Jon Pardi joins Katie Neal to talk about his new album, ' Honkytonk Hollywood,' and more.
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00:00here to keep us company to talk all about his brand new album that will have just come out
00:05when this airs honky-tonk hollywood mr john party welcome back hey i have to tell you congratulations
00:11like great body of work this album top to bottom very fun really enjoyed listening to it um i'm
00:17curious you've probably been living with these songs for a while so like what are some of your
00:22favorites what are you excited to see how everybody reacts to all of them i mean like she drives
00:29away everybody's been really excited about that i feel like that's great i feel like the one that
00:33i keep coming back to hey california love that and i love he went to work he went to work yeah no it's
00:40great that's a really really fun one talk about that one a little bit i mean all those are great
00:44this is there's so many like songs that because everybody's different and that this album has
00:49such a layer of like all the songs are different but they all fit together and like there's a little
00:55bit for everybody so like it it's funny how many different songs people bring up like he went to
01:02work um it reminded me of my dad but it also reminded me of you know fathers out there like
01:07young fathers going to work every day paying the bills putting food on table and like being there for
01:13their family and uh i think it's um just a great message and i feel like everybody was gonna pick up
01:20pick up on it and love it and uh she drives away you know those kind of two family songs on that yeah
01:26that i feel like are real real relatable uh especially like i went on tiktok and i'm like
01:32man the amount of videos that she drives away has been used i mean like fresh newborn girls and like
01:38it just kind of sets that mood and it's really fun to watch that and
01:42and just see everybody real be you know human beings and relating to music and um but i feel
01:49like this is a really emotional and soulful record it's fun but it's also sexy and family i mean it's
01:55got a little bit of everything so a little bit of everything i think it'll be fun to see going into
01:59wedding season how many like father daughter first dance songs i feel like she drives away i feel
02:05like that's the song and most dads most of the dads don't know any songs like there's not a lot of
02:11father daughter yeah songs out there and we didn't like that's not why we recorded this song or they
02:20wrote this song this is strictly out of a beautiful story um but we definitely made it so it is danceable
02:27yeah but i love you know i love to dance to music anyway who doesn't but um actually a lot of people
02:34don't like to dance to music but you know what you gotta you gotta have some fun somehow but uh no that's
02:39definitely a good point yeah i want to talk a little bit about kind of like the level the evolution
02:44of your music because working on this album i've been so excited to hear it because you've been
02:48telling me for a while that you worked with jay joyce on this and i i don't really know how i
02:52would describe it i feel like you being much more musically talented could talk about it but like
02:56whenever you hear a jay joyce produced record like it's different you can hear it you can tell and i
03:02don't really like there's something about some of the songs i was listening to it's like this like late
03:0570s kind of like funky thing but also it stays so true to you so talk about working with jay on
03:11this well working with jay means definitely uh got his thing but you know we learned so much from him
03:17and just the amount of time that we had to work on this record because we recorded it at jay's
03:22studio in nashville and jay even offered he was like we'd go anywhere we don't have to record it here
03:27but it's like we get all the time in the world here and just that simple fact is that we don't have
03:32anybody like coming in next week we got to be out let's hurry it just made it really nice
03:39and we it was very of a creative place for a month and like we would record a song and then we'd sing
03:48the vocals like as soon as we were ready as soon as the the like we were putting vocals on top of the
03:56magic we just created and i feel like this album sets me apart from the other records just from the
04:05vocal performances alone on the record like my voice sounds different and it's not in like a
04:11tuned way it's just like in a mofo singing like and i don't know what it maybe it was because we were
04:18there maybe because it was new maybe i was trying to prove the jay i was i'm i'm a singer you know
04:24like i don't know what it was but like there's it's really well recorded and sung and played and
04:31um and there's two worlds colliding you know it's like for me it sounds like a jay record that he
04:39hasn't done before yeah but you know he's there but it's like these two worlds coming together
04:44because you know he he actually can go and listen to my records you know and i'm not saying he did but
04:50like he probably was like all right i get it we can do this and this and bring it together and like
04:56it just it's everything's big yeah it's a big sound big sound and just a rock country and soul
05:04and i get a lot of like it's like for me it's like that hollywood vibe of this is the west coast 70s
05:11country from your fleawood max the eagles um down to just like straight up george jones country i like
05:19a nice place to visit like just straight up and but it's also ray charles at the same time there's so
05:25much elements and at the same time all these these acts and stuff in the past it's fresh like it's very
