AUDIO – NEW COUNTRY MUSIC –
Feb. 2022 – He wrote the song in seven minutes, and he did it sober. This was a turning point for the rising star, because he realized he didn’t need to use drugs to produce the songs he wants to be known for.
“That was kind of my wakeup call,” McCollum reveals. “It’s probably the second time ever that I’ve written something and gone, ‘Man, that is really good.’ Most of the time, I think everything sucks. I don’t know that I would call it a life-saving moment, but it was really good for me to write something like that not under the influence of anything.” Authenticity was important for McCollum when it came to his first album — he didn’t want to be another artist writing songs about trucks and dirt roads.
“I really, really care about songwriting,” McCollum says. “I always want people to know when they listen to my music; whether they like it or not, they can’t say it’s fake. It’s all incredibly honest and really real and comes from a super real place. They come from the right place where all the best songs come from.”
