TBT: Parker McCollum - Not His First Rodeo

Throwback Thursday Parker 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: Website https://www.parkermccollum.com/ Watch Full Episodes & More: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@Dumbblondepod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Bunny XO.

• 0:00Speaker 01

  She was a Vegas girl.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Bunny XO.

• 0:10Bunnie XO?

  Is this thing on? Hi babies, welcome to another episode of Dumb Blonde. 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.

• 0:24Speaker 03

  The dumbest blonde of all.

• 0:25Bunnie XO?

  Ah, are you a natural blonde?

• 0:27Speaker 03

  Uh, not really, I kinda like a little strawberry blonde when I was little, so. My brother always 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, it's not true. And the carpet don't match the curtains, so I think it all has to match to be a true ginger.

• 0:42Bunnie XO?

  I love that, I love that so much. You were always talking about your brother, is that Tyler?

• 0:46Speaker 03

  Yes, ma'am.

• 0:46Bunnie XO?

  Okay, you're always talking about him. I love the relationship that you guys have with each other. Who's older?

• 0:51Speaker 03

  He's older than me, he's six years older than me.

• 0:53Bunnie XO?

  Okay, that's amazing.

• 0:54Speaker 03

  His birthday's in like two days.

• 0:56Bunnie XO?

  Aw, well, happy, happy birthday Tyler.

• 0:58Speaker 03

  Happy birthday Tyler.

• 0:59Bunnie XO?

  Um, 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.

• 1:06Speaker 03

  Very close, always were, um, 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, um, 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, um, we have a sister that's between us, Michael, and, uh, she's three, four years older than me, and a couple years younger than Tyler, and, I mean, we've always been really close. So 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, uh, 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, and so I've always said, he could have been ice skating,

• 1:50Speaker 03

  and I'd probably still be trying to ice skate, so it just so happened to be that it was songwriting and playing guitar.

• 1:55Bunnie XO?

  I love that. So, you're from Texas, I'm from Texas, I-

• 1:59Speaker 03

  Wait, you're, you are from Texas?

• 2:00Bunnie XO?

  I'm from Houston, mhm.

• 2:01Speaker 03

  No way.

• 2:03Bunnie XO?

  So, I lived in Texas till I was five, and then I ended up moving to Vegas, 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?

• 2:15Speaker 03

  And the sun shines brighter there.

• 2:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 2:17Speaker 03

  If anybody notices that, but.

• 2:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, like Texas is like its own just.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  It is its own thing.

• 2:22Bunnie XO?

  Its own thing and people that are from there just love Texas. Like we are so proud to be from Texas.

• 2:27Speaker 03

  I, 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 forget how, I mean, it's gorgeous out here. Like the landscape, the topography is beautiful. Um, but I've never one second since I've been back home in Texas.

• 2:47Bunnie XO?

  Missed it.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  Missed it. Not one minute.

• 2:49Bunnie XO?

  Which is okay. Yeah.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  I just, uh, my, I don't know. It's just, uh, you know, I mean, it's, it's probably pretty simple. Mother nature or something there. Just why humans like being what's familiar or 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. Like I never do that anymore, you know? Um, back in the day, I'd get in the van or get on the bus or whatever. And we were playing Texas and Oklahoma and stuff. You're always coming home. Very rare that you do that now. And, uh, I don't know. I just, I, I 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, your, these are, those are your people. So, um,

• 3:30Bunnie XO?

  It's just that Texas pride thing. Um, 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, 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.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  She was in high school yesterday.

• 3:46Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, that's awesome. That's not, that's not an easy feat.

• 3:50Speaker 03

  No, my, my, uh, my granddad, her dad was, uh, was, I mean, I've always said he's one of the greatest cowboys to ever live. It was just old school. Um, I mean, just red, white and blue, American Texas cowboy.

• 4:02Bunnie XO?

  That's Mr. Bobby Yancy, right?

• 4:04Speaker 03

  Bobby Yancy. And I've got his initials tattooed right here, but he, uh, just a great, great man. And, uh, you know, so my mom and her siblings, my uncle's rode rough stock. My mom and her sister rode barrels and, or raced barrels and, um, you know, then 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.

• 4:23Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  Um, and so it's just, it's a.

• 4:26Bunnie XO?

  Like some small town lore. I love that.

• 4:29Speaker 03

  It's kind of, yeah, it is. I've, I've tried to explain it to people sometimes and they're just like, wait, wait, what? This person, who was married to who? But it's, uh, they, I kind of had these two. Very different worlds. My dad's family was mostly in the car business and, and super, super crazy, hardworking. My mom's side of the, side of the family is the same way, but you know, it was more like my grand, my, my mom's side of the family owned 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, um, it's, uh, my, I think my background's underwhelming, but I guess it could be interesting to somebody.

• 5:10Bunnie XO?

  No, I don't think it is. I actually found out a couple of things about you and we'll talk about a little bit more down the line too, that I was like, okay, Parker. Like it was really cool. Okay. We'll talk about it right now. I was actually, the, the fact that you smoke weed and have done DMT and like mushrooms.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  How did you know this? How did you know this?

• 5:27Bunnie XO?

  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? Have you got to?

• 5:37Speaker 03

  I think we have at some point or another, but I, you know, I never really drank. Um, 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 cause that was kind of the, just what you do.

• 5:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 5:52Speaker 03

  But I never really liked alcohol. Um, and I always, you know, enjoy it and I always just, you know, and I'd 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.

• 6:04Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Weed has always been the lesser of the two. Um, and I just, I don't know. I, 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, and just kind of letting it go. It just, it sparks, it's, you know, some of the greatest records of all time are written stoned.

• 6:23Bunnie XO?

  DMT is some heavy shit though. Like that's one thing that I'm scared. How old were you when you did the DMT?

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't know. Probably 21.

• 6:30Bunnie XO?

  And you were just like, where were you at? Like a party and everybody's passing around a DMT?

