Scoring your very first No. 1 hit on country radio during a global pandemic can be very bittersweet. Just ask Parker McCollum. “It was so different and so bizarre,” Parker tells Country Beat Magazine, who admits that he wanted nothing more than to celebrate the occasion on the road with the ones who made it happen. “But,” he’s quick to add, “we’re alive, well and breathing above the ground, so that’s better than the alternative!”

Parker and his now platinum-selling smash, “Pretty Heart,” took over country airwaves in 2019, eventually landing atop the charts the following year.

“It felt so good,” Parker says of achieving a chart-topping hit. “It was a nice little bright spot during a not so bright year. It was just a little light at the end of the tunnel. It was something to pay attention to and focus on while we were at home. It felt good. I wish I could’ve been with everybody on the team and at he label celebrating with them, but nonetheless, it definitely felt good to say I had a No. 1 song.”

However, the time spent off the road in quarantine did not go to complete waste for the 29-year-old Texan. He split his time between Nashville and Texas, hunting and doing his best to chip away at writing songs to compile for his debut album.

“When Covid first started, I was like, ‘Oh I’m going to write so much,’ and I really didn’t write a whole lot,” he recalls. “The creative juices just weren’t there, not being in the swing of things and on the road and kind of being an artist, you know? I didn’t feel very songwriter-y the whole time. I’ve been trying for a couple of months now to get that back flowing. It’s a lot easier said than done I guess. But I’m trying to turn that time period into songs right now without writing the song that’s clearly about the times.”

Despite Covid and the shut down of the music industry, Parker released his Hollywood Gold EP last fall, which went on to become the top-selling debut country EP of 2020. The music, which included “Pretty Heart” and his current hit on the rise, “To Be Loved By You,” gave his fans a taste of what was to come in July of this year when Gold Chain Cowboy was officially released.

All 10 tracks on Gold Chain Cowboy were penned by Parker, along with the likes of some of Music City’s top tunesmiths, such as Rhett Akins, Miranda Lambert, Florida Georgia Line’s Brian Kelley and Jon Randall, who also served as the album’s producer.

“I’m constantly trying to chase that song, and songs like ‘Pretty Heart’ and ‘To Be Loved By You’ are popping out in the process,” Parker says of his songwriting. “I feel like I haven’t even tapped into my best work. I don’t even feel like I’m close yet. It keeps me super hungry and super motivated. All of my best stuff is yet to come.”

Parker grew up in Conroe, Texas, roughly 40 miles north of Houston. His older brother and older cousins were passionate about music in Parker’s younger days, often playing guitar and writing songs in his presence. It wasn’t long before Parker, too, was bit by the music bug.

“I was always influenced by what my older brother was doing,” he says, smiling. “I wanted to sing and play guitar, too! So the more I got into it and fell in love with writing songs and thinking about doing this for the rest of my life, I realized I could go to college or I could move to Austin and just try to figure it out… see what I could get myself into.”

As soon as Parker graduated high school, he moved to Austin and bummed around a couple of years. “I told my dad, don’t pay for me to go to college; just help me get by for a little bit and see if I can figure this thing out,” he recalls. “Somehow or another, I snuck in there when no one was looking and was able to have quite a bit of success rather quickly. It was much cheaper than a college degree, no doubt! I thought in my head, naively, I know I can do this. I know I can get to where I want to go. It’s just going to take a long-ass time, but I think I can do it.”

Nashville eventually took notice of Parker’s potential and offered him a record deal on MCA Nashville in 2019. The buzz surrounding Parker not only landed him on high profile tours like Dierks Bentley’s 2021 Beers On Me Tour, but also a chance to stand in the spotlight of the Grand Ole Opry back in February when he made his debut at the Ryman Auditorium.

“It was cool, man,” he says of the experience. “It was cool to see how excited my family was to say someone in the family was playing the Grand Ole Opry, especially for my grandparents and stuff. They think it’s really cool.”

Slowly but surely, tour dates continue to filter in for Parker, who remains hopeful the music business won’t shut back down due to Covid-19. “I have no Plan B if it does shut back down,” he laughs. “The dates are on the tour schedule, but that means nothing. They could be canceled or they could be socially distanced or half capacity, whatever it is. I don’t know. I just want it to be back.

“It was just impeccable timing,” continues Parker. “I just don’t want people to get used to this ‘new normal.’ I make my living off of a lot of people being close together, and that’s what I love to do — perform for those people.”

As things work toward getting back to the way they were prior to the pandemic, Parker just remains grateful for the ride thus far. But make no mistake; he is nowhere close to where he sees himself in the future.

“I was lucky for everything to take off rather quickly,” Parker notes. “I’m still trying to make it to this day. I think I’ll always be saying that.”