Parker McCollum Talks Songwriting
Parker McCollum dropped by Backstage Country to co-host with Elaina Smith for a whole week. McCollum didn’t hold back when asked about where his songs came from and his whole…
Parker McCollum dropped by Backstage Country to co-host with Elaina Smith for a whole week. McCollum didn’t hold back when asked about where his songs came from and his whole creative process. Sometimes it’s love, sometimes it’s loss, sometimes it’s life and everything in between (yes, even the chaos).
Parker McCollum's Hits
'Pretty Heart'
The first single from his debut studio album, Gold Chain Cowboy, McCollum shared the story behind “Pretty Heart.”
“This song was released as my first single after I signed my record deal that was gonna go to national radio. And like a month after it went to radio, COVID started, and the whole world shut down. So I watched it climb to the No. 1 spot and go double platinum, and we didn't play a show the entire time.”
He admitted the experience was quite different from what he'd imagined after all those years of dreaming about being signed on a major label and having a number-one song. The singer-songwriter added, “But I was the only new artist that had their song, their first single, go No. 1 that year. So, although it wasn't ideal, I was the only one that can have that story forever. It's that kind of silver lining and in a bright spot if you have the right perspective.” He chuckled, “But I don't know. I thought the song was terrible when I wrote it and ended up being massive for us.”
'To Be Loved By You'
While talking about “To Be Loved By You,” McCollum shared his unique creative process: “That's usually how I write songs. I'll just kind of ramble until something cool, kind of some word vomit that sounds cool, pops out. And most of the time I won't go back and change anything, just kind of however I sing the first verse or two and then the chorus.”
He admitted that his first version of the song is how it’ll usually remain forever. “This song, I actually had said out loud, ‘What does a man have to do to be loved by that girl?’ So I kind of started putting that in on this melody. I was sitting on the back of the bus and kind of wrote that first verse and chorus and ended up finishing it with my buddy Rhett Akins.”
'Handle On You'
Smith admitted that the line “I tell myself that I should quit, but I don't listen to drunks” from his song “Handle On You” has been one of her favorite lines of the past decade because it's clever and witty. Smith asked if it was him who came up with that line. McCollum said it was actually his co-writer, Monty Criswell: “I think he had spit it out even before we wrote the song. I can't really remember correctly, it's been so long, but I think he kind of had that line in his pocket before we started writing a song. And this is probably the only song in my entire career that I've written that started with a title. I never ever started the title, ever. And he had the title ‘Handle On You,’ and I was like, ‘Man, let's just see what that even means.’”
He continued, “So I started playing this melody, and we just kind of started singing some stuff over it. And then we got to that second verse, and he said that, I was like, ‘That's a terrific way.’ And it was so good, we used it twice. We decided to end the verse with it as well. But that line got so much love, and Monty's such a phenomenal songwriter.”
