Dumb Blonde - TBT: Parker McCollum - Not His First Rodeo

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Throwback ThursdayParker McCollum is still figuring out who he is - and he’s not afraid to admit it. In this episode, the adorable singer-songwriter sits down with Bunnie to talk about the ...road from small-town Texas to sold-out stadiums, falling for wife Hallie Ray, becoming a dad, and making the most honest album of his life, which drops in June. He opens up about growing up in two very different worlds, a car lot and a rodeo arena, with a cowboy grandpa, hardworking dad, barrel-racing mama, and a big brother who showed him how to write heartbreak songs. They get into DMT trips, explosive tour stories, and what it’s like to chase sad songs while trying to be a good man. Parker McCollum: WebsiteWatch Full Episodes & More: YouTubeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:03:15 Ladies, today we have a special guest that you guys have been asking and begging for, and now he is here, Mr. Parker McCollum, baby. The dumbest blonde of all. Are you a natural blonde? Not really. I kind of like a little strawberry blonde when I was little. My brother swore I was a ginger, but I mean, I think he just, I was a little brother. He was trying to give me a hard time.
Starting point is 00:03:37 It's not true. And the carpet don't match the curtain, so I think it all has to match to be a true ginger. I love that. I love that so much. you are always talking about your brother. Is that Tyler? Yes, ma'am. Okay, you're always talking about him. I love the relationship that you guys have with each other. Who's older? He's older than me. He's six years older than me. Oh, okay. That's amazing. His birthdays in like two days.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Aw, well, happy. Happy birthday, Tyler. Happy birthday, Tyler. That's amazing, though, that you guys are so far apart in age. Like six years, that's me and my sister, too. And you guys are close. Very close. Always were. You know, our parents split when we were really young. So I think, you know, me and my siblings just kind of really, you know, I think that just makes that bond a lot tighter over a lot of times it can. And so for us, that was kind of the case. And we have a sister that's between us, Michael, and she's three, four years older than me,
Starting point is 00:04:26 a couple years younger than Tyler. And I mean, we've always been really close. My brother, he's just a great songwriter. He's the reason that, you know, I've said this a million times, but I'm like, the reason that I play music is because that's what my older brother did when I was really little. So he was always writing songs into songwriters and stuff when he was, you know, pretty young. and I'm six years younger, so I was, you know, in like fourth and fifth grade wanting to, you know, be like big brother.
Starting point is 00:04:49 And so I always said he could have been ice skating and I'd probably still be trying to ice skate. So it just so happened to be that it was songwriting and point guitar. I love that. So you're from Texas. I'm from Texas. I'm from Texas. No way. So I lived in Texas until I was five and then I ended up moving to Vegas.
Starting point is 00:05:07 But when I found out that you were from Conroe, I was so happy because, okay, don't you feel like as Texans, we just have a different set of, like pride. And the sun shines brighter there. Yeah. Or if anybody notices that. Yeah. No, like Texas is like its own just. It is its own thing.
Starting point is 00:05:23 Its own thing. And people that are from there just love tech. Like we are so proud to be from Texas. I lived here for two years in Nashville and moved right back to Texas. And I liked it here a lot. I just think, especially coming down here today, I was like, we used to live close down here. And I was like, you just forget how, I mean, it's gorgeous out here.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Like the landscape, the top. photography is beautiful. But I've never one second since I've been back home in Texas. Missed it. Missed it. Not one minute. Which is okay. Yeah. I know. I just, my, I don't know, it's just, you know, I mean, it's, it's probably pretty simple. Mother Nature or something there, just why humans like being what's familiar, they're around what's familiar, but I don't know, when I'm, even when we play, like when we're on tour, we just did a festival in South Texas and Gonzales this past weekend. And, uh, just, I rode my bus from my house.
Starting point is 00:06:12 Like I never do that anymore, you know. Back in the day, I'd get in the van or get on the bus or whatever. And we were playing Texas and Oklahoma stuff. You're always coming home. Very rare that you do that now. And I don't know. I just told the crowd, I was like, when we play here, I just said a little more pep in my step. It's just, you know, those are your people.
Starting point is 00:06:30 So I love it. Texas pride thing. So let's take it back to Conroe, Texas. I hear you talk about your family a lot. And for the listeners at home, let's kind of give them a little bit of your backstory, which I found to be really cool. Your mom was a barrel racer. She was in high school yesterday.
Starting point is 00:06:48 Yeah. That's awesome. That's not an easy feat. No, my granddad, her dad was, I mean, I've always said he's one of the greatest cowboys to ever live. It was just old school, I mean, just red, white, and blue, American Texas cowboy. That's Mr. Bobby Yancey, right? Bobby Yancey. And I've got his initials tattooed right here. But he, just a great, great man.
Starting point is 00:07:10 And, you know, so my mom and her siblings. my uncles rode roughstock, my mom and her sister rode barrels, or race barrels. And, you know, my dad's side of the family. They all went to one high school in my hometown. So, like, all of my mom and her siblings and my dad and his siblings all went to high school together. Aw. And so it's just, it's a...
Starting point is 00:07:27 Like some small town lore. I love that. It's kind of, it is. I've tried to explain to people sometimes, and they're just like, wait, wait, what? This person, who was married to who? But it's, they, I kind of had these two very different worlds. My dad's family was mostly in the car business and super, super crazy hardworking. My mom's side of the family is the same way, but, you know, it was more like my grand,
Starting point is 00:07:54 my mom's side of the family on a concrete company. My dad's side of the family, they sold cars. And so two very different worlds, but I just kind of floated in between those two things for my entire childhood. So it's a, I think my background's underwhelming, but I guess it could be interesting to somebody. No, I don't think it is. I actually found out a couple things about you, and we'll talk about a little bit more down the line, too, that I was like, okay, Parker.
Starting point is 00:08:18 Like, it was really cool. Okay, we'll talk about it right now. I was actually, the fact that you smoke weed and have done DMT and, like, mushrooms. How did you know this? How did you know this? I was like, he's one of us. Like, I was so happy whenever I saw you talking about it in an interview. And I even told Jay, I was like, have you guys got to smoke weed together yet?
Starting point is 00:08:37 Have you got to smoke? I think we have at some point or another. But I, you know, I never really drank. Alcohol was never my thing. There was times, I think, when I was younger and going pretty hard on the road and stuff that I would just because that was kind of the, just what you do. Yeah. But I never really liked alcohol. And I always, you know, enjoy it.
Starting point is 00:08:57 And I always just, you know, when I sit there and, like, weigh the benefits and, like, which one's worse for you and which one can ruin your life and which one's not going to ruin your life. Right. Weed has always been the lesser of the two. And I just, I don't know, I did some of the best songs I've ever written in my career. I wrote just, you know, after taking a little hit and just kind of letting it go. It just, it sparks, you know, some of the greatest records of all time are written stoned. DMT is some heavy shit, though. Like that's one thing that I'm scared.
