly what it was like," said Parton. "I had a stubborn streak in me and I would not take no for an answer. But I would travel, be disappointed. I would be hurt; I would be turned down a lot of times. But I would just get up the next morning, hit the streets again, knocking on different doors until, you know, finally, I made it. But you suffer a lot."

It might seem like an odd pairing at first, but Parton and Patterson have one thing in common: the experience of chasing their dreams and overcoming adversity.

"My situation, I go to New York and I'm 21; my first novel got turned down by 31 publishers," said Patterson. "And that's hard. You put in a year, year and a half writing the book, and it's not selling."

While he said he didn't want to "paint any industry as necessarily bad," Patterson agreed with Power's suggestion that he wanted to show how dreamers can fall prey to temptation or disappointment if they don't have the fortitude to overcome their challenges.

As an aspiring novelist at age 18 or 19, Patterson's inner strength came from the desire to write a book that would be "read and reread so many times that the binding would break" and the pages would scatter in the wind. "I'm still working on that one," he told Power. "That's what drives me to keep writing."

As the granddaughter of a preacher, Parton said she was taught to rely on the strength that comes from God.

"I believed I had a gift. And I believe that God meant for me to use it," she said. "I [had] to follow my inner voice, and that strength came, you know, from God with me. But I believed in who I was, I believed in what I was doing, I believed that I had a calling. And I truly believed that. And so when you believe something strong enough, that itself gives you strength."

Along with the book, Parton also released a companion album of the same name, with 12 original tracks. "We didn't plan that — it just happened because I'm a songwriter and he's a storyteller," she said. "I thought, well, I really want to add as much to this as I can because I know this is going to be something special."

Run, Rose, Run, both the novel and the album, are out now.

Written by Vivian Rashotte. Produced by Jessica Low.