Parker video interview

Beasley Digital

4/17/2025

Transcript

00:00We are backstage once again here at the 99.5 QIK Guitar Pole.

00:03J.R., Lana, Kevin here, and Texas is in the house officially.

00:08Parker McCall, everybody.

00:09Yes, sir.

00:10Hey.

00:11That's the best applause I've ever gotten right there.

00:13You should hear them out there.

00:14They're even better.

00:15Well, check it out, man.

00:16We are playing our QIK secret word.

00:19You have a word that you have drawn out of the cup.

00:21We have no idea what it is, but you've written it down.

00:23Show the audience.

00:24Don't show us.

00:26Can we see it?

00:28Perfect.

00:28All right, now you've got to work that into the interview.

00:30We have no idea what it is.

00:32Let's do this.

00:33All right, man.

00:33Well, listen, we are so glad you are here tonight, obviously,

00:36and I don't think I've seen you acoustically, so that's got to be fun.

00:40Yeah, some days it's really good.

00:41Some days it's not very good, so hopefully tonight it'll be really good, you know?

00:46Well, you started that way, man.

00:47You told us a story about one of your first gigs taking you like six months

00:50to get an $80 check or something like that.

00:52Yeah, so I played in Giddings, Texas at like a hay festival on a flatbed trailer.

00:57I drove myself, my mom let me drive myself, and then she showed up

01:01because she was scared that I was driving by myself.

01:03I was 16, and I think I made $75, and I got the check eight months later.

01:10Wow.

01:11And it was like wrinkled, and it looked like it had been all around the country in a UPS truck.

01:15What is the first song that you ever sang on stage?

01:18Do you remember?

01:19The first song, I think, was Wagon Wheel when Old Crow Medicine Show had put it out,

01:24like way before Darius ever cut it.

01:26At least that was the only song I knew, so I'd play it like two or three times at open mic nights.

01:30So Darius copied you is what you're saying?

01:31Yeah, yeah, he totally stole my idea.

01:34I mean, you already had Hootie.

01:35You got to undercut you like that?

01:36I know.

01:36It's ridiculous.

01:37All right, so being from Texas, obviously a lot of Texas artists out there.

01:40Is there one that you really kind of looked up to?

01:44George Strait.

01:45Yeah, I was going to say it's coming.

01:45Just George Strait, huh?

01:47Not just, but nobody more than him for sure.

01:50He's a king, baby.

01:51Oh, well, no doubt about that.

01:52Absolutely.

01:53I'm with you there.

01:53For the few years that I lived in Texas, interviewing artists like this that are from Texas,

01:58you're not going to get a different answer.

02:00It's just always going to be George.

02:01Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

02:02Some people like, I mean, I grew up listening to a lot of songwriters.

02:06Like small Texas songwriters, but in my house, George is the king.

02:11Well, that's what's cool, too, because a lot of people, and we've talked about this before,

02:14like the Cody Johnsons and now Parker McCollum's that are getting this national attention,

02:18and they've been doing it for a while in Texas.

02:20So it's really cool to see you now on a national stage and being outside of Texas,

02:24people getting a glimpse of that Texas country scene, which is such a cool scene.

02:28Being on the national stage is good.

02:29Now we're going to Minneapolis, Tampa, and San Antonio in like a 72-hour period.

02:33So it's good stuff.

02:34So what's the first thing that you purchased when you got your first big check?

02:38Yeah, what did you get with 75 bucks?

02:39Tell us about it.

02:40Yeah.

02:40No, really the first big thing I bought, I'd always wanted a King Ranch F-250,

02:45and so I bought one probably three or four years ago, and I drove it home,

02:50and I left both sets of keys and the paperwork in it and went upstairs,

02:53and I was watching playoff baseball, and I fell asleep,

02:56and I woke up the next morning, and someone had stole it.

02:58True story.

02:59Yeah, I had that truck for like 24 hours.

03:01Oh, man.

03:02Wow.

03:02And I found it six weeks later on the day I got the insurance check for it

03:05and was in the identical new F-250 King Ranch and saw it at a stoplight.

03:11True story.

03:12No way.

03:12What?

03:13Go on.

03:14Dude, I left Cabela's the day I bought the truck.

03:17I went to Cabela's and bought all this deer hunting stuff and bought this big deer stand,

03:20and I see the truck parked at this gas station, and I'm sitting at the light.

03:23I had a bus call, and I'm like, okay, pink license plate frame, F-250 King Ranch.

03:29There's cardboard in the back.

03:30It's worth stopping and looking.

03:32So I pull in, and the identical truck, pull up next to it,

03:35I look inside, and all my stuff's in it, and it's locked.

03:38And my heart just sunk into my stomach.

03:40I called my dad.

03:40I'm like, he's like, what are you doing calling me?

03:42Call the police.

03:42I'm like, well, this is crazy.

03:44I don't know.

03:44Right.

03:44So, and then some guy walks up, and he knew all about me.

03:48He knew I'd been on tour with Randy Rogers the past few weeks all over the country.

03:52He knew all this.

03:53It ended up being the guy who stole the truck.

03:55Wow.

03:55Yeah.

03:56So they never caught him.

03:57Did he get any of my stuff back or anything?

03:57No.

03:58No.

03:58They towed the truck.

03:59I guess call it a total loss is what the insurance company called it.

04:03But I had to call the insurance company and be like,

04:06I literally got the check in the mail that morning,

04:08and I had to call them and be like, y'all are not going to believe this,

04:11but this is the truth.

04:12What a phone call.

04:13I just found the truck.

04:13And it was not 500 yards from where I lived.

04:17Wow.

04:17That's crazy.

04:18Six weeks later.

04:19That's pretty wild, man.

04:21Very cool, man.

04:22I have very bad luck with vehicles.

04:24Well, you made it here.

04:26However you got it.

04:26Made it here, yeah.

04:28Very cool, man.

04:28And you were telling us about a really cool show you were at last night in Minneapolis.

04:33Yeah, we flipped to see Stapleton.

04:34It was Caitlin Smith, Little Big Town, Stapleton, and George Strait at the Viking Stadium in Minneapolis.

04:40Wow.

04:41And we flew back last night and got home at 3 a.m.,

04:43and I was so hungover when I woke up this morning.

04:46I said, there's no way I'm going to Tampa.

04:47There's no way.

04:49And here we are.

04:50Hair of the dog, right?

04:51Hair of the dog.

04:52I think a lot of people wake up there like that, huh, Lana?

04:57I don't know what you're talking about.

04:58Well, you know, it's just good, though, that the Viking Stadium finally got a good show.

05:01You know what I'm saying?

05:01Because I know you're a big Vikings fan.

05:03Wow, JR.

05:04Well, I shouldn't say anything.

05:05They're winning, aren't they, right now or something?

05:06I think they are, yeah.

05:07All right, so I'm just messing with you.

05:09Hey, Parker, we're glad you were here.

05:10Did you get your word in?

05:11No, I did not.

05:12Oh, come on, Parker!

05:14No, I didn't.

05:15Is there anything else you want to add?

05:17Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of, I don't know if y'all like the way that I smell,

05:21but it's probably from the detergent that I use at home.

05:23Oh, yeah, I did notice that.

05:26Yeah, your shirt was kind of soft.

05:27Dude, I completely forgot about the word the second I set the board down.

05:30All good.

05:31Excellent job.

05:32Excellent job.

05:33Parker Call, I'm coming on the stage soon.

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