Starting point is 00:09:28 How old were you when you did the DMT? Oh, I don't know, probably 21. And you were just like, where were you at, like a party? And everybody's passing around a DMT? This is crazy. I was living in all. And I was living on the University of Texas as campus, what they call West Campus, but I never went to the University of Texas.
Starting point is 00:09:44 And I went to community college for like a couple weeks. And but I was just living there. And that's where I wrote that record, the limestone kid. But there was this kid that we had gone to high school. I didn't know him in high school. My buddy did. He had gone to our high school and he was going to University of Texas and he was a chemist, I think. And he was like making it in his telling this now, I'm like, this is terrible.
Starting point is 00:10:04 This is wild. It was on like a Monday morning. and on like the second store of this like co-op he was living in. So this dude was making DMT just in his house? In his, like a co-op. Like they lived like, she had like random people that lived all in one house. You're a brave soul. I was just, you know, I was, I don't know, I was living.
Starting point is 00:10:28 I love that though. I was back then, I was really, really living. I love that though. You got to live life to the fullest. And what was it like whenever you took a hit of the DMT? It just, you know, it was really, it was really, strange like and it sounds really honestly like a lie like I'm making it up but I'm not I he had a fire escape outside of his window so I was like sitting on the fire escape outside
Starting point is 00:10:47 the window and just saw like my my mom used to take us like this bed and breakfast for like summer vacation for a few days in the summertime in the hill country in Fredericksburg on the river and like I saw that I like out on the street it didn't last very long yeah it was pretty quick It felt longer than it really was. I think it was, you know, maybe less than a couple minutes. But it wasn't anything like, you know, I wasn't like, I didn't feel like I was tripping out like going crazy. It was just, and then afterwards I was extremely calm,
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Starting point is 00:11:52 at pura.com. I think so. Yeah? From the same chemist or would you want to get it? I don't know. I just, I went hard for a long time. And it kind of got. got out of hand there for a little while at one point. And I just, you know, I didn't like go to rehab or like go do anything crazy. I just kind of, I was my, I didn't want to disappoint my family. I was like, you know, my career was going really well. And I was like, man, I'm not the kind that can hold all this together while living like this. Like, I have to get it.
Starting point is 00:12:22 I got to get my shit together. Do you think that was just a part of like being young possibly? 100%. Yeah. And like growing up and like, you know, these songwriters and these artists that I admired and just thought walked on water. I wanted to be like these guys. Like most of them lived very hard and lived the songs that they wrote. And I like was like fully convicted on that. I was like I've got to live the songs that I'm writing. So I think I said a list when I said that live the songs that I'm
Starting point is 00:12:47 writing. And it just, you know, I was so into that. And then it just kind of got to the point where like being that outlaw, just want to be like an outlaw cowboy. I was never, I was never a good outlaw if I would ever be referred to as one. But I just, I don't know. I was I was really, really end of that and I thought I had to go do that to write the kind of songs I wanted to write. And I, you know, those songs changed my life. They, they gave me the career I have now. And so I don't regret any of it. I'm just like, you know, I don't know how entirely necessary it probably was looking, which, you know, hindsight's 2020, but it, you know, there were good times. It's not, it wasn't bad. Yeah. I mean, memories, you can, memories are priceless.
Starting point is 00:13:29 My memories are good. I'm grateful that my memories in life are good. Memories are placeless. Do you feel like you still need to be under the influence to write music now? Or do you write it completely sober? Not really. You know, like that song, rest of my life that I wrote during COVID, I was dead sober when I wrote that song like 9 o'clock in the morning. Got out of the shower, had the melody in my head from the night before and had gone pretty hard the night before. And was kind of at that, it was really, really close to being like, this is like, you're going to blow it.
Starting point is 00:14:00 You know, you're going to blow it. And I didn't want to do that. Like I really always wanted to make my family very proud. And I just never wanted to like embarrass them or go do, you know, I just felt a lot of pressure to like kind of clean it up and handle it the right way. And I didn't want to get to be like 40 and 50 years old one day and be like, oh man, he was doing it for a little while, you know. Yeah, yeah. He really had it. And so I just kind of became super aware of that kind of stuff.
Starting point is 00:14:24 And it just, that's a long-winded way of saying not really. But, you know, like, I'll take an Adderall to write songs sometimes, and that gets me super into it. Because you can focus. Yeah, and just, it makes me emotional and super and just passionate and engaged about a melody that I've created on the guitar. And I will just, I mean, I'll be by myself. I mean, just singing at the top of my lungs ripping on guitar, trying to write this song. But I've also done it. Stone Cold Sober.
Starting point is 00:14:53 Stone Cold Sober, yeah. My husband prefers to be under the influence when he's writing, which, you know, I feel like as an artist, you guys always have some sort of an angst that needs to get out anyways. And I feel like whenever you're under the influence, whether it's weed or alcohol or when I say under the influence, it means like any a range of things. I feel like it helps with the creative with you guys because you guys do have so much emotion inside.
Starting point is 00:15:19 There has to be something to it because I just, I've seen firsthand how many times it's worked for me. But, you know, I just, there's just like anything else, Bunny. I mean, it's moderation. Yeah. And especially when you're young and you're doing it and you're, you know, trying to go to these places, basically self-sabotage, you go write these songs, you know, it can just get out of hand.
Starting point is 00:15:37 And you can start abusing that. And all of a sudden, you're not being creative and you're not writing. Right. And you're really just... Can be counterproductive. Yes. Absolutely. And so I just kind of noticed when that started to happen.
Starting point is 00:15:47 And I was like, all right, what do you really have if you can't do it without it? But the self-awareness is amazing because some people don't have that, you know, so the fact that you were able to have that introspect of yourself is... And it's weird. because I always knew. Like the whole time I was like aware that I shouldn't be doing that. It just took a little while for me to be like, all right. Well, it's also because you were raised with morals and the way your family raised you.
Starting point is 00:16:10 And you get older. Like, you know, when you're, when you're 30s, it's not as cool to be messed up all the time. No, it's not a party. It happens every day. And it's going really well. And you're selling out bars in Texas. And it's, you know, it's like, it's just kind of expected and accepted. And so once like, and like, Hallie Ray, like, I'm married now.
Starting point is 00:16:26 I have a child. Like, major my son. It's like, what am I going to do? You know there'll be self-sabotaged, sad dad songwriter. Like, yes, just only for every now and then, for about a week at a time. Let's style it back to when you fell in love with George Strait, Amarillo by morning. You have pretty much credited George and your brother for your love of music. Take me back to when you knew that, when did you write your first song?
Starting point is 00:16:53 I mean, I was trying to write songs when I was like probably 12 years old, 12, 13, something like that. And then I'd never really, you know, I just didn't know anything. I didn't know, like, I wasn't learning how to play other singer's songs. Like, I was just playing guitar and trying to write. And then, so once I started to kind of learn to play like a George Strait song or a Chris Knight song was the first song ever learned to play on guitar and sing at the same time. And so, like, once I started doing that, then I really started like learning how to formulate a song. and it's that I write I write songs now the exact same way I did then.
