Chords for Parker McCollum - Makin’ It Happen: Episode 1 – Lookin’ Back Now

I grew up with so many different influences _ [G#] _
[N] and I just never, I always kind of took a
little something from everything and just kind of [D#] always did my thing.
[A#] _ _ I think the biggest thing that's helped me kind of find some sort of success is when
I realize, and it's so cliche and cheesy, but like just [D#] being me. _
_ _ [A#] You know, I [D#] come from [F] great, I come [G] from the best, hardest working blue collar [Gm] people,
[D] in my opinion, [G] on the face of the earth.
Yeah, I don't [C] know.
_ [G] Conroe, Texas, 837 and the morning. _
We're in my hometown.
[C#] My family's lived here [G] a long, long, long [Am] time.
Over a hundred years.
_ [N] My parents grew up, or went to high [Em] school here and, you [C] know, had me and my brother
and sister and built a house on the same damn road.
My earliest [G#] memories of trying to play guitar [G] and write songs were in that house.
We'll whip in here real quick.
_ Granddad started this 50 [C] years ago, 50 [B] something years ago.
[G] See some of the trucks still have Yancy on them, that's my middle name, my mom's side
of the family.
I spent a lot of days right here, man.
[C] We didn't have babysitting, you know?
[Am] We stayed here.
A very big part of my childhood right there.
[Bm] [E] This is my [C#m] grandma's house right here.
Yeah, [E] this is [A] one of my [E] most favorite [C#m] places in the world to [E] be.
This is the [A] barn, man.
[E] When [C#m] I was [E] six, I had [A] 245.
I [C#m] spent a lot, a lot, a [F#] lot, a lot, [E] a lot of time in [A] my grandma's house.
[C#m] I mean, everybody knew that they came to this place, you know?
[A] I mean, just wide ass [F#] open.
Just tearing shit up, [E] hauling ass, riding fast everywhere.
[C#m] [E] I miss those days all the time.
And I've [A] written a lot of songs about those days.
[E] And I've written [C#m] a lot of songs about my grandparents.
I've written a lot [E] of songs about this piece [A] of property.
[E] Even [C#m] still when I'm writing, I'm right here [E] in my mind.
Yeah, I [A] love this town.
[G] This is home. _
_ [C] _ _ [Em] [D] My _ [G] family and the people that I come from,
like you [Em] call him or my dad or my Uncle Tom,
[D] or any [G] of my mom's brothers, 99% of the time,
what are you doing?
Working.
They work.
All the [G#] time.
Very hard.
His [A#] music has been very successful.
He's [Bm] still the same Harper that he always was growing up.
And that to me says a lot [G] for the young man that he is.
My grandpa, Bobby Yancy,
[D] he was the definition, him and my grandma were the [G] definition of
the [C] American dream.
Born in the [Em] Great Depression and just, [D] you know,
[G] spent 80-something years just making it happen.
[A] I want to be that way.
And work that hard, you know?
Work that hard for that many years and see at the end of your life
how much that pays [F#m] off.
_ [D] [A] I always had this vision that [D] there was something [F#m] crazy out there,
some life that I could go [D] build [G] that was my own.
[E] In my mind, I had to get to Austin.
[Bm] Ten days after I graduated high school,
I put everything in my truck and [D] moved into an apartment
with my brother in South Austin and [E] enrolled in school.
[B] I never went.
I [F#] just kind of started to realize that, you know,
you are going to grow up and you are going to have to make a living
and if you want to do it [B] playing music,
you better start hustling [A#] right now.
_ [D] There is nothing else.
[A] Nothing else matters but this.
At that time, that was probably [D] 2013,
the only goal at that time was to play the saxophone.
Load in through that [E] door in the back, there's no sound [D] check.
This [A] place is legit.
I remember that night, David was like,
[D] hey man, can you play here [A] tomorrow night?
And I was like, you want me to play the saxophone [D] tomorrow night?
I only knew like six songs.
I can remember playing a couple Sunday nights,
[E] not going on until midnight,
[D] and no one is in there on a Sunday night
[E] and they are putting the chairs up while you are playing.
[A] So I put out that record, The Limestone Kid, in [D] 2015.
We got a van about a month later.
My dad is a car dealer and great hookup [A] to have
if you are trying to tour, trying to start a music [F#m] career.
And we would play [D] empty bar after empty [A] bar
after empty [E] bar across Texas and Oklahoma.
[A] I [Bm] mean, 80% of those shows for those first two years
were [F#m] just, [D] there was no,
I mean the 12-strings [A] Bar and Grill in Baytown, Texas,
we played to [D] nobody.
And we did that night after night after night.
And so [E] that was really where I got the mentality [Am] of,
you know, maybe if we just [A] do it long enough,
somebody will pay attention [G#] enough at some point
[N] for it to pay off. _ _ _
[B] _ _ [G] You know, looking back now,
if I [Gm] had seen myself [G] at that time,
now if I was [D] looking at myself back then,
I would be like, there is no way that kid makes it.
[G] But when I was that kid, in my mind,
I was just always like, this is going to happen.
[D] I was willing to die on that hill.
[G] You know, making it [C] or not making it.
I [G] didn't think I was a bad [D] guy,
[G] that you were good.
[C] You were golden [G] on the inside,
and [D] you loved me the best you could.
[C] I'm the one that dropped the [G] ball,
got [D] too high.
As long as [G] the show,
[Em] as long as those people,
when [G] you like an artist and you [D] listen to their record,
you really kind of form your own opinion [C] of them.
And who they were when they wrote [G] this record,
and the time they were writing these songs.
You can listen to it when you're in a mood,
and it's like the [Am] music gets what you're feeling.
At [D] that moment.
As [Gm] long as they leave [C] the show,
[G] thinking, [G#] man, he's a real deal.
He sounds just as good live as he does on those records.
Those songs hit me the same way live as they did
all those times I was listening to them.
In the car.
[C#] That's really the biggest thing for me.
[A] And so when they [G#] come to the show,
I just hope that when they leave,
[D] that they feel the same [C#m] way that they [Gm] do
when they listen to them at whatever [G#] moment
[D] [Dm] they're going through,
whatever [D] situation they're going [G] through,
when they listen to them.
I hope that that feeling is the same
when they leave the show.
_ _ _ [N] _