In Dolly Parton's 'Billy the Kid Makes it Big,' a Musical Dog Triumphs Over Bullies to Follow His Dream

The musical icon has written for children before, but this is her first book starring a fictional version of her real life "god-dog," Billy. She talked with PEOPLE about dogs, books, and her rock album

While talking about her new children's book, Dolly Parton is seated in one of two matching armchairs. In the other chair sits a brindle French bulldog named Billy. "Well, his dad is Danny Nozell, who's my manager," Parton explains. "So we're together all the time and we just got attached to each other. So we've just become buddies and I call him my god-dog. And so, we've just started writing books together."

The pair's first collaboration is Billy the Kid Makes It Big, a book for children aged 4-7. Inspired by Billy, written by Parton and illustrated by Mackenzie Haley, the story follows a (lightly fictionalized) Billy who has discovered he loves to bark along to country music. Upon trying to make it in Nashville, he runs into some mean bullies who damage his self-confidence, which he's only able to regain after calling upon the help of his friends.

For Parton, whose previous books for children include Coat Of Many Colors (1994) and I Am A Rainbow (2009), the new project springs from her desire to help children build their confidence."This little book, Billy the Kid Makes It Big, it's really about what I'm about too," she says, "music and a positive attitude, and it's about standing up to bullies and just having the confidence that you can do what you dream about doing, if you just keep on going and doing it. So it just seemed Billy was a perfect little voice piece for us to have great messages for kids, because kids relate to animals, as you know."

It's a problem Parton herself knows all too well from her own childhood. "We were a very poor, big family, and we didn't have good clothes and all the stuff like that. So we got bullied," she says. One of the songs in the new book is based on a song she previously wrote for kids called "Makin' Fun Ain't Funny."

As for making Billy the book's hero, Parton says she grew up with "a yard full of dogs" and as an adult had one dog that was very special to her – a Boston terrier named Popeye who Billy resembles: "Their coloring is the same, their little face is the same. So of course I fell totally in love with Billy. It is amazing how you get attached to a little animal like that. They become little people to you. They're like your little kids. Those of us that love animals like that, they're part of your heart and soul and your life."

Parton's commitment to children's books goes much, much deeper than her work as an author. Since its founding in 1995 her Imagination Library has given away more than 200 million books to over 2 million children. The idea behind the Imagination Library came from her family, especially her beloved father.

"I got started doing this because of my own father," Parton explains." We're very country people, living out in the woods as so many families are, very poor and they have to work in the fields and everybody has to do their part to make it," she says. "My dad was from a huge family too, 13 or 14 kids. He never got a chance to go to school. And Daddy was so smart and so hardworking, was a good daddy, but he couldn't read and write and that troubled him. And so, I got the idea that I wanted to do something for my dad."

Related:Dolly Parton Says Her Philanthropy Isn't for a 'Tax Write-Off': 'Something I Can Take Pride In'

As a prolific songwriter, Parton says it takes a slightly different set of skills to write a book for children. "In a song, if you're used to writing, you're going to have a couple of verses and a chorus and a bridge and all that. And with music, it bounces a little better," she says. "But I love to write!"

Alongside Billy the Kid and her ongoing work with children's literature and literacy, Parton's next big project is a rock album expected to be released this fall. This too, comes from the inspiration of a loved one. "My husband's a huge rock and roll fan. All of our lives, he'll just have that music full blast in the house when he'd come in from work, because that's what he liked to listen to," she says. When she was nominated for induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in TK, she adds, she wanted to "earn it."

"So when that whole thing went down and I tried not to be in it and then they gave it to me anyway, I thought, 'Well I'm just going to go ahead and do that rock album.'"

With a list of collaborators that includes Steven Tyler, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Stevie Nicks and her own god-daughter Miley Cyrus, the album is going to be "an event," Parton promises. "I told them, I went from being a holy roller to a rock and roller! But anyway, I'm very proud of this, it's some of the best music I've ever made. So I'm looking forward to seeing how the fans enjoy it."

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As for Billy, she hopes this will be the first of many books starring the little dog. "We're going to do a series of books with Billy's little voice being the character, talking to kids, whether it be about friendship or whether it be about just different problems that children have growing up."

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