Starting point is 00:17:33 Just sit down and just make some shit up until something sounds cool or sounds pretty or, you know, move something in you or, you know, is an earworm for yourself or whatever. And I've done that since, I mean, even when I was 12, 13, I wrote like a song called West Texas lover. At 12 or 13. Yeah, and I was like 12 or 13 years old. And my grandma, my dad's mom, she's 90. and she still asked me to play that song. I don't think she knows any of my other song. I think that's the only one she knows.
Starting point is 00:18:03 Where did the inspiration at 12 or 13 come from that? A girl I was dating, and I got dating when you're 12, I guess. My girlfriend would, yeah, in like fifth grade, fourth grade, whatever it was. So I don't know. I was just super aware when I was really young. Like I was very aware of the Texas scene, the Pat Greens, the Randy Rogers, the Cross Canadian Ragweed's. you know the and then like the you know Steve earl and Rodney Crowell and and
Starting point is 00:18:28 Hayes Carl and all these just incredibly like raw real songwriters I was very aware of like what they were doing and what they looked like and how they dressed and how they toured and when I was very young and so I just kind of started to I was like those are the guys I want to be like would you ever release West Texas lover I don't think so no it's not like name drops like Stony LaRue Todd Snyder it's very bad I can't remember all the words. I can probably remember most of them, but it's a, no, it's not very good.
Starting point is 00:19:01 He's like, no, I can't do it. Do you always feel like you've been more of a cowboy at heart or more of like a crooner at heart? Because you do write such like just romance songs and like love songs and heartbreak songs. I just love evoking that emotion singing. I like to sing those kind of songs and just like, I mean, just rip on a sad. bad, beautiful melody. Like, it just does it for me. Yeah. But, you know, like, I mean,
Starting point is 00:19:28 I worked for my granddad, you know, several summers in my childhood. And he was old school. I mean, it was, it was the real deal. It was cowboying to the fullest extent. But I've never, like, ran around and been like, you know, I'm a cowboy, you know, like, I don't think I would enjoy it if I had to do it for a living. Right. But the fact that I get to do it in my spare time, like even just ranching or, like, mowing my grass at my house. Like, if I had to do it every week of my life, I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much as I do when I have time to do it. Right. Does that make sense?
Starting point is 00:19:55 So that's kind of my relationship with that. But it was just such a part of my childhood and in such a mass. It's just ingrained in the DNA of my family. You know, I'll raise Major that way. Like, he'll grow up the same way. But I don't know. I've never really known what I was or who I was supposed to be. I've like at times known who I wanted to be.
Starting point is 00:20:19 And I mean that like in like a, my music career, you know, at the house by myself. Like, I'm like, I don't know what I want to do or how I want to be. I just always, just literally been winging it my entire life. You strike me as somebody who doesn't put labels on themselves. Like, you kind of just like, I just don't really care, you know? Like, I'm just like, you know, I really, really try to focus on like, am I working hard, you know, are my intentions pure?
Starting point is 00:20:44 And, you know, how's my relationship with Hallie Ray? How's my relationship with my family and the people? that I work with like am I being a pleasant hardworking non-complaining human being? No. If yes. You know, the other stuff is, you know, you're not going to get it all right. You can't, you know, as much as I want to. And I think about it.
Starting point is 00:21:04 I'm super hard on myself with that stuff. But no, it's, I don't know. I don't worry a ton. Yeah, absolutely. If you were not singing now and, you know, touring and being who you are, being Parker McCollum, what would you have done? you have gone into ranching or? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:21:22 You know, I actually wonder that all the time. I really don't know. I don't know if I might have gone and sold cars and tried to do the car business thing. That sounds like it would have been a possibility. I don't think I would have enjoyed that. No, I don't think I would have enjoyed that. It's just, it's really, really hard to say because I've been doing this. You know, I graduated high school 10 days later.
Starting point is 00:21:45 I moved to Austin. I went to community college for like, you know, I think a month in that summer. and then I've just been doing this ever since. And my first album, I won that songwriter competition, Stevenville, Texas when I was like 21, 22, like right after I'd put out my first album and the radio station in Fort Worth started playing, Meet You in the Middle.
Starting point is 00:22:03 And then we started selling tickets and it's just been doing this ever since. And I just don't remember, you know. Anything else. Yeah, I don't know. I have no idea. I don't remember what it was like before this, really. You've always seemed to have been
Starting point is 00:22:20 musically inclined though because you were playing the violin and guitar and what else were you playing there was another instrument harmonica. When I was really little but
Starting point is 00:22:29 like people always like I think my Wikipedia page someone sent it to me my time says I'm a multi-instrumentalist which is not exactly accurate because like I play harmonica a little bit and I played the violin in the orchestra in like fifth and sixth grade
Starting point is 00:22:42 and I was second to last I played the viola yes well there was only two right and I was second to last chair. But I really, like, I really liked it. I just didn't keep doing it because it wasn't cool in seventh grade. And I wanted to play football and stuff.
Starting point is 00:22:57 And so I just, you know, and then I think, you know, my, my, when my parents divorced, my dad lived on the other side of the country for, for a while. And so, like, when I was junior high and stuff, I was just kind of in high school, I just kind of floated and did kind of whatever I wanted and didn't really want to, you know, kind of got lazy, didn't want to play ball, you know, just was kind of smoking weed and, you know, like, hanging out and didn't really have, I wasn't going to go to college. I was just, you know, it was like playing guitar and singing songs. Do you feel like your parents' doors maybe put you in a little bit of a depression?
Starting point is 00:23:30 No, I've never been depressed in my entire life, ever to any degree whatsoever. But I think, you know, I think it just affects you more than you realize until you're older. You know, like nowadays I'll be like, I think the, like, that may be like part of the reason why I am the way I am in this aspect. but no I mean I've I mean look my my childhood was incredible like both sides of my family are as good as God makes absolutely like top notch and I'm I've the older I get I just become so much more grateful for that year after year um I just you know everything every every I don't blame anybody but myself for any of my shortcomings you know what I mean like I'm very serious about that like I 100% and very hard on myself like I know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong.
Starting point is 00:24:21 And I don't ever really, I'm never like, I don't blame anything other than myself. Right. Like genuinely. Absolutely. Probably to like, to a fault. It's probably a little overkill with it. No, you are, you are very, very, very self-aware.