• 6:34Speaker 03

  This is crazy. Uh, I was living in Austin and I was living on the University of Texas's campus, what they call West Campus, but I never went to the University of Texas and, uh, I went to community college for like a couple of weeks and, uh, but I was just living there and that's where I wrote that record, The Limestone Kid. But there was this. Kid that we'd gone to high school, I didn't know him in high school, but 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 that, that I.

• 7:03Bunnie XO?

  This is wild.

• 7:04Speaker 03

  It was on like a Monday morning and on like the second story of this like co-op he was living in.

• 7:10Bunnie XO?

  So this dude was making DMT just in his house?

• 7:15Speaker 03

  In his, like a co-op, like they lived like, she had like random people that lived all in one house.

• 7:20Bunnie XO?

  You're a brave soul.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  I was just, you know, I was, I don't know, I was living.

• 7:27Bunnie XO?

  I love that though.

• 7:28Speaker 03

  Back then, I was really, really living.

• 7:29Bunnie XO?

  I love that though. You gotta live life to the fullest. And what was it like whenever you took a hit of the DMT?

• 7:34Speaker 03

  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 the window. And just saw like, my, my mom used to take us to 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, like out on the street. It didn't last very long.

• 8:02Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 8:03Speaker 03

  It was pretty quick. It felt longer than it really was. I think it was, you know, maybe less than a couple of minutes. But it wasn't anything like, you know, I wasn't, I didn't feel like I was tripping out, like going crazy. It was just, and then afterwards I was extremely calm, kind of rejuvenated, felt crazy clarity mentally.

• 8:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Would you do it again?

• 8:26Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 8:27Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. From the same chemist or would you want to get it from somebody else?

• 8:31Speaker 03

  I just, I went hard for a long time and, and it kind of 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. I gotta get my shit together.

• 8:56Bunnie XO?

  Do you think that was just a part of like being young, possibly?

• 8:59Speaker 03

  A hundred percent. Yes. 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. And 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 writing. And it just, you know, I was so into that. And then it just kind of got to the point where-

• 9:24Bunnie XO?

  Like being that outlaw? Just want to be like an outlaw cowboy?

• 9:27Speaker 03

  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 into that. And I thought I had to go do that to write the kind of songs I wanted to write. And I, and I, you know, those songs changed my life. They, they gave me the career I have now. Um, 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.

• 9:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I mean, memories, you can, memories are priceless.

• 10:01Speaker 03

  My memories are good. I'm grateful that my memories in life are good.

• 10:04Bunnie XO?

  Memories are priceless. Do you feel like you still need to be under the influence to write music now? Or do you write it completely sober?

• 10:12Speaker 03

  Not really. You know, like that song, Rest of My Life, that I wrote during COVID. Um, I was dead sober when I wrote that song, like nine 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, was really, really close to being like, this is like, you're gonna blow it. You know, you're gonna blow it. And, uh, and I didn't want to do that. Like, I really always wanted to make my family very proud. Um, and I just never wanted to like embarrass them or go do, you know, I just, I 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?

• 10:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  He really had it. Um, and so I was just kind of became super aware of that kind of stuff. And it just-

• 10:59Speaker 03

  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.

• 11:08Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, because you can focus.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  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 and, but I've also done it. Stone Cold Sober, so.

• 11:26Bunnie XO?

  My husband prefers to be under the influence when he's writing, which, you know, it, 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.

• 11:51Speaker 03

  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, there's just like anything else, Bunny. I mean, it's moderation. 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 to go write these songs. You know, it can just get out of hand and you can start abusing that. And all of a sudden you're not being creative and you're not writing and you're really just.

• 12:14Bunnie XO?

  Can be counterproductive.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  Yes. And, and so I just kind of noticed when that started to happen and I was like, all right, what do you really have if you can't do it without it?

• 12:24Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  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.

• 12:40Bunnie XO?

  Well, it's also because you were raised with morals and the way your family.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  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.

• 12:47Bunnie XO?

  No, it's not a party if it happens every day.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  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, I have a child, like Major, my son, it's like. What am I gonna do? You know, go be self sabotage sad dad songwriter? Like, yes, just only for every now and then, for about a week at a time.

• 13:10Bunnie XO?

  Let's dial 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?

• 13:26Speaker 03

  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 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 I'd like, once I started doing that, then I really started like learning how to formulate a song. And, and it's, I write, I write songs now the exact same way I did then. Just sit down and just make some shit up until something sounds cool or sounds pretty,

• 14:10Speaker 03

  or, you know, move something in you, or, you know, is an earworm for yourself or whatever. And, and I've done that since, I mean, even when I was 12, 13, trying, I wrote like a song called West Texas Lover.

• 14:23Bunnie XO?

  At 12 or 13?

• 14:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was like 12 or 13 years old. And my grandma, my dad's mom, she's 90, and she's still asked me to play that song. I don't think she knows any of my other songs. I think that's the only one she knows, but.

• 14:35Bunnie XO?

  Where did the inspiration at 12 or 13 come from that?

• 14:39Speaker 03

  A girl I was dating, and I got dating when you're 12, I guess. My, my girlfriend, yeah, like 5th grade, 4th grade, whatever it was, so.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  I don't know. I was just super aware when I was really young. Like, I was, I was very aware of the Texas scene, the Pat Greens, the Randy Rogers, the Cross Canadian Ragweeds. You know, the, and then like the, you know, Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell and, and 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.

• 15:16Bunnie XO?

  Would you ever release West Texas Lover?

• 15:18Speaker 03

  I don't think so. No, it's not. Like name drops like Stoney LaRue, Todd Snyder. It's very bad. It's, it's, it's, yeah, I can't remember all the words. I could probably remember most of them, but it's a.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  No, it's not very good.

• 15:33Bunnie XO?

  He's like, no, 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? Like, did you do write such like just romance, like romance songs and like love songs?

