“I Passed On $1 Million Cash To Keep Creative Control” – Parker McCollum Responds To Fan Saying His Sound Has Changed

Casey Young·
COUNTRY MUSIC
·
Parker McCollum country music
Jim Wright

Not messing around.

During an appearance at the CAA takeover of Whiskey Jam at the Skydeck at 5th and Broadway a couple days ago, Wyatt Flores brought out special guest Gavin DeGraw to sing a duet of Gavin’s 2003 hit “I Don’t Want To Be.”

And a fan on X (Twitter) with the handle @reddirtgatekpr (which helps with the context of this story), commented that he felt Wyatt was losing his “independent” sound and nature, and trading it for a more Nashville-like element… a tale, and argument, as old as time between the Texas/Red Dirt scene and the Nashville scene.

He likened it to the evolution of Parker McCollum, who is sometimes know by his nickname “The Limestone Kid,” which was the name of his 2015 independent album.

Here’s the tweet in question (the account has since been switched over to private… LOL):

“It saddens me that our Stillwater kid is going the way of the ‘Limestone kid’ but his talent was too immense for the big record labels not to get involved & start shaping the ascent.

I predict an artist w/ red dirt roots will perform at a Super Bowl w/in 10 years & it’s him or ZB”

Parker saw the tweet and obviously didn’t appreciate what this guy had to say, telling them that he “passed on a million dollars cash” to keep creative control of his music. He ultimately signed with Universal/MCA Nashville in 2019, and obviously, major Nashville labels do have a certain reputation for signing young and inexperienced artists, turning around and then changing everything about them to fit some weird radio-friendly mold.

However, Parker’s fanbase was WELL established before he signed a record deal, much like Cody Johnson before him.

He took ownership for all of the  music he’s ever released, saying that he does what he wants to do when he wants to do it, “point blank period,” and that it is not up to the label to decide:

“I passed on a million dollars cash to keep creative control. Not one record label person has ever told me what to record or how to record it. So weird to just run your mouth about what you think instead of realizing you literally don’t know anything at all.

I do what tf I wanna do when I wanna do it. Point blank period. You’re not cool bc you hate a certain kind of music. That makes you ignorant.”

Yikes…

And for a little more context, Parker has four straight #1 singles to his name at country radio, so do with that information what you will:

Wyatt also responded to the tweet, saying he has “full rights to his creative” and his label had nothing to do with him bringing Gavin out:

“If you listen to my music you’ll notice that I love and respect all types of music…my music as well as myself will not be defined as one thing or sound.

My label had nothing to do with my decision and I have full rights to my creative because I do what I want.”

And in terms of Parker’s sound, it has probably changed some over the years, like every artist does as they mature and try to challenge themselves creatively, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t on Parker’s own terms and that it isn’t still good. And let’s be honest, there’s a large group of country music fans that hate anything on the radio, they hate when artists start playing larger venues, they hate artists who start to find success…  they want country artists to have no fans and tour dive bars in the back of a van forever. You know the type… they scream “sellout” the second you actually sell out a venue.

Parker continued in another tweet, adding that he’s never written a song abut the typical country cliches that have been so heavily overdone in Nashville, saying that he doesn’t use any live auto tune and still writes 99% of his songs. Say what you want about Parker McCollum, but most major label Nashville artists can’t say that for themselves:

“Not one song about dirt roads or cold beer or pick up trucks or any of that shit. Still write 99% of all my songs. No snap tracks, no live auto tune. A real band singing real songs from a real place.

Let Wyatt Flores do wtf he wants to do. Being able to have multiple sounds and versions of your art is called talent. Something God forgot to give to the haters.”

Parker has actually recently been talking about his forthcoming (unofficially announced) fifth studio album on X (Twitter) , saying that he feels extremely confident about the material he has coming, even going as far as to say it’s going to be as good as his aforementioned, fan-favorite Limestone Kid album:

Parker also noted in that tweet that he feels like he is coming out of a songwriting rut and has his mojo back, and that he’d put these new tunes “up against anything I’ve ever written”:

“Sitting in the studio right now. Half way done with this new album. I’d put these songs up against anything I’ve ever written. Very proud of them. Hope you guys will love them.”

Sounds like the Texas native has some great stuff coming our way, hopefully soon, so stay tuned…

His most recent #1 was “Burn It Down”:

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