Starting point is 00:24:37 And I think it might be a little too self-aware because you take so much accountability for everything that you don't want to put the blame on anybody else. And when I ask the question about the parents, was just asking because, you know, that's heavy to watch your parents split, because my parents were divorced too. It's heavy to watch your parents split. And sometimes as a kid, you would just automatically go into survival mode and you don't realize like, hey, maybe this really affected me like this, you know, so. And it's all you know, you know, it's like when you're a kid,
Starting point is 00:25:04 you don't know any different. And then you get older and like you start analyzing it. And then you just kind of get to the point where you were like, yeah, there's, like, what has happened has happened. Like you're, it's so cliche, but like, you know, all you have is tomorrow. And like, that is the mentality I always try to have. But I say that. And then like my, my addiction to nostalgia is like crippling. Oh, I'm always romanticizing the past. I know. I got a song on this new record called Sunny Days. And it's like I've been trying to write that song for so long. But I just, I don't know, it's like I have this weird, crazy, sad part of my brain that I go to at least once a day where I'm like,
Starting point is 00:25:42 those days are never coming back. They're so gone. They're so gone. I don't know. gone. 100% relate. I'm always yearning for a time that's never going to never come back. Never going to come back. Have you ever had like an extreme heartbreak? I mean, not that wasn't my fault. There's a self-awareness again. Or as terrible as it is to say somewhat intentional to go to that place and write those songs. Right. What would you say your biggest green flag is? Biggest green flag? Oh, oh, golly. Let's talk good about yourself. I think I'm extremely easygoing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:18 I think very, like I just, you know, if somebody invites me to their birthday party, thank you. If you don't, also thank you. Like, just I'm not, I'm not ever tripping about anything like that. And part of that, I think, is because for so long I've been so busy. And so the less things you have to go to in life, the, but I would say that's probably my, my biggest green flag. What would you say? I think that's weird to pick a thing.
Starting point is 00:26:46 Yeah. What would you say your biggest red flag is? Pretty inconsistent. And that's one thing I like, I just envy so much about Holly Ray. Like she's the most, she's the same exact person every day. And I'm so jealous of that. Yeah, pretty inconsistent. All over the place.
Starting point is 00:27:06 Probably 31 different people a day. You're Gemini. So, I mean, that's expected. Split personalities, but it's been split. We're raising a Gemini. exponential over and over again. Our daughter is a Gemini, so I 100% understand everything that you're saying. We never know which one we're going to get when she wakes up in the morning.
Starting point is 00:27:25 Yeah, and I think Halle Ray probably says that the same day, or says that same thing every day. But I'm like, golly, I don't know. I mean, and I think about it every day. I mean, I'm constantly just like, man, I don't want to be 31 different people every day. But a lot of it's self-inflicted. Like, you know, I think it's the way that I handle a lot of the stuff. that this business and this thing that I do in the music business and being a songwriter and being a touring artist, like it just wear you out.
Starting point is 00:27:56 Oh, for sure. And you kind of, I just sometimes I don't make the best decisions. And I, instead of, you know, I don't know, it's like I don't ever learn my lesson. You know, I'm always just making the same mistakes over again. I have witnessed my husband, you know, touring. you guys have to wear so many different hats that you actually have to be different people to whoever's coming in. You live two lives. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:28:21 Like I literally, I'm in constant limbo between being, you know, dad and husband and still out here chasing this thing that I've been chasing since I was 12. I see it every day with my husband. It'll wear your ass out. No, it's exhausting, especially because everybody wants a piece of you. So when you're out on the road, you're literally giving pieces of yourself to everybody around you. and then when you come home, everybody wants a piece of you and you have to give, you know, and it's a very, very thin line, fine line that you guys have to walk. And nobody really can relate.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Like they can understand and they can sympathize. And that's the other side of it. It's like it's not anything to sympathize because the life you're living is just not real life. It's unbelievable. So it's like nobody really wants to hear how tired you are of this and that, you know, because all you've been doing is just the craziest every day is just, you know, it's an incredible blessing, but. But that's still not fair because it is very exhausting. I've seen my husband literally be in two different countries in 24 hours and I'm just like, and still have to
Starting point is 00:29:22 show up and put a smile on his face and tell the same old story. But it's a lot easier if you're taking care of yourself and you're sober. Yes. And you are doing what you know you're supposed to do. And sometimes I'm very good at that and other times I'm not good at that. And that's what I mean about the inconsistent thing. It's like, you're human. It's like I can't seem to do it 365 days out of the You're human, Parker. I hope you know that. You're not a machine. You're not a robot.
Starting point is 00:29:46 I feel like one a lot, though. Aw, you need a break. When was the last time you had a break? Because you've been touring since. We've kind of had one. It's been pretty light in March. March was we did a five-week winter tour, January, February, and then March we only played two shows.
Starting point is 00:30:00 But like I got to do an album coming out. So I'm about to just go absolutely. Go boss of the wall. It's all about to start again. And like I can feel it. It's like out there every day like behind me looking over my shoulder. They're just like, here I come, you know, you better to get ready. And I'm like, do you still get excited about it?
Starting point is 00:30:16 Or do you have to, like, gear yourself up for it? I'm as excited about this album as I've ever been. It's the only record I've ever recorded that I didn't immediately say, now I know what I want to do. It's the first time I, like, when I left the studio, we recorded this whole album in New York back in October in seven days. Wow. And when I left, I was like, yes.
Starting point is 00:30:39 What makes this album so different? Let's talk about it. I think I just was able to kind of, out of pure luck, like, rope the best version of myself at the right time. Wow. And I flew from the last, we've been on tour all year, the Burn It Down tour, and I flew from the last show of the tour in, I think we're in South Lake Tahoe, and flew to New York on a Sunday. And for the next seven days, we cut that album. And so I was just like, but I'd been, I'd showed up with like this crazy, I just was as focused and as bought in and as just prepared. But also I had no idea what I was doing.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Just that this perfect storm of the scenario when we recorded this record. And it's like really hard for me to like get that version of myself every time I cut a record. Because I do tour a lot. And I tore hard. And I like to, I like to work hard. I like to earn it. You know, I never wanted anybody able to say I didn't earn every single thing. And I still am that away.
Starting point is 00:31:43 Still always I still trying to make it. But I just, when I got to New York, I was, you know, I was just like, Yes, for the first time, probably ever. What's the sound like on this album? I don't know. Yeah. I have no idea what it sounds like. Do you, because you, you know, because you listen to it so much, it's hard.
Starting point is 00:32:01 It, like, bleeds. Like, I know how that goes because when Jay is. But I've never known who I sounded like. Yeah. You know, like, even like, I've never made a record that I was like, this sounds like this. Because I would always be like, you know, say dumb stuff. I'd be like, what if Ryan Bingham and Kings of Leon got together and made a record? What would that be like?
Starting point is 00:32:18 Fire. And then it would be incredible, right? I love Kings of Leon. But I can't, like, that was a, it was dumb for me to probably say at the time because it's not capable of pulling that off. But, you know, I just, and this is also the first album that I was like, you know, I just didn't give a shit anymore. I was like, man, I'm so. tired of just kind of making an album and just tour you know and just like being like oh we got to cut a record let's go cut a record and put a record out like this one I was like no we're going to
Starting point is 00:32:48 New York but like we are at we are doing this like this and we went and we did it and I don't know it just it was worth it it worked you just had a game plan and you literally just went in and we had a game plan and at the same time we had zero game plan whatsoever right you knew what you wanted to do it just not how to do it yes and I had the songs I wanted to wanted to cut and we just we literally went in and the band had not heard any of them and we just started playing them until they were all recorded and we all had a take of one that you know we thought was good enough so it uh i don't know frank ladell produced it eric mass who's the engineer and they just i've enjoyed working with them so much i was just with them was just in the studio
Starting point is 00:33:27 with them this morning and uh i don't know it just i've been doing it for so long and it's like I always wondered if I was good enough to make this kind of record. And it's the one I always wondered if I was good enough to make. Like, do I have what it takes to go there and do it like that? And I think we pulled it off. I can't wait to hear it. When does it drop? June 27th.
