Parker McCollum

And he had told me about her like one night after we played.

And he was like, man, you got to meet this girl, Hallie Ray Lott.

I went to Oklahoma State with her.

He went there for like a semester, I think.

And I said, I was like, that name's got to go in a song.

So like I kind of started thinking about that and whatever.

And then

she was going to oklahoma state and we actually played in stillwater one night and gus was there and you know her and some other girls came out to the show and it was like i think it was my first or second night ever on a tour bus we'd gotten out of a van and gotten into tours we had no record deal yet like we were just it was going really well for us kind of in the texas red dirt scene and um she came out to the show i think she was there like 10 minutes and she was on the bus and you know she didn't like the way i was behaving so she left and uh

But I immediately started like really kind of getting my shit together.

And I really started, you know, just I would just send like dumb messages to her.

Like looking back now, I'm like, this is terrible.

But I would just be like, hey, you know, like when you're ready for the real deal, let me know.

And I think she had a boyfriend at the time or something.

smooth and yeah so at the time it was money and uh she probably thought I was an idiot um but it just it was like probably nine months ten months later um she came I think she came to another show and we hung out all night and then she came to another show and we started dating like on our first date we like went to dinner in like the steakhouse in the casino that I was playing and um I just had like four or five beers got a little buzz and asked her to be my girlfriend and then we've been together ever since

I did.

I recorded it on Gold Chain Cowboy.

It's on the first record I put out on Universal.

But I kind of wrote the album as she was avoiding me.

And so if you listen to the song, it kind of, you know, that's why at the end it says goodbye Halle Ray Light.

But I never really said goodbye.