• 15:45Speaker 03

  I just love sad songs. Like I love evoking that emotion singing. Um, I like to sing those kinds of songs and just like, I mean, just rip on, on a sad, beautiful melody. Like it just does it for me.

• 15:58Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Um, but you know, like, I mean, 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 cowboy to the fullest extent. Um, but I've never like ran around and been like, you know, I'm a cowboy, you know? I don't like, I don't think I would enjoy it if I had to do it for a living.

• 16:15Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 16:15Speaker 03

  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. Does that make sense? So that's kind of my relationship with that, but, um, it was just such a part of my childhood and, and such a mass, it's just ingrained in the DNA of my family. Um, you know, I'll raise Major that way. Like he'll grow up the same way. Um, but I don't know. I've never, 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. Um, and I mean that like in, like in 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.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  I just always, just literally been winging it my entire life.

• 17:02Bunnie XO?

  You strike me as somebody who doesn't put labels on themselves. Like you kind of just like.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  I just don't really care, you know? Like, I'm just like, you know, I, I really, really try to focus on like, am I working hard? You know, uh, are my intentions pure? Uh, am, you know, how's my relationship with Hallie Ray? How's my relationship with my, with my family? And, and the people that I work with, like, am I being a pleasant, hardworking, non-complaining human being?

• 17:28Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 17:28Speaker 03

  If yes. You know, the other stuff is, you know, you're not gonna get it all right. You can't, you know, as much as I want to, and I think about it, I'm super hard on myself with that stuff, but no, it's, uh, I just, I don't know, I don't worry a ton.

• 17:44Bunnie XO?

  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? Would you have gone into ranching?

• 17:53Speaker 03

  Or? I don't know. You know, I, I actually wonder that all the time. Um, 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. Um, that sounds like it would have been a possibility. I don't think I would have enjoyed that.

• 18:10Bunnie XO?

  I could not see you as a car salesman.

• 18:12Speaker 03

  It's just, it's really, really hard to say, cause I've been doing this. You know, I graduated high school, 10 days later, 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, Stephenville, 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 Me Too in the Middle. And then we started selling tickets and it's just been doing this ever since. And I just don't remember, you know.

• 18:43Bunnie XO?

  Anything else?

• 18:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. I don't remember what it was like before this, really.

• 18:51Bunnie XO?

  You've always seemed to have been musically inclined though, because you were playing the violin and guitar and what else were you playing? There was another instrument in here.

• 18:59Speaker 03

  Harmonica.

• 18:59Bunnie XO?

  Harmonica?

• 19:00Speaker 03

  When I was really little, but like, I mean, people always like, I think my Wikipedia page, someone sent it to me one time, it says I'm a multi instrumentalist, which is not exactly accurate. Um, cause like I play harmonica a little bit and I played the violin in the orchestra in like fifth and sixth grade. And I was second to last.

• 19:16Bunnie XO?

  I played the viola.

• 19:16Speaker 03

  Yes. Well, there was only two, right? And, and I was second to last chair. Um, but I really, like, I really liked it. Um, I just didn't keep doing it because it wasn't cool in seventh grade and I wanted to play football and stuff. And. 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 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.

• 19:58Bunnie XO?

  Do you feel like your parents' divorce maybe put you in a little bit of a depression?

• 20:02Speaker 03

  No, I've never been depressed in my entire life, ever to any degree whatsoever.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  But I, I think, you know, I think it just affects you more than you realize until you're older. You know, like, 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 them.

• 20:27Bunnie XO?

  Absolutely.

• 20:28Speaker 03

  Top notch. And I'm, I've, the older I get, I just become so much more grateful for that year after year. I just, you know, everything, 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 a hundred percent am very hard on myself. Like, I know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong. And I don't ever really, I'm never like, I don't blame anything other than myself. Like genuinely, probably to like, to a, to a fault. It's probably a little overkill with it, but.

• 21:06Bunnie XO?

  No, you are, you are very, very, very self-aware and I, I think it might be a little too self-aware because

• 21:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, where you at?

• 21:14Bunnie XO?

  You take so much accountability for everything that you don't want to put the blame on anybody else. And when I asked the question about the parents, I 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.

• 21:34Speaker 03

  And it's all you know, you know, it's like when you're a kid, 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're like,

• 21:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  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, I say that. And then like my, my addiction to nostalgia is like crippling.

• 21:56Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I'm always romanticizing the past.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  I know. I got, I got a song on this new record called Sunny Days and uh, it's like I've been trying to write that song for so long. Um, 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, those days are never coming back. They're so gone. They're so gone.

• 22:18Bunnie XO?

  100% relate. I'm always yearning for a time that's never gonna,

• 22:22Speaker 03

  Never come back.

• 22:23Bunnie XO?

  Never gonna come back. Have you ever had like an extreme heartbreak?

• 22:27Speaker 03

  I mean,

• 22:31Speaker 03

  not that wasn't my fault.

• 22:33Bunnie XO?

  There's the self-awareness again.

• 22:34Speaker 03

  As terrible as it is to say somewhat intentional to go to that place and write those songs.

• 22:38Bunnie XO?

  Right. What would you say your biggest green flag is?

• 22:42Speaker 03

  Biggest green flag? Oh, oh golly.

• 22:46Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk good about yourself.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  I think I'm extremely easygoing.

• 22:49Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  I think very, like I just, you know, like if somebody invites me to their birthday party, thank you. If you don't,

• 22:59Speaker 03

  also thank you. Like just, I'm not, I'm not ever tripping about anything like that. Um, and, and part of that, I think is because for so long I've been so busy. Um, 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.

• 23:16Bunnie XO?

  What would you say?

• 23:17Speaker 03

  That's weird to, to pick a thing.

• 23:18Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. What would you say your biggest red flag is?

• 23:21Speaker 03

  Um, pretty inconsistent.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Very, and that's the one thing I like, I just envy so much about Hallie Ray. Like she is the most, she's the same exact person every day. And I'm so jealous of that. Yeah, pretty inconsistent. All over the place. Probably thirty one different people a day.