Starting point is 00:33:52 June 27th. I'm excited. We recorded in October. I feel like it's been 10 years since we recorded it. So hopefully, you know, the next, what is that, three months? Yep. April, May and most of June. Do you have any singles coming off the record before it drops?
Starting point is 00:34:08 We have a single on the radar right now. What kind of man? And then I don't know. I have no idea what song would be the next single. I don't know if there is one. It's like I just, it's different. I think people are going to hear it and think for a split second. They're going to go, you know, what the hell did he do?
Starting point is 00:34:25 And then I think they're going to get it. I love that. I love that you're just like, you know what? I'm going to put it in the universe and whatever happens happens. It just truly like I've always been trying to. to be a country singer. It's like, I want to be this. I want to be that.
Starting point is 00:34:38 I want to, you know, I want to, you know, and I finally was just like, fuck it. Mm-hmm. I'm just going to go do whatever it is that I am. We're going to find out what it is on this record. And we found out. I can't wait. But I have no idea what it is still. But I know what it sounds like now.
Starting point is 00:34:54 I can't wait to hear the whole album. Do you think you lean more towards like country pop or like the traditional Texas country? I don't think either. Either. Which is really what kind of screws me. me up so much is because like I need I like I have to have like a reason for everything like I have to have some sort of answer and it's like the one the biggest thing in my life in my career is I don't have an answer for it like I don't know what to call it I don't know what it sounds like I don't
Starting point is 00:35:19 know who you would have no idea I feel like country is so different now too though like you know when I was growing up it was like Dwight Yolkham the Judds and like you know it was you know Ronnie Millsap and like you know Trisha Yearwood guard and I don't sound like any of those people and I don't sound like any of, you know, what's going on right now and what country music has become. So I'm like, so like I said recently, I was like, I don't know if I'm a country singer. And like, I think people took it as like I was going to quit playing music. But no, I just, I just don't think. I don't think country is country right now. Country, okay, how do I rephrase this? Country isn't what like a traditional country. Like before it used to be the twang and the guitars and what it was
Starting point is 00:35:59 when I wanted to be a country singer. Exactly. It's way. different. And like Ed Shearhan just did an interview where he said he's coming into the country music. And it's just kind of like, I don't think, I think country singers right now are having a hard time grasping what sound is their sound because country isn't what country used to be. Yeah. And just, I just don't think you can worry about it. Like I think, you know, and that's like the realization I came to is I was like, man, I just don't sound like any country singer when I'm saying. I don't think I do. I'm like, I don't sing and be like, I sound like this person. Right.
Starting point is 00:36:33 Which is great. You don't want to sound like somebody else. Correct. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, that's a massive blessing. But it's like, I just got to a point where I was like, I just got to go sing the songs that I write and record them. Yes. And quit trying to, you know, be something that may not be a thing anymore.
Starting point is 00:36:55 Maybe you just never were. Like, I'm like, you know, you can be as big of a country music fan as I am and write songs and be an artist and not sound that way. It's okay. So, you know, if they don't want to call it country music, that's fine. It's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, this record's incredibly raw. I mean, there's not a single, nothing that was not a real instrument being played in real time or a real vocal being saying in real time. There's scratch vocals on this record, some of them. So, I don't know. I just, I feel like country has such a huge genre now that there's, it's just not near as narrow as it used to be. Right. You know, it's just kind of, it's more of like a,
Starting point is 00:37:31 club in a way. It's like the cool kids club right now. Yes. Everybody wants to be a country singer. And the criteria is not incredibly specific. Right. So. I mean,
Starting point is 00:37:41 we got Beyonce doing country albums, you know, and I'm like, you know, post Malone is country now. I know. So. And then I don't feel like
Starting point is 00:37:52 I sound like any of that. And I don't sound like any of what country music used to be. So I'm like, where am I? What am I supposed to do, you know? Well, you know the fans will tell you. the album drops. Yeah, you know the fans will tell you whenever the album drops. So let's talk at,
Starting point is 00:38:05 let's dial it back a little bit. And let's talk about, um, 2020 was kind of a big year for you. I'm sorry, 2019 was kind of a big year for you. You had, um, signed with Universal in 2019. And isn't that when you and your beautiful wifie met? Uh, we did sometime around then. It was, uh, um, I want to say it was 2019. Um, because I think we, and we broke up. She broke up with me at the end of 2020, and we broke up for like four months, then we got back together and got engaged right away.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Why did she break up with you? I don't really remember, and she doesn't either. I just remember she had gotten, you know, upset about something. Somebody had told her something, and it was 100% not true, and I was just like, I mean, that's not true,
Starting point is 00:38:51 so do what you got to do, you know, and then broke up for like four months, and then I called her one day. And I was actually in Nashville, and she flew to Nashville and got engaged. just like two months later, three months later. When you know, you know. She's one of one of one, no question.
Starting point is 00:39:06 Let's talk about her because I really love the story that I've heard you tell is that you loved her name and a friend introduced you. Like, can we talk about that? That is a true story. I was my buddy Gus West, good cowboy from West Texas. And I was playing this little, it's like the oldest rodeo in Texas, I think, way out in West Texas. And he had told me about her like one night after we played.
Starting point is 00:39:30 And he was like, man, you got to meet this girl, Hall of Ray Light. I went to Oklahoma State with her. He went there for like a semester, I think. What a perfect name, though. She is like such a ray of light too. And I said, I was like,
Starting point is 00:39:39 that name's got to go on a song. So like I kind of started thinking about that and whatever. And then she was going to Oklahoma State and we actually played in Stillwater one night and Gus was there. And, you know, her and some other girls came out to the show. And it was like,
Starting point is 00:39:52 I think it was my first or second night ever on a tour bus. We'd gotten out of a van and gotten into tours. We had no record deal yet. Like, we were just, it was going really well for us, kind of in the Texas red dirt scene. And she came out to the show. I think she was there like 10 minutes.
Starting point is 00:40:04 And she was on the bus. And, you know, she didn't like the way I was behaving. So she left. And, uh, we love that. A woman who doesn't put up with your shit.
Starting point is 00:40:13 We love that. But I, I immediately started like, really kind of getting my shit together. And I really started, you know, just, I would just send like dumb messages to her.
Starting point is 00:40:23 Like, looking back now, I'm like, this is terrible. But I would just be like, hey, you know, like, when you're ready for the real deal,
Starting point is 00:40:27 let me know. And, uh, I think she had a boyfriend at the time or something. Smooth. And yeah, it was so bad. At the time it was money.
