“He recognizes me when I walk in the room and lights up, and that’s a really, really good feeling…” McCollum gushed.
Parker McCollum, wife Hallie, and Son Mayor; Photo Courtesy of Instagram
Parker McCollom is enjoying watching his son grow! The country singer, who became a first-time father last year to a baby boy named Major Yancey Tyler McCollum, recently dished on fatherhood, calling the experience “the greatest thing ever.”
In a recent round-robin with Music Mayhem and other media, McCollum, 33, revealed the milestone markers that Major has already achieved. It turns out the youngster has been making good progress as he spends time with both of his parents.
@parkermccollum It’s his show, I just have to sing the songs
“He recognizes me when I walk in the room and lights up, and that’s a really, really good feeling…” McCollum gushed over Major’s reaction to seeing his daddy’s face. “I mean, he says ‘Dad,’ he says ‘ball.’ And Hallie does the patty cake thing with him where you do the roll it thing, and now every 30 seconds, he’s just doing that. It’s just good.”
McCollum and his wife Hallie Ray Light, who wed in the Spring of 2022, welcomed Major into the world on Aug. 8, 2024, after announcing they were expecting in February of the same year. That means Major is almost a year old! While not quite a toddler just yet, McCollum admits that he’s having a tough time keeping up with his wee one’s ever-changing developmental phases.
“He crawls really, really fast. He can pretty much, I don’t know if you would call it getting down off the couch, but he gets off the couch dangerously, not safely at all,” McCollum laughed about trying to keep Major safe from the obstacles around him.
They say it takes a village when it comes to raising a human, and McCollum knows full well that being a parent can be overwhelming. He is lucky that he doesn’t have to experience the tough parts of fatherhood alone. While he has Hallie by his side, he also has a friend, Koe Wetzel to talk with on the subject as he too recently became a dad to daughter Woods Madison Wetzel.
@parkermccollum Major Yancey’s first show #parkermccollum #countrymusic #ontour
“Everything that people [have] said about having kids is a thousand percent true,” McCollum expressed. “Koe and I were just talking about that this morning. He’s a dad now, and that’s what we were talking about… I didn’t know what it was going to be like, I was mind-blown the day he came into this world and just had no idea what I was getting myself into.”
“I feel like it’s a million lessons, and you’re still learning them in real-time right now,” he added. “And it’s like as soon as you get over one obstacle, it’s just another ridiculous obstacle to overcome. But it’s just been the greatest thing ever.”
Even though McCollum is fully invested in his role as a family man and dad to his adorable mini-me, don’t expect that part of his life to translate into his new material when it comes to music.
“No. No dad songs,” the “Killin’ Me” singer said while guest-starring on an episode of Taste of Country Nights. “I would never sit down and try to write a dad song. It’s hard to do it without being cheesy, and if I were to write a song about my son, I’d want it to be really special.” And, while fans will soon get an entire new collection of songs from the Texan, he says that he’s not veering away from the kind of music they’ve gotten used to hearing from him.
“It hasn’t changed at all, really. I mean, I’ve noticed guys that have had kids and their songwriting changed, and everything changed for them, and I just, man, it’s two separate completely different things for me,” he explained. “I just don’t think about it much. I’m still out there running, still out there chasing it. I always say, still trying to make it. And I don’t think that’ll ever change, regardless of how many kids I have or how much success I have in music. I think it’ll always be just that kid in me that’s still trying to write great songs and that every time I sit down and pick up a guitar, that’s what shows up most of the time.”
Additionally, Parker McCollum is currently working on his new self-titled album, Parker McCollum, which he recorded in New York City. The highly-anticipated project, which serves as his fifth studio album, is due out on June 27. One day before his album drops, McCollum will take the road for his 2025 Parker McCollum Tour, featuring a round of special guests for select dates, including Ashley Cooke, Corey Smith, Hudson Westbrook, Kameron Marlowe, Laci Kaye Booth, and Vincent Mason.
