Parker McCollum joins Bob

I have been a Parker McCollum fan for a long long time. Let's talk with Parker about Nashville, Texas and his rise to the top.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Bob picking on the line, oneof my one of my favorite guys in
the entire world, A favorite singersong right, Yeah, he's just a
hell of a guy. This isParker McCollum. Join us right now.
First of all, I know you'rea little disappointed with the game last night,
aren't you? With the Astros?No, not at all? What's
that? I mean? Are youhappy? I mean we got a Texas
team. Man, I am readyplaying last night. I didn't even know.

(00:22):
Yeah, okay, Astros next year, I'm telling you. But it's
good to see the Rangers finally advanceagain because it's been a long time.
Man for the Astros win so much, they probably will be back next year.
Yeah. Now, you are abig baseball fan, aren't you,
I would say so? Yeah?What about when it comes to football?
Who do you root for? It? When it comes to football, Hstown
all the way. Yeah, yeah, that's what. When it comes to

(00:46):
college, I like the long Horns. I like the Agis too, though.
I mean I didn't go to college, so I can't really claim a
team like my sister went to Ole, Miss. I grew up close to
A and M and lived in Austinfor a long time, so all three
of those schools as I kind ofpool for him. I hope. I'm
ready for the rivalry to come backevery thanks getting between the aggies in the
world, that would be nice.I can't believe they ever took it away,

(01:07):
this American tradition, I know,big tradition. Okay, speaking of
traditions, man, you are settingthe world on fire right now. Congratulations
on your success. Up for anotherCMA award. Oh thank you. Yeah,
it's a it's a good problem tohave, man. It's it's been,
you know, such a crazy rideup to this point, and you
know, it seems like somehow,some way, it keeps getting a little

(01:30):
bit better every day, every week, every month. So we're just grateful
for you know, God being sogood to us and me and my vand
and Crewe and blessing us with anothergreat year. So we're glad to be
closing it up here in a fewdays and and hope next year is even
better. Well I know it willbe even better. What's it like working
with John Randall as your producer?Randall's a great guy, and he's a

(01:53):
he's a great human, unbelievably talentedmusician, songwriter, producer, just an
incredibly creative mind, and you know, it just kind of meant to be
him and I finding each other andworking together. And you know, we've
got three number one songs together andtwo gold albums together, and you know,
a couple of double platinum songs together. So it's just been you know,

(02:15):
it's it's kind of like he alwayssays, like, man, let's
not fix it if it ain't broke. So it's it's been a joy.
Man. He's family to me.How did you meet John? You know,
John and I were booked on aco write one day in Nashville,
and when I was Randy Rogers hadkind of pushed me to go up there
and write some songs with some peoplehe knew and got in a room with

(02:36):
John Randall, and I didn't reallylike co writing. You know, I
had written pretty much by myself everythingthat i'd put out up to that point,
and I knew who he was,you know, I knew the kind
of level he had operated on fora long time, so I knew it
was a big deal getting to writewith him. And he could kind of
tell it's kind of funny that daywe wrote. He's like, man,
you don't you don't want to writeto you? And I said, man,

(02:58):
some days I like co writing.Most days I really don't. And
he said, well, let's justgo get a beer. So we got
a beer and said in about twoor three hours just kind of chatted and
talked and got to know each other. And I remember I actually called Randy
Rogers about a week later, andI said, I don't have the guts
to ask him because I dont wantto hear him say no. Will you
ask him if he'll producing my recordon Universal MCA And he said, yeah,
I bet he does it, andhe said yes, and the rest

(03:21):
is history. Well he's You guysare just great working together, you really
really are. And thank you.Let's go back. I know you tell
the story about your Austin years,you tell encouncert, but I want to
hear in your own words, thestory about hell of a year. Yes,
so there's a there's a water Burgeron William Cannon in thirty five.

(03:44):
It's still there. And I'll stillkind of go through. I stopped by
sometimes when I have you know,I'm not in a hurry headed from Austin,
New Bronfels or whatever, and I'llswing in there and grab a honey
butter chicken biscuit, you know,just because it is a special water Burger
to me. But I was justthere real late one night and some one
of the radio stations in Austin wasplaying my song I used to have had

(04:09):
on an early record called All Day, at like two o'clock in the morning,
and it just kind of got mejazzed up and motivated me. It
kind of got the creative juices flowing. Sitting there waiting and lying at water
Burger. If you're from Texas andyou go through Waterburger off and you know
how long it takes to get yourfood, and so I just kind of
jotted down that chorus. So Iwas sitting in line that night, and

(04:30):
I didn't think much of it,and woke up the next morning and finished
it, and it's I think itwas just certified gold too. So pretty
shout out water Burger for taking solong. What a hell song, I
tell you, what a great song. Why'd you move back to Texas?
Why did you leave Nashville? Youknow, I really just went up there
during you know, we had prettyhard go number one in double platinum during
COVID and didn't play a show thewhole time. There wasn't on tour the

(04:53):
whole time, and I just kindof felt like I had, you know,
everything I had worked for had kindof been jeopardized and a lot of
uncertainty. And so I'd always saidI'd never moved to Nashville, and you
know, I also never thought that, you know, twenty twenty would happen.
So once it was nearing the endof that, I said, man,
I better get up there and justyou know, kind of hustle it

(05:15):
up a little harder, and grinda little more and go getting the thick
of it, just to I justdidn't want to lose everything I'd worked for
or you know, missed my shot. And it turned out to be a
great decision. And I was therefor exactly two years to the week and
moved back to Texas. Well,we're glad to have you back in Texas.
What convinced you to leave Conrad though? When you got out of school?