Starting point is 00:40:33 And she probably thought I was an idiot. But it just, it was like probably nine months, 10 months later. She came, I think she came to another show and we hung out all night. And then she came to another show and we started dating, like on our first date.
Starting point is 00:40:45 We like went to dinner in like the steakhouse and the casino that I was playing. And I just had like four or five beers, got a little buzz and asked her to be my girlfriend. And then we've been together ever since. Did you ever end up writing? the song with her name? I did. I recorded on Gold Chain Cowboys. It's on the first record I put out on Universal.
Starting point is 00:41:04 But I kind of wrote the album as she was avoiding me. And so if you listen to the song, it kind of, you know, that's why at the end it says goodbye, Hallie Ray Light. And, but I never really said goodbye. That's kind of like you were manifesting her. A little bit. And now I look back, I'm like, man,
Starting point is 00:41:22 it kind of sounds pretty weird now that I think about it. No, I think all girls love stuff like that. You could write a girl a song and an album and just I don't think she wanted to like date a singer I think she's probably just you know she's like that's trouble yeah but I really like I cleaned it up a lot once once her and I met and really got to know each other so I feel like a good woman always puts a great man on the right track yes she just she's a good one she's beautiful as good as God makes them she's so gorgeous I remember the first time I met her I was like who is this she's so beautiful like she's gorgeous wonderful
Starting point is 00:41:54 the most pleasant easy person I've ever met in my life life and I could not be more of the opposite. I love that. God bless her. Yeah, I love that. I love love. You seem like a hopeless romantic at heart too, so. You know what?
Starting point is 00:42:07 I don't know. Maybe a little bit, but it's kind of funny. Like, you know, her and I are, she's, she's me forever, you know. But I'm still trying to write. I'm always trying to write the sad, terrible heartbreak songs about it all going terribly wrong. Yeah. It's my husband, too.
Starting point is 00:42:26 He's always sad about something. Yes. I'm like, what is going on? But you're like the most jovial man in the world. A lot of it's the nostalgia stuff. Yeah. That stuff kind of breaks my heart sometimes when I really get into that mood and think about it. And that's when I write songs about it.
Starting point is 00:42:38 So, yeah. For a while, she was like, can you just write a song about it going right? Like about the love ending well? Yeah. Which there's a couple on this new record that kind of do that. Yeah. Sort of. Talk to me about being a dad now.
Starting point is 00:42:53 Mm-hmm. What was that like just, on that whole journey with you guys. It's just the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. It really is. And he just turned eight months old. And I don't know. It's just, I'm like, I guess I always want you.
Starting point is 00:43:09 There was a long time where like, you know, I've always been a huge John Mayer fan. And I knew he never got married and had kids. And I always kind of was really aware of that and always kind of said the same thing. I was like, man, I'm going to go, you know, be a songwriter and a touring artist for the rest of my life. Not getting married and had kids. And Hallie obviously changed that. And so a certain time came where I kind of sort of realized and I was like, man, there's, there's like, you're getting older and you're like, I'm kind of like, it's time.
Starting point is 00:43:38 Like this stuff's about to start. And then it does start, like being married and having a kid. And it's like, I mean, you're in the middle of the day and you're like, damn, it's not coming. It's here. Like it has arrived. He is here and he is not going anywhere. But it's just been, I don't know. It's like the cliche thing.
Starting point is 00:43:58 Everybody says it's, you know, it's like the best thing in the world is having kids and your kid. And like I understand that now. It's, and it's just getting better. Like he's, you know, like when he was born, he has these two perfect dimples. And they were just ripping. He came out screaming crying, flew up in the air like four feet. It was wild. I was up by the shoulders.
Starting point is 00:44:16 Damn, he came out swinging. He came out swinging and just hollering. Cowboy. I mean, it's the wildest thing. I look at him. I'm like, I, I, And you're dad. You are my son, you know, like, and my dad is my best friend in the world.
Starting point is 00:44:33 I mean, he is the man. Me and him are incredibly close. And so I'm like, it's just wild. Like, now it's my time to be in that role, you know. So it's just been, I don't know, my brain still doesn't really know what to think of at all. Yeah. I see the smile on your face, though, when you talk about it. It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:44:54 It's just, it's just. fucking wild to have a kid and be like yeah me and her sitting there's like where's he's parents yeah and then it broke my heart one day it was like a month after he was born and we were we're doing like change his diaper or something and she's like isn't it she just said it so nonchant she's like isn't it weird to think we won't be here for his whole life oh and I was just like holy shit like I mean like just even saying that right now I'm like that just shatters my it just I'm like no I don't know that can't be how it is um but it's I don't know being a dad is and like when they're eight months old and before or even like for the next few months
Starting point is 00:45:35 like you know being a dad is you're not really showing him or teaching him anything yet so I think when that gets here like I'll really be good at that I haven't been very good at the baby stuff I don't feel like any men are good during the infant stages but when they start talking and like able to communicate. And he said dad-da the other day. And I was just like, I was like, dude, like the way I felt, I didn't even like it. I was like, I was like, I feel weak right now, you know. But it was just, I was just like, he just, big, then we've got this big ass blue eyes. He just looking at me over and over, dad, dad, dad. And I'm like, he's son of a bitch. Like, you know, you got me. You just in love with
Starting point is 00:46:13 them. And I'll never quit him and he's got me for life, you know. He'll like, he's, he's good. So it's, and he will have impeccable manners. And there will be no exception made to that rule. He may not be very smart if he's like me, but he will have impeccable manners. I think he's going to be amazing with you and Holly being, you know, his parents. How did you guys come up with his name, Major? I was watching. So my middle name's Yancey.
Starting point is 00:46:41 That's my mom's side of the family. And I really wanted to name him Yancey Tyler after my middle name and my little brother. And I couldn't talk her into it. Well, I just, they're just, I'm so lucky. I don't know. And you don't really start to realize that to his fullest extent until you get older. But I just loved the name Yancey Tyler. And so I was trying to, for like a year, I was trying to talk Hally into, and he would go by
Starting point is 00:47:09 Yancey Tyler. Like that would be his name. Like, that's baller. Like, if he plays ball, if he's riding dirt bikes, like if he's roping, if he's a singer, like Yancy Tyler's good for all of those. And, but she never really 100% got on. on board with it. And then I was watching Major Applewhite the highlight on YouTube one night. And I was like, Major McCollum. And she was like, ah. So I tried to talk her out of it, but it was
Starting point is 00:47:33 done. We were like, for like months. We went on like other names. And I knew the whole time. I was like, I know she's not going to get off a major. And she, she met me in the middle. Now it's Major Yancey, Tyler McCollum. I love that. I saw a clip of you guys whenever you pulled him up for the rodeo. And you could just see the love that you have for her. That was cool. Yeah, that was like, I told him I was like that, or told Halley, I was like, that photo one day is going to be like, it just, I don't know, my boy on stage with me, 70,000 people. His first rodeo. Houston, Texas, his first rodeo. He has no idea what anything is or what's happening, where he is or who he is.