• 23:41Bunnie XO?

  You're Gemini, so I mean, that's expected.

• 23:43Speaker 03

  Split personalities, but it's been split.

• 23:46Bunnie XO?

  We're raising a Gemini.

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Exponential. Over and over again.

• 23:50Bunnie XO?

  Yep, our daughter is a Gemini, so I one hundred percent understand everything that you're saying. We never know which one we're gonna get when she wakes up in the morning.

• 23:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I think Hallie Ray probably says that the same day. Or says that same thing every day. I'm just, 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 want, I don't want to be thirty one different people every day. But a lot of it's self inflicted, like, and, 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, in, in music business and being a songwriter and being a touring artist, like, it just wear you out, you know? And you, you kind of, I'll, 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

• 24:41Speaker 03

  just making the same mistakes over again.

• 24:44Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 24:52Speaker 03

  You live two lives.

• 24:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  Like I literally, I'm con, 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 twelve.

• 25:05Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I see it every day with my husband.

• 25:07Speaker 03

  It'll wear your ass out.

• 25:08Bunnie XO?

  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, it's a very, very thin, thin line, fine line that you guys have to walk.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  And nobody really can relate. Like they can understand and they can sympathize and it's not, 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, it's, it's an incredible blessing, but.

• 25:46Bunnie XO?

  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 show up and put a smile on his face and tell the same old story.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  But it's a lot easier if you're taking care of yourself and you're sober.

• 26:01Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  And you are doing what you know you're supposed to do.

• 26:04Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  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 is like.

• 26:10Bunnie XO?

  You're human.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  It's like, I can't seem to do it 365 days out of the year.

• 26:14Bunnie XO?

  You're human, Parker. I hope you know that. You're not a machine. You're not a robot. So.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  I feel like one a lot, though.

• 26:20Bunnie XO?

  Oh, you need a break. When was the last time you had a break? Cause you've been touring since.

• 26:24Speaker 03

  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, um, March, we only played two shows. But like I got a new album coming out, so I'm about to just go absolutely.

• 26:35Bunnie XO?

  Balls to the wall.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  It's all about to start again. And like, I can feel it. It's like, it's like out there every day, like behind me, looking over my shoulder, just like, here I come. You know, you better get ready. And I'm like.

• 26:46Bunnie XO?

  Do you still get excited about it? Or does, do you have to like gear yourself up for it?

• 26:50Speaker 03

  I'm as excited about this album as, 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.

• 27:00Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  Hmm. It's, it's the first time I, like, when I left the studio, we recorded this whole album in New York back in October and seven days.

• 27:06Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  And when I left, I was like, yes.

• 27:12Bunnie XO?

  What makes this album so different? Let's talk about it.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  I think I just was able to kind of, out of pure luck, like rope the best version of myself at the right time.

• 27:25Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 27:26Speaker 03

  And then I flew from the last, we'd 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, uh, so I was just like, it. But I'd been, I 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, just had 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. Um, cause I do tour a lot and I tour hard and I liked, I like to work hard. I like to earn it, you know? I never

• 28:10Speaker 03

  wanted anybody to say I didn't earn every single thing. And, and I still am that way. Still always say, still trying to make it. Um, but I just, when I got to New York, I was, you know, I was just like, yes, for the first time probably ever.

• 28:25Bunnie XO?

  What's the sound like on this album?

• 28:26Speaker 03

  I don't know. I have no idea what it sounds like.

• 28:30Bunnie XO?

  Do you, cause you, you know, cause you listen to it so much. It's hard. It like bleeds. Like you, I know how that goes. Cause when Jay is.

• 28:36Speaker 03

  But I've never known who I sounded like. You know, like even like, I've never made a record that I was like, this sounds like this. Cause I would always be like, you know, say dumb stuff. Be like, what if Ryan Bingham and Kings of Leon got together and made a record? What would that be like? And then it'd be incredible, right? But I can't like, that was a, it was dumb for me to probably say at the time because not capable of pulling that off, but.

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• 30:00Speaker 03

  You know, I just, and this is, 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 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.

• 30:29Bunnie XO?

  You just had a game plan and you literally just went in and.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  We had a game plan and at the same time, we had zero game plan whatsoever.

• 30:35Bunnie XO?

  Right. You knew what you wanted to do, just not how to do it.

• 30:37Speaker 03

  Yes. And I had the songs I 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 Liddell produced it. Eric Massey was the engineer and, and they just, I've enjoyed working with them so much. I was just with them. I was just in the studio with them this morning and, uh,

• 31:03Speaker 03

  I don't know. It, 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, 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.

• 31:21Bunnie XO?

  I can't wait to hear it. When does it drop?

• 31:24Speaker 03

  June 27.

• 31:25Bunnie XO?

  June 27. I'm excited.

• 31:27Speaker 03

  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?

• 31:35Bunnie XO?

  Yep.

• 31:35Speaker 03

  April, May, and most of June. So.

• 31:37Bunnie XO?

  Do you have any singles coming off the record before it drops?

• 31:40Speaker 03

  We have a single on the radar right now. What Kind of Man. Um, and then, uh, I don't know. I've, I've 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, and think for a split second, they're going to go, you know, what the hell did he do? And then I think they're going to get it.

• 32:00Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 32:04Speaker 03

  It just truly like, I've always been trying to be a country singer. It's like, I want to be this. I want to be that. I want, you know, I want to, you know, and, and I finally was just like, fuck it. I'm just going to go do whatever it is that I am. We're gonna find out what it is on this record and we found out.

• 32:22Bunnie XO?

  I can't wait.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  But I have no idea what it is still. But I know what it sounds like now.

• 32:26Bunnie XO?

  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?

• 32:33Speaker 03

  I don't think either.

• 32:34Bunnie XO?

  Either?

