Simon RushworthJon Pardi is closing in on 10bn streams as one of country music’s biggest draws. He spoke to Simon Rushworth ahead of this weekend’s headline set at Highways Festival.
As a teen of the 90s it’s perhaps no surprise that Jon Pardi cut his teeth as a live performer knocking out covers of pop punk royalty. “Blink 182 and Green Day were huge when I hit high school, so of course I learnt all those songs,” explains the Friday night headliner of this weekend’s Highways Festival at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“But we played the classic rock standards too — Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rolling Stones and Tom Petty. I found guys who I could do that with but either side of high school it was all about country.”
Pardi — known as Mr Saturday Night thanks to 2022’s double platinum party starter of an album — owes his love of country to his grandmother and growing up in rural California. “People imagine this part of the world and immediately think of the big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco but California is a huge agricultural state. You’ve got big blue skies as far as you can see, herds of cattle and construction workers with big trucks and dusty boots. Country music’s staples are everywhere you look.
“Fiddle and steel and acoustic and bluegrass is all around you. There are the pines and the redwoods, the farms and the valleys. Give me a cattle ranch and some beautiful countryside and I’m right at home.
“It was natural for me to listen to — and eventually write about — country music. As soon I finished high school I moved to a place called Chico in northern California where I met a bunch of guys who randomly loved country music as much as I do. I wrote country songs for four years and wanted to keep it going.”
Aged 22, Pardi took the plunge. Moving lock, stock and whiskey-soaked barrel to Nashville, Tennessee, he chose to chase the country dream full-time. Almost 20 years down the line, the married father of two has lived that dream and then some — earning a reputation as the life and soul of the Music City party during his formative years as a footloose and fancy free wannabe with potential to burn.
“22 is still young to make that move,” he adds. “But if you’re going to give Nashville a go then it’s a great age. I felt fearless and ready for an adventure. The people back home were honest — they told me ‘if it’s ever going to happen it ain’t going to happen here’. And they were right. My mom got remarried so I didn’t need to worry about her and a lot of things seemed to change in a very short space of time. One day I just decided to get in the car and drive to Nashville. The rest is history.”
And Pardi has a habit for making history.
Four top five albums, six number one singles, awards aplenty and TV slots on American Idol and The Bachelorette have established the 40-year-old as one of country music’s hottest properties.
In 2023 Pardi achieved the ultimate honour as a Nashville-based artist when he became the first Californian invited to join the Grand Ole Opry and latest long player Honkytonk Hollywood, released last year, rewrote the Music City rulebook.
“It was wild times in those early days,” recalls Pardi. “I drank a lot. I partied a lot. But that’s what you do in Nashville. That’s still what we do — just not as often! If I could go back in time to when I was 24 I’d be there like a shot. People say Nashville’s a music town with a drinking problem. Well they’re wrong. It’s a drinking town with a music problem.”
On Honkytonk Hollywood Pardi may well have matured. It’s a darker, weightier body of work bolstered by a punchy Jay Joyce production.
“I wouldn’t change nothing about Honkytonk Hollywood,” insists Pardi. “I feel like that album was captured in the moment with the songs that were written for that project. You look at Gamblin’ Man, Hey California, Boots Off — they’re all a little bit grittier and a little bit more rock and roll.
“When I say rock and roll, I think Rolling Stones and that era of classic rock and roll. You can hear Tom Petty and there’s a lot of Fleetwood Macs on that record. Even the way we recorded it was very rock and roll. We had a month and a half in the studio and it was with the band, doing it live. It was by far the favourite record I’ve made.”
Joyce has produced for some of the biggest names in US music. During the last decade alone he’s helmed albums for everyone from Black Crowes to Lainey Wilson and Halestorm to Brothers Osborne. Pardi’s a big fan.
“He was fun to work with,” adds Pardi. “Jay was witty and he liked to talk shit. But he liked to push us too. Take Boots Off — the cowbell was all Jay. Nobody wanted to put a cowbell on anything at all but Jay was like ‘we need a cowbell’ on that song. We did it and it turned out awesome.
“There are a lot of things Jay does that we simply can’t explain. He goes into his own world and then he comes back and he gives it to you, whatever it is. And it’s always amazing.
“He’s one of the best producers there is. He was just coming off doing a Black Crowes record when we were getting into the studio and he brought the energy and the experience. He loves the organic side of making a record — just hunkering down with the band and getting to work. That’s what you hear on Honkytonk Hollywood.”
2026 marks 10 years since Pardi dropped fan favourite California Sunrise and the crowds flocking to Highways can expect a long overdue deep dive into the chart topper’s sophomore release.
“It only feels like five years since we did that album and nowhere near 10,” he adds. “It was very different making records back then but it was all still new and exciting and unknown for me. There were fewer statistics and fewer metrics — it was still all about the music. And that’s still what the live shows are about.”