Starting point is 00:48:09 But like that photo will be so cool. And it just, I don't know. It's like you, I was never really that way about stuff. And now I'm like, you know. Yeah. Just a whole other side. Yeah. a whole other side of your personality you didn't know existed. It's just evoked immediately.
Starting point is 00:48:26 Yeah. Well, lucky that they get that side of you. And that's why you preserved it for so long was to keep it just sacred just for just them. So I love that. So let's talk about touring. I need to hear some crazy backstage moments because I know that you have toured with Co. Wetzel, which we've heard some crazy backstage stories with him. But we always had a good time. Coe is great. I freaking love Coe. We toured with Coe, too. And I mean, he's He's pure. He is so, I think what people don't realize about Coe is that he really genuinely, beneath the wild facade, he's just a sweet man.
Starting point is 00:48:59 And he's funnier than all get out. I mean, like, I don't think people know that either. Like, he is hysterical. We were hunting together a couple months ago. And it was the first time we'd kicked it in a pretty good while. And I just, I don't know. He's, he is, I would take a bullet for him. I've leaned on him in some good times and, or in some really bad times.
Starting point is 00:49:20 And he's just, I don't know, man, he's, he's as good as East Texas has ever made him. You guys kind of came up together, too, didn't you? We did. He actually messaged me on Twitter in probably 2015, 1415. And then I had met this guy at that songwriter competition that I ended up winning. And he was really good buddies with Coe. And he kind of started driving my van, became my first tour manager. And he was one of my best friends in the entire world.
Starting point is 00:49:49 and I remember him being like, hey, you got to check out my buddy Co. And I was like, you know, people say that all the time. Nobody's ever good, you know. Yeah. And we ended up going to, went fishing together one time. And he went to sleep me and Coe stayed up in the living room just playing guitars. And he started singing.
Starting point is 00:50:07 And I was just like, you know. He's special. Yeah, I was like, oh, wow. You know, just immediately. And you know when someone opens their mouth to sing a song instantaneously, you know whether you buy it or you don't. and he had me hook-line and sinker. But yeah, he was just, you know,
Starting point is 00:50:23 and they didn't know what they were doing. I was already kind of selling some tickets and playing some shows and had a band and a van and stuff. And so when it was Co. Whatzell and the Convix, like, you know, like he was really like kind of leaning on me a little bit just figuring out, you know, what do you do about an agent or, you know,
Starting point is 00:50:40 touring and all the stuff. And so like we kind of learned all of that together. And we were like the last few, like us and Flatland, and a couple others were like the last ones that really like got in a van and went and toured really hard before you could do like the viral thing on TikTok and social media and stuff. So like we kind of had our first good run very, very young and like right before all of that stuff became what it is now. Like we had social media but yeah, no, I get it. It was not what it is now. No, Jay and I, yeah, we had to come up from the 18 passenger van.
Starting point is 00:51:15 It's just, and he's he says the same thing. wouldn't have it any other way. Like we're really grateful to have gotten to do it that way. I feel like it's kind of the easy way out now because you can go so viral so fast. And it's like you don't, not that you don't appreciate it as much, but it's like it's not the blood, sweat and tears as it was before. Yeah. And people are going to have success and probably there will be some a few that do it that way and have very big long successful careers. And there will be a lot of them that don't. You know, there may be a flash in the pan or whatever. But, you know, I don't know, I always just liked the, I never really liked the idea of like, you know, just blowing up.
Starting point is 00:51:53 Like I always just kind of wanted to just keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. And you know, you get one day and you're set and you're taken care of and you've built a great career. And it just always seemed like a nice place to end up. Yes. And just and I always like really genuinely thought about it that way. And so I think a lot of that comes from I was kind of forced to do it that way. And I'm like really grateful for that now. So he's, that boy's one and a million.
Starting point is 00:52:20 Yeah, he is one and a million. So besides co, because I know you guys have some wild stories, tell me like what is one of the craziest like backstage moments, fan interaction or tour story that you can think of. Oh, golly. There was, there was one night. I actually wasn't technically a part of this.
Starting point is 00:52:38 I kind of walked into it. I was on the bus asleep and I like heard. It was after the show. We were playing this rodeo in the middle of nowhere. and like, damn, I can't believe I'm going to tell us what I'm going to. And I won't name who it was in the band, but there were some girls who had stayed after the show and they were all having a good time. And I had already gotten in my bunk and gone. So this is back when we were on one bus. Everybody was, we had like two crew guys, just a few guys in the band. And anyways, I heard
Starting point is 00:53:02 a bunch of noise outside the bus. And so I like got up. I think I was in my boxers. And I just like opened the door. And there was a girl with a, what's the firework that she, a bottle rocket. Yes. In her butt. And, and, like, the girl, like the other girls that were there, like, one of the girls has the lighter. She's trying to lie that. All the guys are, like, trying other lighters, trying to light it.
Starting point is 00:53:25 And she's, like, letting them shoot the bottle rocket out of there. And that's not the craziest. That's just, like, one that I think back on off there. And I'm like, I wonder where she is now, you know? Where did she go the next day and where is she now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does she ever tell that story on her own? Yeah, I wonder, I wonder that same thing.
Starting point is 00:53:45 But the, the, uh, the bottle rocket never lay. I was just standing there like on the bottom step of the bus, just like, what is going on? It's something that's just so crazy to just wake up and have to feast your eyes on. So I could only imagine the imprint that it left in your mind. And just, you know, that's, it's, uh, golly, that's probably the, the most appropriate story I could tell from back in those days. It was just, it was so, none of us knew what we were doing back then. And, uh, it was just so wild and. And like we caught like even before we were on that bus our first tour bus like you know we were just in a van and then we got a sprinter van few years later and they just we had no responsibilities.
Starting point is 00:54:25 You know, we plugged our own guitars in. You know, I had like a little DeWalt tool bag with like a tuner and a cable and like a D.I I think in it. And like that's what I would, you know, like take out of the van and we'd set our stuff up. And like we were doing that but we were selling these bars out. Like we were selling like two, three, four, five thousand. person bars out a night. Wow. And Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, like it was just, it was so, so, so fun. Yeah. Do you ever miss those days? All the time. Yeah, we do too.
Starting point is 00:54:54 I don't think I'd want to go back to them. But I do. I just think about them all the time and how different it looks nowadays. But I enjoy feeling really good all the time on the road. Like, I never felt good back then on the road. Like, you were always just really. ruined all the time on the road. And so, like, you would get, like, this bad taste in your mouth from it because you're
Starting point is 00:55:19 like, man, I don't want to go out and feel like that again. So once I, like, really started kind of being a little more focused and a little more calculated with, like, my approach to it, which I think is really good to do for your fans, too. Like, they deserve a good product every night. Like, you want to go out and put on a good show and sound good and remember all of the words and be entertaining and, you know, play those songs to where they feel, they're happy that they came and heard the songs that they love life, you know. But back then, we just,
Starting point is 00:55:47 we weren't thinking about that. So we were just ripping it. Have you ever forgotten a song on stage? All the time I did at the rodeo. Were you faded, but you were sober, right? 100% sober. And they have these screens around the arena or around the stadium that, you know, it's like the lyrics to the song are like being type. They're not teleprompters. It's like for the crowd. And, you know, I'm sure if someone's, you know, deaf or something for for that kind of thing. and but they're delayed. Right.