• 32:34Speaker 03

  Which is really what kind of, kind of screws me up so much is because like I need, I like, I have to have like a reason for everything like. I, I, I have to have some sort of answer and I, it's like the one, the biggest thing in my life and 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 know who you would, I have no idea.

• 32:54Bunnie XO?

  I feel like country is so different now too, though. Like, you know, when I was growing up, it was like Dwight Yoakam, the Judds and like, you know, it was, you know,

• 33:00Speaker 03

  Time.

• 33:00Bunnie XO?

  Ronnie Millsap and like, you know, Trisha Yearwood.

• 33:03Speaker 03

  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.

• 33:14Bunnie XO?

  Hmm.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  And like, I think people took it as like, I was gonna quit playing music, but.

• 33:18Bunnie XO?

  No.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  No, I just, I just don't think.

• 33:21Bunnie XO?

  I don't think country is country right now. Country, okay, let me, 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.

• 33:31Speaker 03

  What it was when I wanted to be a country singer.

• 33:33Bunnie XO?

  Exactly. It's way different. And like Ed Sheeran just did an interview where he said he's coming into 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.

• 33:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. And just, I, I just don't think you can worry about it. Like I think, you know, and that's like the, what, what 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.

• 34:04Bunnie XO?

  Right. Which is great. You don't want to sound like somebody else.

• 34:07Speaker 03

  Correct. Yeah. And I, and I think that's, you know, it's like, that's, that's a massive blessing, but it's like, I just got to a point where I was like, I just gotta go sing the songs that I write.

• 34:18Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  And record them.

• 34:19Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  And quit trying to, you know, be something that may not be a thing anymore. Maybe you just never were like, I'm like, you know, you can be, 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.

• 34:37Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 34:38Speaker 03

  You know, if they don't want to call it country music, that's fine. It's not, 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 sang in real time. There's scratch vocals on this record, some of them. Um, so I don't know. I just.

• 34:56Bunnie XO?

  I feel like country is such a huge genre now that there's.

• 34:59Speaker 03

  It's just not near as narrow as it used to be. You know, it's just kind of, it's more of like a club in a way.

• 35:05Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, it's like the cool kids' club right now. Everybody wants to be a country singer.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  And the criteria is not incredibly specific.

• 35:12Bunnie XO?

  Right.

• 35:13Speaker 03

  So.

• 35:13Bunnie XO?

  I mean, we got Beyonce doing country albums, you know?

• 35:16Speaker 03

  And I'm saying, and I'm like, you know, I'm.

• 35:19Bunnie XO?

  Post Malone is country now, you know, so.

• 35:22Speaker 03

  And then I don't feel like I sound like any of that. And I don't sound like any of what country music used to be. So I'm like.

• 35:29Bunnie XO?

  Where am I?

• 35:30Speaker 03

  What am I supposed to do, you know?

• 35:32Bunnie XO?

  Well, you know, the fans will tell you when the album drops. Yeah, you know, the fans will tell you whenever the album drops. So let's talk at, 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 wifey met?

• 35:55Speaker 03

  Uh, we did sometime around then. It was, uh, um, I want to say it was 2019. Um, cause I think we, we broke up and she broke up with me at the end of 2020 and we broke up for like four months and then we got back together and got engaged right away.

• 36:10Bunnie XO?

  Why did she break up with you?

• 36:11Speaker 03

  I don't really remember and she doesn't either. Um, I just remember she had like gotten, you know, upset about something. Somebody had told her something and it was a hundred percent not true. And I was just like, I mean, that's, it's not true. So do what you gotta 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 like two months later, three months later.

• 36:34Bunnie XO?

  When you know, you know.

• 36:35Speaker 03

  She's, she's one of, one of one, no question.

• 36:39Bunnie XO?

  Let's talk about her because I really love the story that, um, I've heard you tell is that, um, you loved her name and a friend introduced you. Like, can we talk about that?

• 36:48Speaker 03

  It is a true story. I was, uh, it's my buddy Gus West, good cowboy from West Texas.

• 36:54Speaker 03

  And I was playing this little, uh, 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 and he was like, man, you gotta meet this girl, Hallie Ray Light. I went to Oklahoma State with her. He went there for like a semester, I think.

• 37:07Bunnie XO?

  What a perfect name, though. Cause she is like such a ray of light, too.

• 37:10Speaker 03

  And I said, I was like, that name's gotta go on a song. So like, I kinda 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, 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, kinda in the Texas red dirt scene. And, um, she came out to the show. I think she was there like 10 minutes and she was on the bus and, you know, she didn't like the way I was behaving, so she left. And, uh,

• 37:42Bunnie XO?

  We love that. A woman who doesn't put up with your shit. We love that.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  But I, I immediately started like, really kinda getting my shit together. And I really started, you know, just, I would just send like dumb messages to her. 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, let me know. And, uh, I think she had a boyfriend at the time or something.

• 38:02Bunnie XO?

  Smooth, smooth.

• 38:03Speaker 03

  And, yeah, so, at the time, it was money. And, uh, she probably thought I was an idiot. Um, but it just, you know, it was like probably nine months, 10 months later, um, 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. We like went to dinner in like the steakhouse in the casino that I was playing. And, um, I 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.

• 38:29Bunnie XO?

  Did you ever end up writing the song?

• 38:31Speaker 03

  I did. I put, I, I recorded on Gold Chain Cowboy. It's on the first record I put out on Universal. Um, but I kind of wrote the, 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. Um, and, uh, but I never really said goodbye.

• 38:50Bunnie XO?

  Uh, that's kinda like you were manifesting her.

• 38:53Speaker 03

  A little bit. And, and now I look back, I'm like, man, that kinda sounds pretty weird now that I think about it.

• 38:57Bunnie XO?

  No, I think all girls love stuff like that. You could write a girl a song and an album and, and just be up.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  I don't think she wanted to like date a singer. I think she was probably just, you know, she's like, that's trouble. Um, but I really like, I cleaned it up a lot once, once, uh, her and I met and really got to know each other, so.

