“It’s going to be a short conversation.”That’s how Parker McCollum describes his relationship with fashion.
The country music star, who has charted four number-one singles and whose self-titled album has garnered some 300 million global streams, has become known for his classic Western style.
Super starched Cinch jeans, a tight T-shirt, ball cap and boots are the go-to wardrobe choices for the Texas native, and have been for years.
“It blows my mind how mainstream Western has become, because I feel like, back in the day, it was not cool,” he said. “I would wear my boots in high school, and people would be like, ‘What are you doing?’”
But with a mother who was a barrel racer and lots of time working at the family ranch, his propensity for Western wear was ingrained in him at a young age, and now that he tours around the country, it’s become the easy choice.
“I wear pretty much the same thing, just in a different color, all of the time,” he said. “I’m super indecisive, so I hate having a ton of choices. I don’t know how the girl singers do it with the hair and the makeup and the outfits. If we played at 9, I could wake up at 8:30 and be stage ready in 12 minutes: shower, jeans. That’s why I went to the T-shirt and ball cap so many years ago, because I had to find a way to make this as simple and easy as I possibly can every night.”
And those jeans are “starched as much as anybody can starch anything,” he said. He has several readied by a dry cleaner before he hits the road and is able to wear them for a week “as long as they stay clean,” he said.
And when he’s walking a red carpet, he’ll elevate this style with a cowboy hat and a sport coat. “It just seems a little more appropriate,” he said.
But don’t expect him to don any high-end designer outfits. “I’ve had stylists in the past, but I eventually stopped. I have enough clothes. What are they going to do if Parker McCollum wears the same jacket to this award show or another one? My God, I can’t imagine,” he said sarcastically.
Ditto for boots. After working with Lucchese for a couple of years, McCollum bowed out last fall.
“I’ve got enough boots to last me a lifetime,” he said. “We ended on really good terms and if I need anything, I can go get it, but I’ve got more belts, clothes and boots than probably anybody else on the planet.”
Not surprisingly, he’s a fan of Texas-size belt buckles and is partial to the ones he’s received from Rodeo Houston — he’s played the world’s largest livestock and rodeo show four consecutive years, which was a bucket wish dream for him.
He also sports a Rolex Presidential watch with a diamond bezel. “I wear this watch everywhere, to everything — it’s the best watch ever made,” he said. And while he had toyed with the idea of becoming a luxury watch collector, he said that lasted about 30 days. “I bought this on the day I bought my wife’s engagement ring, and then I bought a couple more. Then I realized I don’t need another one.”
But what he does need is to share his love of the Western style with his fans. So McCollum teamed with entrepreneur Vic Keller last year to create Fresh Western, a line for those who “work hard, stay true and wear it like they mean it,” according to the website.
Parker McCollum has come to define the Western lifestyle.
Courtesy of Parker McCollum
“I started Fresh Western because I wanted to do something that I could call the shots on and have ownership in,” he said. “Every one of my mentors has said the same thing: invest in yourself, bet on yourself. And so creating Fresh Western was the best way I knew how to do that outside of my career.”
The line currently offers T-shirts, hoodies, hats and collectibles, but McCollum has bigger ambitions for the company.
“It’s actually going to be a men’s personal care line,” he said. “I think we’ll have product to launch in October, November. I have a crazy obsession with scent — candles and soap,” he added. “I don’t like anything that doesn’t smell good. I consider myself a professional, licensed scentologist, and I look forward to growing in this space.”
But for now, McCollum is focused on the March 20 drop of the deluxe version of his current album. The edition features four new tracks, including the fan favorite cut “Big Ole Fancy House,” his new single.
The new songs are highly personal to the singer, especially “Montgomery County,” which is a nostalgic look back at his upbringing in Austin and Conroe, Texas. And the new single offers a lesson in life. Despite achieving enough to buy all the visual trappings of success, McCollum said he’s learned that relationships are what really matter in life, not how big a house or car you can afford.
“So much of my childhood I was watching MTV Cribs and things like that, and thinking that was the goal: to have the cars and the house and all the stuff. And then you finally get a little taste of it, and you realize that the taste doesn’t last that long. That song is my attempt at trying to capture that feeling and that coming-of-age moment.”
Parker McCollum visited New York City to promote the deluxe version of his self-titled album.
Courtesy of Parker McCollum
Also helping him see the light has been his marriage to Hallie Ray Light in 2022. They have one son, Major, with another child on the way this summer.
Although McCollum will kick off his headlining tour in May, he won’t be bringing his family with him on the road.
“It’s hard to be fully invested in one or the other when you have your family at work,” he said. “I feel bad because I’m one foot in with the guys and what we’re doing on the road, and one foot in with the family. I don’t like half-assing anything, and you’re kind of forced to half-ass both.”
But he’s not keeping his wife in the shadows. In fact, she was the star of his recent video for “Killin’ Me.”
She was comfortable dancing in the video because she had been a cheerleader in college. But she made him leave the set during the filming.
“She killed it, but she wouldn’t let me watch her,” he said. “So I snuck off, and then snuck back in and watched from a pretty good distance. I thought she was wonderful.”
Does that mean his kids may star in a Parker McCollum video in the future? Don’t count on it.
“My family is just not for show — it’s the real deal. I fully understand that in my line of work, I’m the product, and you have to embrace that. But, the real-life stuff, I try to keep separate.”