Starting point is 00:56:14 They're really delayed. And so I just, you know, that stage is rotating and like just came time for the second verse of Yandiana and I was reading. I just so happened to look at that thing and it's like it hasn't even, we're already through the chorus. It's like just now putting the words to the chorus up and I just. Do you just make up words in that moment? You just freestyle until you get back to the chorus and then hope you remember those words.
Starting point is 00:56:35 But it happens all the time. At least one song a night. I'll just, you know, it's like, and they just turn around the band just like, like, wow, wow. Because they know you messed up. And it's all being recorded and there's video of it all. It's like you get to go back and look after and it's pretty funny. But yeah, I do that all the time. We had a little blurb that happened at the Houston Rodeo that my husband calls me up on stage all the time. And I'm always, I always cuss. I'm like, what's up motherfuckers? You know, and nobody told me. Oh, they probably didn't like that at rodeo.
Starting point is 00:57:03 Right. So nobody told me that you're not supposed to cuss on the stage, right? So I get up there and I don't think I'm going to say anything. He hands me the microphones. And I'm like, up motherfuckers. And you can see my husband go and just like walks away and as he hugs me. He's like, you're not supposed to cuss on stage. Surely they were cool about it. Oh, they were so cool about it. Because I did a TikTok about it and I was like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I was like, please. And that's really good for their marketing too. Yeah, yeah. No, it was huge. It was viral. Like that's very good for the brand of rodeo Houston. It's like, you know, that's good for business. Yeah. They are serious about that. No, they're super serious. But I was like, yeah, you could have told me
Starting point is 00:57:37 that before I got on there. Can we talk about your gold chains? Because I don't see your gold chains on right now. I've only got one. My diamond chain caught on my towel last week. I was getting a shower in the morning and it just ripped in half. What is it with the chains? Because I heard that you said you would rather forget your guitar than forget your chains. No, I don't know if I ever said that. Okay. If I did, it probably sounded a lot cooler at the time. It certainly doesn't now hearing it out loud. But no, I don't know. You know, I think as much as I was into this country music and Americana songwriters as a kid, like I was really also very in tune with like kind of the, I guess back then it really wasn't the underground Houston rap scene. It was a pretty big deal back
Starting point is 00:58:19 then, especially when I was really young. My brother was in high school, but I don't know. I mean, we were always listening to Zero and Slim Thug and Big Mo and Little Kee and Burma. Like just so, just, you know, and a lot of people don't know about those artists. And I still listen to those guys to this day. I listen to them in the gym in the morning. I listen to him when I'm driving. you know, we're always, you know, I just, that was like a, I always thought those guys were really cool too. And that's another, well, somewhat earlier. Like, I'd never known, like, what I really was or what I was supposed to be because, like, I'd see John Mayer and I'd be like, that's incredible. I want to be like him.
Starting point is 00:58:54 And I'd see George Strait and I'd be like, that's incredible. I want to be like him. And then I would see, you know, zero or maybe not even a Houston rat, 50 cent. And I'd be like, he's badass. I want to be like him. Would you ever collab with a rapper if they wanted to? I just don't think you would believe it if I did it. I don't think it would be believable.
Starting point is 00:59:08 I think it would. I mean, Morgan has pulled it off. My dad's pulled it. My dad, my husband has pulled it. I was going to say daddy, but I always call him daddy. That's good. Jay has pulled it off. I think that you would totally be able to pull it off. You know, I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but you have such a like a college fan base too. They would eat that up. Maybe. I don't know. I think people really, really expect the level of the songwriting for me to be very high. And when it's not, I can hear them. and I recognize that. And I want the same thing. Like I really want to write songs like a stand the test of time and be, you know, like do something for somebody.
Starting point is 00:59:48 So I don't think I could get that across collabing with a rapper. But there is, there will always be a small part of me that wishes I was a rapper. Have you ever wrapped? I freestyle every single day in my life. No way. That's how I write songs.
Starting point is 01:00:05 Wow. When I'm playing guitar, I'm just freestown. I'm just freestyling. I mean, I can freestyling without missing a rhyme for as long as you want to go. Wow. I've always been able to do that. And so that's just how I've always written, whether it's hell of a year or whatever, it's just, you know, I'm just sitting there just making shit up as I'm just spitting it out.
Starting point is 01:00:24 Like Lori McKenna, what great songwriter I write with, she's all, she's like, learned that that's how I write songs. And she's just like, just go. She's like, just start. And I'll just start singing lines and rhyming lines and describing things and just, you know, and I can do it for a long time without ever missing a rhyme. Could you do a freestyle for us right now? Absolutely not.
Starting point is 01:00:42 Hell no. No. I listened. I had to try. It doesn't look cool. It doesn't look cool and it doesn't sound cool. But I can do it for a long time and fall off the beat and fall back on the beat and kind of slide around the beat and just melodies and hooks.
Starting point is 01:01:02 And I just, I do it all the time. I'm like, if I'm driving by myself, I'm probably freestyling and I'm just going and going. And like when I leave voicemails for my buddies, I'll freestyle for like a minute and a half. I love that. And they'll just call them and they'll be like, you realize nobody knows you can do that. And I'm like, yeah, we need to keep it that way too. It's like a hidden talent, Parker. But it's not, it's, it's, it's not very cool, you know.
Starting point is 01:01:29 I am able to like do the, you know, freestyle and rhyme a lot for a long. long time. But it just when it's me doing it, you know, I just feel like people are like, I don't want to see him do that. Okay. So what if you collabed with a rapper, but you sang a hook and let them rap? I would love to do that. Would you do that? I'd love to do that. Who would you want to do that with? Let's manifest it right now. I don't know. I think it'd be really cool to do it with Jack Harlow. Yeah. I would really, um, 50 cent, obviously. I know, you know, he's just, when I was a kid, he was the man. He's like the soundtrack to our lives.
Starting point is 01:02:06 Would love to do it with Lil Wayne. You know, there's, yeah, but I just, you know, I would be super honest. I'd be like, hey, yo, this sucks. And if we could get it right, yeah, it'd be cool. But, you know, it's just, you don't want to see me do that. I don't think. I'm looking forward to it. I don't think it would look very cool.
Starting point is 01:02:28 Yeah. I don't think it would look very cool. I think it would be awesome. Parker, thank you so much for coming by. No, thank you. I am so happy to have you sit here on the couch. And please come by any time you want. Next time you come by, bring the hot wifie too.
Starting point is 01:02:39 I absolutely will. Everybody meets her and they like her a lot more. I think you guys are a beautiful couple. Thank you. You guys both compliment each other. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Yes, ma'am.
Starting point is 01:02:49 Thanks, Bunny. Thank you. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of Dunblonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.

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