Zach Williams had a multi-week No. 1 hit with Dolly Parton on “There Was Jesus,” released in 2019. The song, which earned the pair a Grammy Award, also forged a friendship between the Christian artist and the country music icon, one that ultimately led to their new collaboration, “Lookin’ For You,” out now.

“We were shooting Dolly’s Christmas special a couple of years back,” Williams tells Everything Nash, referring to her Dolly Parton’s Magic Mountain Christmas special, which featured Williams. “She asked me what I was working on, and I told her about the song. She asked me to play it. As I was playing it, she was humming along, singing little harmony parts. By the end, she wiped the tears from her eyes, and she asked me why I didn’t ask her to sing on it. I said, ‘Well, I didn’t know if you’d want to.’ She said, ‘Well, I think we did pretty well on the first one.'”

It wasn’t until Williams was getting ready to put together the extended version of his A Hundred Highways, first released in 2022, that he remembered the conversation he had with Parton.

“When we were getting ready to get this song together, and decide what we wanted to do to finish this record out, I said, ‘Dolly mentioned to sing on this, so I think if she’s still interested, we could give it a shot and see what happens with it,'” Williams recalls. “We called her on a Friday, and she sent us the song on Monday. It was awesome.”

“Lookin’ For You” with Parton was a perfect addition to Williams’ extended new album, one that illustrates the highs and lows in his own life. Formerly an addict, the singer-songwriter proudly opens up about his journey on the new project.

“I think this record for me symbolizes all the struggles and the years and the miles and hills and valleys — all these roads I’ve been on to be where I’m at today,” Williams explains. “There was a time in my life for a number of years where I just searched for something to try to fill this void in my life, this hole in my life. For years, it was drugs and alcohol and relationships and material things, money, fortune, fame — you name it.”

Wiliams’ strayed from his childhood faith, in search of what he ultimately found in the very place he left: his Christian beliefs.

“My dad used to always tell me that there was nothing that could fix what was going on in my life but Jesus,” Williams says. “When he would tell me those things, I really didn’t want to hear them, even though I knew it was true. I remember hearing this old saying, ‘The first place you find something is the last place you’d look for it.’ I was at this place in my life where I was trying everything else, except for Jesus. I remember asking the Lord to come into my life and save me, and in that moment realizing, ‘All of my life, I’ve been looking for You.'”

“Lookin’ For You,” is from the extended version of Williams’ A Hundred Highways album. Williams is currently on his A Hundred Highways Tour. Find Lookin’ For You and all of Williams’ music and upcoming shows, at ZachWilliamsMusic.com.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of True Public Relations / Robby Klein