Jon Pardi is a celebrated country singer, songwriter, and producer, known for his authentic neo-traditionalist style that blends classic country sounds with a modern edge. His latest single, ‘Friday Night Heartbreaker,' marks the first track from his forthcoming full-length album. This project follows the success of his critically acclaimed and ACM-nominated album ‘Mr. Saturday Night' and signifies a new era in Pardi's career after his previous albums, ‘Heartache Medication' and ‘California Sunrise.'
The new single was recorded live with his touring band in a Nashville studio, produced by the renowned Jay Joyce. While details about the full album remain (largely) under wraps, it is expected to drop next year, adding to the anticipation of Pardi’s evolving sound.
Throughout his career, Pardi has earned numerous awards and nominations, including from the CMA, CMT, ACM, AMA, and iHeartRadio Music Awards. In 2023, Pardi achieved a major career milestone when Alan Jackson invited him to become the first California native inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Garth Brooks presented him with the honour during his induction ceremony in October 2023. Currently, Pardi is headlining his Mr. Saturday Night Tour and we were thrilled to catch up with him to talk new music and more.
It's lovely to speak to you today, Jon, thank you for your time. How's the family?
Everybody's great, thanks for asking! We took 'em on the road this last weekend and we didn't get much sleep! (laughing)
Are they good travellers?
They're as good as they can be, you know? Presley's fine, she just has to be entertained and Sienna's good, she starting to see the world and smiling a lot. She's still a new born.
Let's dig into ‘Friday Night Heartbreaker,' your new song a little. My god, that's a good song! I love the feel and the vibe of it. Have you been pleased with the reception to it?
Yeah, I have. This whole new record we did with Jay Joyce is really, really good! It was fun to branch out and do something a little different. I've been wanting to work with Jay since I heard Eric Church's ‘Carolina' album – he's always been on my bucket list and the older you get the bigger the bucket list gets if you don't do the things on it, right? (laughing)
When I heard ‘Friday Night Heartbreaker' it just screamed ‘listen to me!' Which is what you want when you are cutting songs you didn't write. Girls seem to dig it because of the ‘stay away from the hot girl' vibes it has. It's a little rocky but there is still fiddle and steel all over it too, so it's the best of both worlds.
I grew up in the 80s listening to Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Aerosmith so I love a great rock guitar, I can hear that in ‘Friday Night Heartbreaker.'
That guitar comes from Rob McNally on the solo there and then two of my guys in the the band are phenomenal players too. I think Jay was really blown away by the talent in our band, which was why I wanted to use them in the studio this time around. We used the touring band on last year's Christmas album and it just seemed like the right thing to do this time around.
Everybody calls Jay Joyce the ‘mad scientist' but I don't call him that, I call him ‘The Professor.' He really got us to play together even better than we were before. He taught us about calming down, about space and the idea that you don't have to be playing everything all of the time, right? Terry Lee worked his ass off on this – he's the guy in my band with the ‘fu manchu' moustache, he loves 80s rock like you and so there's a lot of that influence on this song and on the record to come. There's also lots of Country too but I feel like Rock n Roll is kinda like the new Country right now! Who doesn't like a good guitar solo? I feel like Country music might be the last place left for the guitar solo right now.
Let's dig into the touring band vs the session musicians for a minute. What was the thinking behind that change?
We did also have Jeff Hyde and Rob McNally in the studio with us. Jeff does a lot of work with Eric Church and Rob is an A List session guy. If we needed a really strong radio hook or big guitar moment we went to Rob for that.
For me, my band is on salary, so that really helps although they got money for doing the album too, so it wasn't like they were recording for free. The hanging together and playing together was a really big part of the decision because we are a really great road band and I wanted to capture that in the studio.
It really came across in the Christmas record last year, I thought, just how much a great band we sound when we record together. We had a blast and it sounded great. It wasn't a big deal if we ran late because we are always together anyway and I wanted to capture that on this record. Rob and Jeff got to be a part of our band for a few weeks, you know, they became ‘the boys in the band!' (laughing) We recorded the new record in two weeks and blocked about three weeks and it made it easier because the guys were all there, together, as a unit, as opposed to what it can be like with session guys coming and going.
Is the new record by-and-large completed or are you still writing for it?
No, it's done. I don't want to get into it too much because of what I can and can't say! (laughing) It's an election year here and every headline you see is about that so we're waiting to get that over with and then we'll start talking about the new album next year when it's all over, done and gone and there can be some attention back on other things!
Hell, it's already October and you know what's coming next? Christmas! So the window for new music is closing and gone so I'm hoping to release the album in March. It's all done and it's amazing, we love it. I can't wait for people to hear it.
It's not going to be one of these 30 track behemoths is it?
No but there are 17 on there. It takes an hour to listen to, which I think is just about right, you don't need any more than that. It's a good flow, 17 songs. I tend to like albums between 14 and 18 songs in length which tends to come in at around an hour's listening time. Over 20 and you can't listen to the album in one sitting a lot of the time and the songs can get a little similar.
You've mentioned Christmas a couple of times. You released your Christmas album last year and I see you are doing some Christmas shows in December. Are you a fan of the holidays?
I think our Christmas album is fantastic, it's so fun. When we do the live shows we have a big 14 piece band with a 5 piece horn orchestra. We also not only play Christmas songs but we'll throw in some of the hits and some covers too. Songs like ‘Party on the Dancefloor' really suit a horn section, man! ‘Nightshift' with a horn section……….. c'mon! Imagine ‘Dirt on My Boots' with a 14 piece band and horns, it's so cool!! (laughing) You get the best of both worlds when you come to the Christmas shows, I look forward to those.
We're very excited about the new album. I hope the ‘Mr Saturday Night' tour is going well and we can't wait to speak to you again next year when the new album is on the horizon.
I'll tell you this right now, the tour is going great, so well, better than we could have imagined. We're sitting on the new record and having a blast out on the road with the songs that I feel like are still growing with people out there, it's a cool place to be at. It's been a fun tour.
Go listen to Jon Pardi's fabulous new song ‘Friday Night Heartbreaker' in all the usual places right now.
