You don’t hear a band naming their group after a tiny town very often. But, that’s what Parmalee did when they got together, albeit with a slight twist.
“We grew up right near Parmele, North Carolina. Spelled P-a-r-m-e-l-e. Population 274,” Parmalee’s lead singer, Matt Thomas, tells ABC Audio. “Scott [Thomas], Barry [Knox] and I — Scott’s my brother, Barry’s our first cousin — we grew up near Parmele, and we rented this barn in Parmele to start the band and rehearse. And we got Josh [McSwain] on board.”
“We’d go out into this little barn in Parmele and just make noise every Tuesday and Thursday night. And we made sure we stop by 11 p.m. so people would not get pissed at us,” he recalls with a laugh. “And we went over sometimes.”
“But that’s how the band started and we didn’t know what to name the band,” says Matt. “So we changed the spelling a little bit and called it Parmalee, and that’s stuck with us.”
Parmalee has scored several chart-topping singles in their career, including “Carolina,” “Just the Way” and “Take My Name.” Their latest single, “Gonna Love You,” is now in the top five of the country charts.
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