• 39:12Bunnie XO?

  I feel like a good woman always puts a, a great man on the right track.

• 39:16Speaker 03

  Yes, she is. She's a good one.

• 39:19Bunnie XO?

  She's beautiful.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  As good as God makes them.

• 39:20Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  Wonderful. The most pleasant, easy person I've ever met in my life, and I could not be more of the opposite.

• 39:32Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  God bless her.

• 39:34Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, I love that. I love love. You seem like a hopeless romantic at heart, too, so.

• 39:39Speaker 03

  You know what? I don't know. Maybe a little bit, but it's, uh, it's kind of funny. Like, you know, her and I are, she's, she's me forever, you know? Um, but I'm still trying to write, I'm always trying to write the sad, terrible, heartbreak songs about it all going terribly wrong.

• 39:56Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 39:57Speaker 03

  So.

• 39:57Bunnie XO?

  It's my husband, too. He's always sad about something.

• 39:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:00Bunnie XO?

  I'm like, what is going on? But you're like the most jovial man in the world.

• 40:03Speaker 03

  A lot of it's the nostalgia stuff like that. 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. So.

• 40:10Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:11Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, she's, for a while, she was like, can you just write a song about it going right?

• 40:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  About, about the love ending well.

• 40:17Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:17Speaker 03

  Which there's, there's a couple on this new record that kind of do that.

• 40:21Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:22Speaker 03

  Sort of.

• 40:23Bunnie XO?

  Talk to me about being a dad now.

• 40:26Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 40:27Bunnie XO?

  What was that like, just on that whole journey with you guys?

• 40:31Speaker 03

  It's just the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. It really is. And he's, he just turned eight months old.

• 40:36Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 40:37Speaker 03

  And, uh, I don't know, it's just, I'm like, yeah, I guess I always want you. 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 gonna go, you know, be a songwriter and a touring artist for the rest of my life, not getting married and had kids. And then Hallie obviously changed that. And, uh, and so it, a certain time came where I kind of started realizing, 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, like this stuff's about to start. And then it does start, like being married and having a kid. And it's like,

• 41:16Speaker 03

  I mean, you're in the middle of the day and you're like, damn, it's, it's not coming. It's here. Like, it has arrived. He is here and he is not going anywhere. Um, but it's just been.

• 41:28Speaker 03

  I don't know. It's uh, it's like the cliche thing. Everybody says it's, you know, it's like the best thing in the world is having kids and, and your kid and like I, I understand that now. It's uh, 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.

• 41:49Bunnie XO?

  Damn, he came out swinging.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  He came out swinging and just hollering.

• 41:52Bunnie XO?

  Cowboy.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  I mean, it's, it's the wildest thing. I look at him. I'm like, I am your dad. You are my son, you know, like, and my dad is my best friend in the world. I mean, he is the man. Uh, me and him are incredibly close.

• 42:12Speaker 03

  And so I'm like, it's just, it's wild. Like now it's my time to be in that role, you know? So it's, it's just been, I don't know. My brain still doesn't really know what to think of it all.

• 42:24Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. I see the smile on your face though.

• 42:26Speaker 03

  It's crazy. It's just, it's just fucking wild to have a kid and be like, I mean, me and her sitting there was like, we're his parents.

• 42:37Speaker 03

  We were, and then this broke my heart one day. It was like a couple of months after he was born and we were, we were doing like change his diaper or something. And she's like, isn't it, she just said it so nonchalant. She's like, isn't it weird to think we won't be here for his whole life? And I was just like, holy shit. Like, I mean, like even saying that right now, I'm like, that just shatters my, it just, I'm like, no, 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, 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.

• 43:20Bunnie XO?

  I don't feel like any men are good during the infant stages, but when they start talking and like able to communicate.

• 43:25Speaker 03

  And he said dad, dad 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 was just big, then we got this big ass blue eyes. He was 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.

• 43:44Bunnie XO?

  You're just in love with him.

• 43:46Speaker 03

  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 a, and then he will have impeccable manners and there will be no exception made to that rule. He will have perfect, he may not be very smart if he's like me, but he will have impeccable manners.

• 44:03Bunnie XO?

  Oh, I think he's gonna be amazing with you and, and Holly being, you know, his parents. How did you guys come up with his name Major?

• 44:10Speaker 03

  I was watching, uh, so my middle name's Yancy. That's my mom's side of the family and, uh, um, I really wanted to name him Yancy Tyler after my middle name and, and my little brother. And, uh,

• 44:25Bunnie XO?

  I love your loyalty to your family.

• 44:27Speaker 03

  Well, I just, they're, 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 Yancy Tyler and, uh, and so I was trying to, for like a year, I was trying to talk Hallie into, and he would go by Yancy 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. Um, and, uh, but she never really a hundred percent got 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, that was done. We were like, for like months, we went on like other names and I, I knew the whole time. I was like, I know she's not going to get off of Major.

• 45:11Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 45:12Speaker 03

  And she, she met me in the middle and now it's Major Yancy Tyler McCollum.

• 45:15Bunnie XO?

  I love that. I saw a clip of you guys, um, whenever you pulled him up for the rodeo and you could just see the love that you have for her.

• 45:23Speaker 03

  That was cool.

• 45:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, that was really awesome.

• 45:25Speaker 03

  I told him, I was like that, or told Hallie, I was like, that photo one day is gonna be, like it just, I don't know. My boy onstage with me, 70,000 people.

• 45:34Bunnie XO?

  His first rodeo.

• 45:35Speaker 03

  Houston, Texas, his first rodeo. He has no idea what anything is or what's happening, where he is or who he is, 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?

• 45:51Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  Just a whole nother side. Yes, a whole nother side of your personality you didn't know existed. It's just evoked immediately.

• 45:58Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 46:17Speaker 03

  We always had a good time.

• 46:18Bunnie XO?

  Co is great. I frickin' love Co. We toured with Co too and I mean, he's.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  He's pure.

• 46:24Bunnie XO?

