Parker McCollum is a busy man, he's currently touring and performing in front of several sold out crowds. He stopped by The Bobby Bones Show today (September 30) to share what he's been up to lately and his music.
Things have really started getting busy for McCollum this year, particularly touring. Sometimes before a show, he will ask his team if it's sold out, but he won't pay attention to ticket sales as they're happening. If he doesn't get good news before a show, he will go out and perform harder than ever to win over the crowd. He always wants to keep his fans on their feet rather than sitting in their designated chairs. And that's something he worries about during performing more than he'd like to admit. McCollum is so in-tune with his audience that he already knows the songs they're likely going to take their bathroom/concession breaks. And he's very aware when people yawn, because he yawned at a John Mayer show once and got called out. Also during his shows, McCollum will often perform a cover of something. Lately it's been Dwight Yoakam's "Suspicious Minds," however some of his fans started writing him after shows thinking it was McCollum's personal song, so he stopped doing it. And there are also the occasional shows where a fan will throw a bra up on stage at him. He noted his wife handles that very well, better than he would if the roles were reversed.
Not just a performer, McCollum writes songs often. People have been asking him to write more uptempo songs, which he has been trying to do. His favorite songs are the sad, slow ones but he's getting bored performing those on tour. His peak performance for songwriting happens when the seasons change, McCollum admitted that when any of the seasons change he feels his creative juices start to flow. There's one song McCollum is particularly proud of writing and that's "Rest Of My Life." His new single "Handle On You" that he released last month is another one that's been part of his life for awhile now. He wrote the song with another songwriter when he and his now wife Hallie Ray were broken up. The songwriter came in with the title of "Handle Of You" and the song fell out of them. Though not all of McCollum's songs are hits, he admitted he often feels like his songs suck. He wrote 4 songs on the road this past weekend and he loved them at the time, but listening to them a few days later he thought they weren't good. His biggest problem with songwriting is that he gets burnout from songs quickly. Even some of the best songs on the new record he's been working on, he will get tired of after recording and want to do something different. He often has to talk himself out of deleting songs and pushes away his negative feelings to get through projects. Two of his favorite songs by other artists that he wished he would have written are "Pretty Little Adriana" by Vince Gill and "Trucker Speed" by Fred Eaglesmith. McCollum said Gill's song is so simple, but the melody is amazing and hardly anyone can sing a Gill song like Vince Gill. Then Eaglesmith's song is one that McCollum says "makes a grown man cry."
McCollum has some ultimate goals for his life. One being that his relationship continues to stay where it's at, which is the "best it's ever been." He wants to keep succeeding in his career, and he wants his parents to continue staying healthy and doing well. In order to keep some of his goals, McCollum has some good friends in his life. One of those friends is named Gus, who happened to FaceTime McCollum during the interview. He's the one who introduced McCollum to Light. McCollum recalled not being able to impress his wife when they were first introduced. She was only on the bus for about 3 minutes before telling him his behavior was not acceptable and leaving. For the next 9 months, he pursued her and most of the time she didn't act interested. But he finally won her over and they have Gus to thank for the beginning of their love story.
Before leaving, McCollum also addressed the stolen laptop incident from earlier this year. His wife's laptop was stolen when she put it through TSA security. They were able to track it down and found the address of where it was located, which was someone's house. McCollum was so mad, he tweeted out the address to his fans asking them to get the laptop before going out on stage to perform. Hundreds of his fans showed up to the strange house looking for the address, but the owner's said it wasn't there and they were really upset about their address being tweeted. So during McCollum's show his manager talked to him through his ears asking for his iPhone password to delete the tweet. When McCollum finally came off stage, he heard about what happened and felt really bad about posting the address. He said he still regrets doing it, but they were able to get his wife reunited with her laptop.