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Parker McCollum Reflects Back On Partying A Little Too Hard Early In His Career: “Got Out Of Hand There For A Little While”
Opening up about his vices.
Today, it seems like there is a rise in country stars going sober or taking a deeper look at their relationship with alcohol and other substances. Some singers like Ashley McBryde and Cody Jinks have gone completely sober, sharing their milestones with their fans and followers, and others are “sober curious,” taking breaks from drinking and substances or have cut back on what they partake in before hitting the stage.
Parker McCollum is now sitting down to talk about his vices and what he favors. On the most recent episode of the Dumb Blonde podcast with Bunnie Xo, he opens up that alcohol has never been his vice. He follows in the footsteps of Willie Nelson and favors herbal medicine over spirits and beer.
Bunnie Xo opened up the conversation by saying that Parker McCollum is “one of us” for sharing that he likes weed and has also taken DMT. After Bunnie asked if he’s ever smoked with her husband, Jelly Roll, McCollum then opens up that he feels like he’s written some of his best songs while being stoned.
“I never really drank. Alcohol was never really my thing. There was times, I think, when I was young and going pretty hard on the road and stuff just ’cause that was kind just what you do. But I never really liked alcohol. You know, I’d sit there and 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. W**d has always been the lesser of the two.
Some of the best songs that I’ve ever written in my career, I wrote just after you know, just after taking a little hit, and just kind of letting it go. It sparked…some of the greatest records of all time are written stoned.”
Anyone else thinking about the chorus of “High Above Water” after hearing him say that? Or just me?
I think many other musicians who partake in herbal medicine would also agree. Artists like Jelly Roll, Marcus King, Billy Strings, and more are all advocates for using weed, and I am sure they would agree that you can sometimes feel the music and lyrics more deeply after taking a hit or two.
Bunnie Xo then asks McCollum about the time that he did DMT, wanting him to expand on his experience with that drug. McCollum shared that he took it when he was about 21, living in Austin, Texas.
“So this is crazy, I was living in Austin and I was living on the University of Texas’ campus, it’s what they call West Campus, but I never went to the University of Texas. But I was just living there and that’s where I wrote that record, ‘The Limestone Kid.'”
McCollum and one of his buddies met up with another kid they went to high school with at his co-op dorm. The young man who occupied the dorm room was making DMT in his room, and that’s where he took it.
McCollum realized how wild it was to speak out loud that a college kid who was a chemistry major was making DMT in his room, but that didn’t stop him from partaking. McCollum said that he hallucinated, of sorts. He shared that he took the drug while sitting on the fire escape, but when he looked out onto West Campus, the landscape was transformed into a river in the Texas Hill Country that he went to as a child.
“And it didn’t last very long. It was pretty quick. It felt longer than it really was. I think it was maybe less than a couple of minutes. But it wasn’t anything like tripping out, like going crazy. And then afterwards, I was extremely calm, kind of rejuvenated, and felt crazy clarity mentally.”
Bunnie Xo then asks if he would do it again, to which McCollum says he would. While sharing crazy stories is always fun, McCollum admits that he was going “pretty hard” for some time and needed to scale back on his party lifestyle.
“I went hard for a long time. It kind of got out of hand there for a little while at one point, and I didn’t like go to rehab or do anything crazy. I just kind of… I didn’t want to disappoint my family. My career was going really well, and I was like, ‘Man, I am not the kind that can hold all of this together, while living like this.’ Like I got to get my sh*t together.”
That realization is something that many other musicians have felt as well. Marcus King recalled the comment that led him to stop drinking, noting that he never read comments, but seeing one comment from a fan saying his drinking was going to “f*** up his whole career” because he was too drunk to play was a sobering moment, in more ways than one.
McCollum’s similar realization that he didn’t want to give up everything he had worked for is not only part of growing up and growing out of that party phase, but it’s also the turning point in making music for fun to realizing this is your livelihood and it needs to be protected.
Now that McCollum is a dad, I am sure he’s glad he came to that realization long before welcoming a new life into the world.
The podcast episode comes out later this week, but check out this clip before you go.
@xomgitsbunnie Parker McCollum is on the couch this week! You’re welcome ladies #dbpodcast #parkermccollum ♬ original sound – Bunnie Xo
Parker McCollum is gearing up to release his fifth studio album, PARKER MCCOLLUM, on June 27th. After the record’s release, Parker is hitting the road on an extensive tour starting in Richmond, Virginia, this June and running through October, ending in Bismarck, North Dakota. You can check out all of the tour dates below or at Vivid Seats, which gives you free tickets just for going to concerts.
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A post shared by Parker McCollum (@parkermccollum)
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