  He is so, I think what people don't realize about Co is that he really genuinely beneath the wild facade, he's just a sweet man.

• 46:31Speaker 03

  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 of 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 one, he is, I would take a bullet for him. I, I've leaned on him in some good times and, or in some really bad times and he's just, I don't know, man, he's, he's as good as East Texas has ever made him.

• 46:58Bunnie XO?

  You got, you guys kind of came up together too, didn't you?

• 47:00Speaker 03

  We did. We, he actually messaged me on Twitter in probably 2015, 14, 15 and, and then I'd met this guy at that songwriter competition that I ended up winning and he was really good buddies with Co and he was, you know, he kind of started driving my van, became my first tour manager and he's one of my best friends in the entire world and, and I remember him being like, hey, you gotta check out my buddy Co Wetzel and I was like, you know, people say that all the time, nobody's ever good, you know? And, and we ended up going to, went fishing together one time and, and he went to sleep, me and Co stayed up in the living room just playing guitars and he started singing and I was just like,

• 47:41Bunnie XO?

  He's special.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was like, oh wow, you know, he was, he, I just, 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, and they didn't know what they were doing. I was, I was already kind of selling some tickets and playing some shows and had a band in a van and stuff and, and so when it was Co Wetzel and the convicts, 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, touring and all this 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

• 48:24Speaker 03

  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

• 48:42Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, no, I get it.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  It was not what it is now.

• 48:44Bunnie XO?

  No, Jay and I, yeah, we had to come up from the 18 passenger van.

• 48:48Speaker 03

  It's just, it just, and, and we, he's, he says the same thing. Like, he wouldn't have it any other way. Like, we're really grateful to have gotten to do it that way.

• 48:54Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 49:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, and then people are gonna 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. Like, I always just kind of wanted to just keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. And you know, to get one day and, you know, you're set and you're taken care of and you've built a great career. It just always seemed like a, a nice

• 49:35Bunnie XO?

  Slow and steady wins the race.

• 49:37Speaker 03

  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. But he's, that boy's one in a million.

• 49:52Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, he is one in 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?

• 50:04Speaker 03

  Oh, golly, there was.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  There was one night, I actually wasn't technically a part of this. 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 gonna tell this, what I'm going to. And I won't name who 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 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's a girl with a, what's the firework that she, a bottle rocket?

• 50:45Bunnie XO?

  Yes.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  In her, in her butt. And, and, and like the girl, like the other girls that were there, like one of the girls has the lighter, she's trying to light it. All the guys are like trying other lighters, trying to light it. And she's like letting them shoot the bottle rocket out of there. And, and that's not the craziest, that's just like one that I think back on often. I'm like, like I wonder, I wonder where she is now, you know? Where did she go the next day and where is she now?

• 51:13Bunnie XO?

  Does she ever tell that story on her own?

• 51:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I wonder, I wonder that same thing. But the, the, the bottle rocket never lit. I was just standing there like on the bottom step of the bus, just like, what is going on?

• 51:24Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 51:30Speaker 03

  And just, you know, that's, it's, golly, that's probably the, 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 it was just so wild and free and like we, 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 a few years later. And it just, we had no responsibilities, you know, we plugged our own guitars in, you know, had like a little DeWalt tool bag with like a tuner and a cable. And like a DI, 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

• 52:15Speaker 03

  person bars out a night.

• 52:17Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 52:17Speaker 03

  And Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, like, it was just, it was so, so, so fun.

• 52:23Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. Do you ever miss those days?

• 52:25Speaker 03

  All the time.

• 52:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, we do too.

• 52:27Speaker 03

  I don't think I'd want to go back to them.

• 52:31Speaker 03

  But I do, I just think about them all the time and how different it looks nowadays. And I, but I I enjoy feeling really good all the time on the road. Like, I never felt good back then on the road. Like, I was, you were always just 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 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

• 53:14Speaker 03

  to where they feel, they're happy that they came and heard the songs that they love live, you know? But back then, we just, we weren't thinking about it. So, we were just ripping it.

• 53:21Bunnie XO?

  Have you ever forgotten a song on stage?

• 53:22Speaker 03

  All the time I did at the rodeo.

• 53:25Bunnie XO?

  Were you faded? But you were sober, right?

• 53:27Speaker 03

  Hundred percent sober. And they have these screens around the arena, around the stadium that,

• 53:34Speaker 03

  you know, it's like saying, it's the lyrics to the song are like being typed. 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, and, but they're delayed. They're really delayed. And so I just, you know, that, that stage is rotating and like just came time for the second verse of Why Indiana? And I was reading. I just so happen 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.

• 54:02Bunnie XO?

  Do you just make up words in that moment?

• 54:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, you just freestyle until you get back to the chorus and then hope you remember those words. 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's just like, wow.

• 54:16Bunnie XO?

  Cause they know you messed up.

• 54:17Speaker 03

  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, it's pretty funny. But yeah, I do that all the time.

• 54:24Bunnie XO?

  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.

• 54:33Speaker 03

  They probably didn't like that at rodeo.

• 54:35Bunnie XO?

  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, what's up motherfuckers? And you could 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.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  Surely they were cool about it.

• 54:52Bunnie XO?

  Oh, they were so cool about it. Cause I did a TikTok about it and I was like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. You know, I was like, please.

• 54:57Speaker 03

  And that's really good for their marketing too.

• 54:59Bunnie XO?

  Yeah, yeah. No, it was huge. It went viral.

• 55:00Speaker 03

  That's very good for the brand of rodeo Houston. It's like, you know, that's good for business. But they are serious about that.

• 55:07Bunnie XO?

  No, they're super serious. But I was like, yeah, you could have told me that before I got on there. Can we talk about your gold chains? Cause I don't see your gold chains on right now.

• 55:14Speaker 03

  I've only got one. My, uh, my diamond chain caught on my towel last week. I was getting a shower in the morning and it just ripped in half.

• 55:21Bunnie XO?

