Photo: NBC
Parker McCollum shared how his older brother inspired him to start writing music.
The award-winning country star caught up with Kelly Clarkson on The Kelly Clarkson show, and spoke about some of his earliest songwriting memories. McCollum’s brother, who is six years older, “had started playing guitar and writing songs super young,” around age 15 or 16, he reflected. McCollum know he wanted to be like his brother.
“He could have been ice skating and I would’ve probably fallen in love with ice skating. I just wanted to do whatever big brother was doing,” McCollum told Clarkson. He said his brother pointed him to songwriters like Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark and Robert Earl Keen. McCollum said he identified with their songs as young as 9 or 10 years old, when most kids at school didn’t know them. “My brother was really hard on me, like, ‘Hey, these are the guys we write songs like. These are the guys that we look up to. These are the guys we study.’ So, had he not, for whatever reason, fallen in love with those guys at such a young age. I don’t really know what I wanted or what I would’ve ended up doing.”
McCollum also spoke about the process of making his latest studio album, his “sexy” single, and playing golf with George Strait before opening a sold-out stadium for the country legend, and more. Watch the full interview here: