Parker McCollum’s Fiancée Wasn’t Impressed By His Song for Her

Parker McCollum‘s fiancée, Hallie Ray Light, is always supportive when it comes to his music — except when it casts her in the spotlight.

On his 2020 EP Hollywood Gold, McCollum included a tribute song to his soon-to-be wife, “Hallie Ray Light,” a ’90s country-leaning track in which he croons “Well, I can tell pretty well / That you’re not the kind to cry / When I tell you / Goodbye, Hallie Ray.” While the song takes its name from the love of his life, McCollum admits that Light wasn’t as enamored by the song as he expected.

“When I’d written that song and played it for her, she was like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s good,'” he recalls in a lackluster tone to Taste of Country Nights. “I don’t think she’s too impressed by it.”

However, the Texas native says his fiancée is a solid judge of character when it comes to his other songs. “All the ones that I’m always like, ‘I’ll never release that,’ she’s always like, ‘Why? It’s so good,'” he adds. “She’s pretty cool about that stuff.”

The couple got engaged in July, when McCollum’s sister, an event planner, helped him orchestrate an elaborate dinner with both of their families. Light thought she was walking into a dinner event with staff from McCollum’s record label, MCA Nashville, when it went down.

“She thought she was about to walk into a room with everybody from my record label as a dinner — everybody getting back together. She had no idea,” he explains. Instead, the couple’s family members were hiding in the balcony when he popped the big question.

“[I] got down on one knee and did the thing,” he adds. “It went off without a hitch.”

McCollum is gearing up to release his major-label full-length debut album, Gold Chain Cowboy, on July 30.