Audacy Stars and Strings Presented By Discover® artist Parker McCollum is celebrating the release of a brand new music today with the debut of his fresh single, “What Kinda Man.”

The follow up to four consecutive #1 singles (“Pretty Heart,” “To Be Loved By You,” “Handle On You,” and “Burn It Down”) the song is a peek into Parker’s own love story with wife Hallie Ray Light McCollum who recently gave birth to the couple’s first child, Major Yancey Tyler McCollum.

“It’s pretty honest, it’s pretty true,” McCollum said of the lyrics he penned with co-writers Natalie Hemby and Jeremy Spillman. “Hallie Ray was that for me — I was never gonna get married, never gonna have kids and then I met her and completely changed my mind on all that. Had I not met her, I don’t think I ever would have done the deal, so this song is kind of an unintentional way of explaining that.”

The song found its way naturally to Parker as he spewed organic thoughts while picking his guitar in the writing room. The result is sonically, an ode to his Texas roots with lyrics that represent his current-day life.

“Typically when I do that, some very genuine thoughts and feelings will come out in the words that I’m just kind of freestyling, spitting out,” McCollum said of his unstructured approach to songwriting that day. “That’s kind of how I ended up with [the lyrics] ‘Forget the man I am, what kind of man do you need?’”

He continued, “[I] kinda ran with that. Every now and then I get lucky and I felt like I got lucky on this one and was able to have a song that felt fun, but wasn’t cheesy or clichè and that’s a tough thing for me to accomplish.”

Parker will play the song live as he performs at Audacy’s Stars and Strings Presented By Discover show taking place Thursday, November 14 at the Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL. Also taking the stage for the, writer’s round styled show will be Country standouts Jordan Davis, Riley Green, Megan Moroney, Nate Smith and Bailey Zimmerman. Find tickets here and more information on the show here.

A portion of the proceeds for Audacy’s Stars and Strings Presented By Discover will benefit Folds Of Honor, an organization providing academic scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled military personnel and first responders.

Words by Monica Rivera