The award-winning country singer plays Grand Rapids’ Acrisure Amphitheater this weekend. In an interview, writer L. Kent Wolgamott digs into what makes McCollum tick.
Parker McCollum: Aiming to bring the energy to Grand Rapids on Saturday. (Photo/Tim O’Keef)
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In June 2025, Parker McCollum released his fifth album, a self-titled effort that’s raw and real, leaning into personal songs and a straightforward delivery that moves him into the realm of his songwriting heroes.
“Parker McCollum” is also, in his opinion and that of many critics, the best record he’s made in a fast-moving career that’s taken him further from country pop and bro-country into the realm of his songwriting heroes.
“It’s so much better than anything I’ve ever done by 100 miles,” McCollum said in a recent interview. “I’d send it to Steve Earle tomorrow. I haven’t always felt that way about my records. I’m very, very hard on myself. I don’t think anything I’ve ever done is very good.
“Every record I’ve ever cut I’ve said, ‘Man, I’m better than that. I can do better than that.’ This is the first album I’ve ever recorded that I said, ‘Man, this is probably as good as I’m ever going to get.’”
Proud of His Latest Record: McCollum (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The 14 songs on “Parker McCollum” (and 18 on a deluxe version that followed in March) work together to merge singer-songwriter Americana with traditional Texas country and just enough Nashville pop. (Scroll down to watch the music video for “What Kinda Man.”)
McCollum, 33, plays Grand Rapids’ new Acrisure Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. Saturday (June 6), part of his 2026 tour that also features special guests Max McNown and Kassi Ashton. Tickets, $34.15-$115.0, are available online here.
McCollum, who grew up in Conroe, Texas (near Houston), comes by his sound naturally. While growing up, he soaked in classic country, got introduced to “red dirt” country and then songwriters such as Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt.
He started writing songs as a teenager, working his way, in a sense, through his musical heroes.
“I just went through so many phases when I was much younger,” McCollum said from his Southeast Texas home. “You know, I wanted to be Steve Earle. I wanted to be Shooter Jennings. I wanted to be Todd Snider. I wanted to be James McMurtry. I wanted to be Robert Earl Keen. I wanted to be John Mayer. I wanted to be George Strait. I wanted to be Randy Travis. I wanted to be Chris Knight, on and on and on.”
Eventually, McCollum realized how those artists achieved their own singularity.
“I just was like, I’m one of them. I know I am,” he said. “And it was probably my mid-20s, and I said, ‘Man, I think I’m better off just being me.’ And that was about the time that it all took off, and I’ve never looked back.”
WINNING ‘ALBUM OF THE YEAR’ HONORS
McCollum arrived on the national scene with his 2015 debut album, “The Limestone Kid,” and had a Texas regional radio hit with “Meet You in The Middle,” which helped him build a strong following in the Lone Star State.
He landed his deal with Universal Music Group Nashville in 2019, and in 2020, released “Hollywood Gold,” which became the best-selling debut country EP of that year.
His 2021 major-label debut album, “Gold Chain Cowboy,” hit No. 1 on the country charts with his platinum single “Pretty Heart” and he won the ACM Best New Male Artist award for 2021. He took his second ACM Award in 2024 for Visual Media of the Year for the music video for “Burn It Down,” a song from his fourth album, “Never Enough.” Now the self-titled album has given him the 2026 award for Album of the Year.
Despite all of the success, McCallum wasn’t satisfied with either “Gold Chain Cowboy” or 2023’s “Never Enough.”
Bringing the Energy on Stage: McCollum in Grand Rapids in 2021. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
“I got a little too comfortable on the last two albums and was touring just non stop, relentlessly,” he said. “I was about halfway through last year I just, and I said, I gotta go get uncomfortable again and I gotta go into a studio with a band and me and my guitar and just record songs.’
“I thought ‘I really need to get focused, I really want to be intentional with this next record.’ That’s what we did. And, man, it’s pretty wild.”
McCollum has moved up from honky-tonks and opening slots to headlining theaters, amphitheaters and arenas, transitions that have gone smoothly for him.
“It’s the same,’ he said. “No matter whether you’re playing in the bars or you’re playing a stadium, you’ve got to go out there and sing the songs. I always say … if there’s 1,000 people or 20,000 people, if they’re rocking and that crowd’s into it, and I’m singing and feeling good and the energy’s there, man, it doesn’t matter how many people are out there.”
And after those shows, McCollum is certain of one thing: He’ll be boogying back to Texas as quickly as possible.
“That’s why I moved to Texas and bought an airplane,” he said. “I said ‘To hell with this. I gotta get home. I gotta be a dad, too, but still I gotta go out and rock every night. Luckily, it’s going pretty well right now.” – By L. Kent Wolgamott, Last Word Features
VIDEO: Parker McCollum, “What Kinda Man”
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