  What is it with the chains? Cause I heard that you said you would rather forget your guitar than forget your chains?

• 55:26Speaker 03

  No, I don't know if I ever said that. It probably, if I did, it probably sounded a lot cooler at the time. It certainly doesn't now, hearing it out loud. Um, but no, I, uh, I don't know. You know, I think as much as I was into this country music and Americana songwriters and as a kid, like I was really also very in tune with like, uh, kind of the, I guess back then it really wasn't the underground Houston rap scene. It was a pretty big deal back 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 Lil Kiki and Birdman. Like just so, just, you know, and a lot of people don't know about those, 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 them when I'm driving.

• 56:11Speaker 03

  Um, you know, we're always, you know, I just, that was like, um, I always thought those guys were really cool too. And that's another, well, somebody earlier, like I'd never known like what I really was or what I was supposed to be. Cause like, I'd see John Mayer and I'd be like, that's incredible. I want to be like him. 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 the Houston rap, 50 Cent. And I'd be like, he's badass. I want to be like him.

• 56:35Bunnie XO?

  Would you ever collab with a rapper if they had to?

• 56:37Speaker 03

  I just don't think you would believe it if I did it. I don't think it would be believable.

• 56:40Bunnie XO?

  I think it would. I mean, Morgan has pulled it off. My dad's pulled it, or my dad, my husband has pulled it. I was gonna say daddy, but I always call him daddy.

• 56:49Speaker 03

  That's good.

• 56:50Bunnie XO?

  Uh, Jay has pulled it off. I think that you would totally be able to pull it off.

• 56:54Speaker 03

  Matt, you know, I can't even believe I'm gonna admit this, but, um.

• 56:58Bunnie XO?

  You have such a, like a, a college fan base too. They would eat that up.

• 57:02Speaker 03

  Maybe, I don't know. I think people really, really expect the, the level of the songwriting from me to be very high. And when it's not, I, I can hear them. Um, and, and, and I recognize that. And I want the same thing. Like, I really want to write songs that can stand the test of time and be, you know, like, do something for somebody. 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.

• 57:30Bunnie XO?

  Ah, have you ever rapped?

• 57:33Speaker 03

  Uh, I freestyle every single day of my life.

• 57:35Bunnie XO?

  No way.

• 57:36Speaker 03

  That's how I write songs.

• 57:37Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 57:38Speaker 03

  Is when I'm playing guitar, I'm just freestyling. Cause I can, I mean, I can freestyling without missing a rhyme for as long as you want to go.

• 57:45Bunnie XO?

  Wow.

• 57:46Speaker 03

  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. Like Lori McKenna, what a great songwriter who 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 ascribing things and just, you know, and I can do it for a long time without ever missing a rhyme.

• 58:11Bunnie XO?

  Could you do a freestyle for us right now?

• 58:13Speaker 03

  Absolutely not. Hell no.

• 58:16Speaker 03

  No.

• 58:17Bunnie XO?

  I listen, I had to try, I had to try.

• 58:19Speaker 03

  It doesn't look cool and it doesn't sound cool. But I can do it for a long time and, and, and, you know, fall off the beat and fall back on the beat and, and kind of slide around the beat and just melodies and hooks and, and I just, I do it all the time. Like if I'm, 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, like I'll freestyle for like a minute and a half.

• 58:46Bunnie XO?

  I love that.

• 58:47Speaker 03

  And they'll just call me 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.

• 58:52Bunnie XO?

  It's like a hidden talent, Parker.

• 58:54Speaker 03

  But it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not, uh, very cool, you know? It, I am able to like do the, you know, freestyle and rhyme a lot for a 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.

• 59:13Bunnie XO?

  Well, okay. So what if you collabed with a rapper, but you sang a hook and let them rap?

• 59:17Speaker 03

  I would love to do that.

• 59:18Bunnie XO?

  Would you do that?

• 59:19Speaker 03

  I'd love to do that.

• 59:19Bunnie XO?

  Who would you want to do that with? Let's manifest it right now.

• 59:21Speaker 03

  I don't know. I think, um, it'd be really cool to do it with Jack Harlow.

• 59:26Bunnie XO?

  Yeah.

• 59:27Speaker 03

  I would really, um, 50 Cent, obviously. I know, you know, he's just, when I was a kid, he was the man.

• 59:36Bunnie XO?

  He's like the soundtrack to our lives.

• 59:38Speaker 03

  Would love to do it with Lil Wayne. Um, you know, there's, uh, yeah, but I just, you know, it would, I would be super honest. I'd be like, hey, yo, this sucks. Um, and if, if we could get it right, yeah, it'd be cool. But, you know, it's just, uh, you don't want to see me do that. I don't think.

• 59:56Bunnie XO?

  I'm looking forward to it. I want to see it.

• 59:58Speaker 03

  I don't think it would look very cool.

• 59:59Bunnie XO?

  You guys want to see it, don't you? Yeah.

• 1:00:01Speaker 03

  I don't think it would look very cool.

• 1:00:02Bunnie XO?

  I think it would be awesome. Parker, thank you so much for coming by.

• 1:00:05Speaker 03

  No, thank you.

• 1:00:06Bunnie XO?

  I am so happy to have you sit here on the couch and please come by anytime you want. Next time you come by, bring, bring the hot wifey too.

• 1:00:11Speaker 03

  I absolutely will. Shit, everybody meets her and they like her a lot more. So.

• 1:00:14Bunnie XO?

  Yeah. And I, I think you guys are a beautiful couple.

• 1:00:17Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 1:00:17Bunnie XO?

  You guys both compliment each other. So.

• 1:00:19Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 1:00:19Bunnie XO?

  Thank you so much for coming.

• 1:00:20Speaker 03

  Yes, ma'am. Thanks, Bonnie.

• 1:00:21Bunnie XO?

  Thank you. Thank you guys for listening to another episode of Done Blonde. I'll see you guys next week. Bye.