Parker McCollum’s jaw dropped when he received an unforgettable surprise from Miranda Lambert.

Lambert reveled that McCollum won the New Male Artist of the Year honor at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2022. McCollum, who was at his mom’s house in Fort Worth, Texas, joined the video call under the guise that he was conducting a last minute interview ahead of the show. McCollum’s jaw dropped in the nearly-speechless moment, and asked Lambert, “are you serious? …I’m, like, getting blurry vision right now.”

Lambert confirmed she’s “so serious,” and the two Texas-born artists celebrated McCollum’s victory. She said at the time, “you’re killing it! You’re representing our state good for us.”

McCollum reflected on that moment as he shared a throwback clip posted by his official fan page, Gold Chain Nation. The clip went on to share a glimpse of McCollum’s performance at the ACM Awards that year. He took the stage with “Pretty Heart,” a hit single from his Gold Chain Cowboy studio album in 2021. McCollum said in a red carpet interview that scoring the New Male Artist of the Year honor was “a pretty big deal for me. It was my first award.”

This year, McCollum is up for Album of the Year for his self-titled fifth studio record. The award-winning country artist released PARKER MCCOLLUM in June 2025, and expanded it into a deluxe edition last month. The project includes “What Kinda Man,” “Hope That I’m Enough,” “Killing’ Me,” “Big Ole Fancy House” and more. McCollum recently debuted the “Killin’ Me” music video, which features his wife, Hallie Ray Light McCollum. The couple got married in Texas in March 2022. They announced on Christmas Day that Hallie is pregnant with Baby No. 2, a baby boy who will join big brother Major Yancey Tyler McCollum. McCollum’s firstborn son arrived on August 8, 2024. Other artists with babies on the way this year include Mitchell Tenpenny and Meghan Patrick, Emmy Russell (former American Idol contestant and granddaughter of late legend Loretta Lynn), Drew Baldridge and more. See the pregnancy announcements here.

See the full list of 2026 ACM Award nominees here.

“I feel like it’s all very self-reflective and just kind of being super honest with myself,” McCollum said of his songwriting inspiration for his latest record when catching up with iHeartCountry in summer 2025 “(I’m) just not trying to do anything other than whatever the hell it is that I do…however it is that I do sound like, and just letting that happen, exist, and kind of letting it rip whenever you get int he studio and stop worrying about it so much. …I really feel like I was able to just kind of stop giving a damn and be myself on a record…It worked better than anything else I’ve ever done.”

McCollum is part of the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival. The show also includes Carly Pearce, Kane Brown, Luke Bryan, Riley Green, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew, Lauren Alaina and special guest George Birge. iHeartRadio's Bobby Bones is returning as the event’s host. The show will take place on May 2 at Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Tickets to the show are available on Ticketmaster.com. Fans across the country will be able to catch all the action as the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival will be broadcast live across iHeartCountry stations nationwide and the free iHeartRadio app on Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT).

The Morning Rush