Jon Pardi joins Kelleigh Bannen for an interview on Today’s Country Radio to talk about recording his new single “Last Night Lonely” and upcoming album, his emotions when recording a new record and more. Tune in and listen to the interview with Jon Pardi in-full today at 11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET or anytime on-demand here.
Jon Pardi on Deep Cut “Starlight” Helping a Family Through a Loss
We had this really kind of sad, but fun TikTok video that my friend sent me that somebody lost their child, who was listening to my music all the time. And they said out of nowhere, just out of nowhere, “Starlight” came on the radio. And it was fresh. He’d just passed. And I was like, “Man, that’s really cool.” And it also shows what songwriting… You write it when people go through something like a loss, it really does help to just… And it’s fun. It’s upbeat. It’s not super sad. And so I don’t know. People are listening to music, and it’s awesome.
Jon Pardi on Choosing to Record “Last Night Lonely” Even Though He Didn’t Write It
For “Last Night Lonely,” the guys who wrote it, they look like they’re 15. They sent me a video. They’re like, “You changed my life, Jon Pardi. Yeah.” And I was like, “How old are these guys? Can they even be in a bar?” But I think they’re like 20… They’re in their early twenties, but they were so fired up. And I love the song. See, that’s why when you get videos like that, that’s why you record outside music, because they may get another publishing deal. They may get a record deal. You never know what it’s going to do for them.
Jon Pardi on His Emotions When Recording a New Record
I’m like super emotional when it comes to making records. I have to talk to [my wife] Summer a lot, because I get very down, I get very excited, I get very down. And it’s been a while since I put new music out, so there’s a lot of emotions to go into making records. But when it’s done and it’s out and people are loving the payoff, it’s so worth all the crazy artist emotions that go on.
Jon Pardi on Making “Last Night Lonely” Sound Like a Song He Wrote
To me, it was fun. You could dance to it. And whenever I get behind… I co-produce with Ryan [Gore] and Bart [Butler]. And so I try to, when I do produce songs, I want you to think I wrote it, if I didn’t write it. And that’s what’s fun about recording outside songs is working in the studio to make it sound like something that I would be in the writer’s room trying to write. But like I said, I love hearing people, what people are doing and what they’re writing. It’s a fun thing. So yeah, it’s kind of like “Sweep You Off Your Feet” kind of a song, where we’re going to have so much fun and this might be your last night lonely. And it’s danceable, it’s even got a fiddle solo.
Jon Pardi on the Status of His Next Record
We’re still writing and I’m trying to write some love songs… I try to do it in session A, session B, and if we need a session C, we’ll do that. And that’s all kind of moods of what we’re going through and I’m trying to knock out a love song. We got a great one, but it’s funny, me and [my wife] Summer, we’ll be like, “Yeah, let’s get some drinking and she’s leaving and we’re moving on songs.” I’m like, I try to get a love song, but we love all the themes and emotions of songs. So we definitely got a lot of drinking songs. And that’s another thing when it comes to making records, it’s like, “All right, we got this, we got that. We got that. We need a little more of this.” And so we’re currently working on that, and we got some great songs recorded. I got to get back and sing some vocals, and we’re going to do another session. But our goal is to have it out in September.