(05:36):
Why did you come to Austin?You know, it was just the
closest place I knew that had amusic scene that you know, I'd always
heard about Austin, Texas. I'dgone to Austin City limits of Music Festival
a cl for my junior and senioryear of high school. My buddy's parents
would get us out of school earlyon Friday. There were big music lovers
and took us up there, andI just fell in love with the city.

(05:56):
And I knew, you know,I'd heard about sixth Street and I'd
heard about the same pub, andyou know, all these great artists that
have come out of Austin, someof my favorite artists, you know.
And I knew when I was asenior in high school, I said,
Man, I don't want to goto college. I said, but I
got to get to Austin, Texas, and I don't want to go show
them that, you know, Icould really write songs and I can really
do the thing. And it tooka long time, but you know it

(06:19):
was it was definitely the right decision. Sacks and Pub is still very close
to you, isn't it. Itis? Yeah, I just you know,
I remember being twenty years old andI was going in there with the
fake ID watching What Wilkins on Wednesdaynights and just wanted to be in that
circle so bad. I wanted tobe accepted by those people. So bad

(06:40):
I wanted to write songs like themand and be in that scene. And
you know, it wasn't too muchlonger or too much later that that.
You know, I'm at Jody Ables, who you know is Joe's dad,
the owner and Joe's daughter excuse me, the owner, and he let me
kind of, you know, playa little acoustic set one night, and

(07:00):
then you know, I played SundayNights at midnight a couple of times,
and eventually they gave me the Wednesdaynight slot right after what Wilkins, so
everybody would come watch Walt. Noone knew who I was, and so
by the time I got on stage, no one was there, and it
kind of slowly picked up. Allof a sudden, a few more people
were coming out, and a fewmore people were coming out, And I'll

(07:20):
forever hold that place very very nearand dear to my heart. What's the
capacity of the Saxon Pub Just acouple of maybe eighty people, that's it.
But okay to go from eighty peopleto sold out show at the Moody
Center with about fourteen thousand people,and it's wow, what can you say
about that? Huh? Yeah,you know, I don't know how many

(07:43):
bands have played the Saxon Pub andsold out the Moody Center, but it
can't be a very long list.And so, you know, to grow
up in Texas and idolize the guysthat I did and the songwriters that I
did, and I wanted to belike them. I wanted to like them,
and I wanted to be on theroad and you know, being a
van and get a tour bus andsign a record, doing just all the

(08:05):
stuff that I was sitting in classmy senior year of high school thinking about
going to Austin and doing you know, to actually get to do it and
have so much success at it soquickly, and and you know, to
have done it the hard way andthe old school way. It is what
it's known as nowadays, you know, playing the empty bar after empty bar
after empty bar. It's I can'tdescribe the feeling and how satisfying it is

(08:30):
every night that I step on thattour bus, knowing that me and my
guys earned it the hard way andstuck to it and then never switched up,
you know, the songwriting, neverwent and started putting out songs about
trucks and beer and all that stuff. We just you know, kept writing
songs in the right place and puttingtogether a show that we thought was quality
and worked the ticket price, andyou know, it's nothing's really changed for

(08:52):
us. It's just bigger venues.Man. It's real life. It's your
life living. How'd you get thenickname go Chain cowboy? Man? It
really wasn't a nickname, and itwas never kind of like the Limestone kid.
It was never intended to be anickname. It was. It was
more of just you know, tryingto be creative. And you know,
my mind's always kind of running thatroute of, you know, trying to

(09:13):
find things to right songs about,or titles or whatever. And it was
originally a song title, and Inever really wrote anything about it. You
know, it was kind of inspiredby the Ryanstone Cowboy and that song,
and I just never really wrote anythingaround it that I thought was was,
you know, worth any attention.So when it came time to name the

(09:33):
record, I just kind of hadthat my notebook and I said, it
kind of sounds cool. You know. I never heard anybody say anything like
that, or never heard any recordstitled that. So now it's all over
the place. It's pretty cool,man. It was pretty cool. When
it comes to social media, Ireally love your honesty. I mean,
we get in your mind with socialmedia. Do you ever get get in
trouble for some of the things youwrite and people say you better be careful?

(09:56):
No, not really, you know, I'm I think people, you
know, it's hard for people tokind of interpret you know, your your
tone or how you really say things. You know, and I just don't
speak to people in a disrespectful wayat any point in time my life.
I wasn't raised like that, soI'm sure some of those things on the
Internet probably come across like that.But it's really all in good fun,

(10:16):
just kind of messing around. Andyou know, the social media is kind
of like the Wild West. Man. It's just you know, it's just
a melting pot of you know,every human's opinion. So it's easy to
get in trouble on there, butnot really paying attention to it. The
way you treat your fans on there, I think is great. You know,
thank you. Yeah, I meanthey're the biggest part of the equation,

(10:37):
right and they've been so good tome, and and you know,
we've got people every night that say, this is my twenty seventh show,
or this is my fifteenth time seeingyou, or you know, this is
my eighth time this year seeing you. I'm like, you know, it
always blows me away that they'd liketo come see us that much. Well,
it's something we look forward to inAustin when you come home to the
Movie Center all the time. Thankyou, I hope, so it really

(10:58):
really is looking forward to see itof course, Ark McCallum Friday at the
Moody Center opening that it's a joshAbbaban. It is going to be a
great show, and looking forward toseeing your Friday Parker, Yes, sir,
Thanks Bob,