05:33like new country so um without all the hip-hop beats and the trap beats and the you know i don't
05:42know i'm just making noises right now but like no but i agree with you like it's such a big sound it
05:46really sounds like very cohesive and i love seeing how excited you are about it i'm been excited about
05:51we've been done since july 24 okay so when they sent like over the like early streaming link to listen to
05:58it like some of the like titles of the songs have the date 7 24 on it and i was like has this been
06:03done since last summer it's been done since last summer let me tell you this has been a test of
06:08patience and it's not my records of a fault my it's not capital records fault but it is capital
06:14records fault um and you know 24 is an election year and uh it's just a lot there's a lot of you know
06:21just any we wanted it to have i like to make the excuse that it was so good that we wanted to have
06:27no interference so but they tried to put june they were like all right june i'm like you know
06:33what you know what you can just just step out the damn door right now and go back with a different
06:39idea because we wanted march we want to like right now but so we got april 11th yeah a compromise which
06:45is great but i'm sure like you know the thing is is like you have this album for a year you're
06:49probably already like i was ready in october yeah to get it out and yeah it feels weird writing
06:56for a new record when your new record isn't even out yeah exactly talk about naming this album
07:02honky tonk hollywood and why you felt like you wanted to call it that well i mean we've had honky
07:08tonk i've had honky tonk hollywood on hold because bart wrote it and benji who also benji wrote mr
07:15saturday night um and it was you know it's like scream summer my wife like it screams like
07:22blue eye blue jean baby california crazy you know fell in love with a singer in a band and it's like
07:27a rock and roll country kind of song it's got a 70s thing to it you know like you're saying like
07:31um but the the just the title alone screams album title and when i hear honky tonk hollywood i think
07:41you know nashville i've had many people so so what do you what do you think about hollywood i was like
07:47uh this is not the hollywood you think about this this is boots and rhinestones and glitz and glamour
07:53and every artist has got a bar downtown and tv and film and the music business and like five star
08:01hotels i mean how many fancy restaurants does nashville have now so many like we are spoiled
08:07like this is the new booming town and it's all a bunch of glamorous rednecks honky tonk hollywood
08:15so as like it screamed to me like that has to be the record title and and and i've you know i
08:23an artist record myself i made the decision to reach out to jay to go to a different record and tom
08:31petty helped that because i saw at the time i was really like what do i do with the next record like
08:37what what can i do like thinking you know and i was like i really want to make a j record and it was
08:43just jay came up and and tom petty they just released like last year just released the wild
08:49flyers documentary um and it was like hidden footage but it was just like old footage from
08:54when they did the record with rick rubin he was talking about how he likes to switch up produces
09:00every three or four records because it made him a better songwriter better artist and a better
09:04musician i was like tom petty's doing it i think it was a sign from tom petty and i was like i gotta do
09:11it tom call jay like that later that week and he had opened the same time that i had opened and it
09:19was like meant to be serendipity so i don't even know what question i'm answering but i'm just talking
09:25right now we're just talking about naming it honky tonk hollywood and i really appreciate
09:28your thoughts on nashville being a honky tonk hollywood hollywood because everybody goes with
09:33like the nash vegas thing yeah but i think it's way more what you're describing i describe it as like
09:39the glitz in the industry and like the music business and the award shows and and just the
09:49side of it that like you see is like i mean getting dressed up i mean i feel like so much more fashion
09:57like the girls have so much more fashion power now than ever in country music you got laney
10:03getting bell bottoms her own bell bottoms lines you got even ella langley and like you just like
10:08there's there's a lot i mean especially now i mean there's so many more cute girls and
10:13like pretty girls everywhere i mean i'm just like look at us look at us look at old honky tonk hollywood
10:20you know i totally agree with you i remember nash vegas is like the curb everybody's throwing up
10:25all right yes exactly the honky tonk hollywood that you're right much more glitz glamour it's so funny
10:30you say that because i can't remember who i was talking to i was like you know 2017 2017 2018 i
10:34remember trying to like get cute outfits for a concert it was really hard to find something to
10:39wear to a country concert that was cute and now i feel so lucky because like everything is like
10:43glamorous western every website you go to somebody's got a country like how lucky are we you go from
10:50like 2018 like you're saying we didn't have yellowstone we didn't have beyonce we didn't
10:56you know there was there was there was nothing it ever is evolution has grown into this sexy
11:02whole vibe of like country cowboy cowgirl and and just like a way of life that it's now everybody's
11:11into it yeah and into it in a good way not like it's it's less costuming now yes very much less
11:17it's more like erud you know people ralph loren it's more ralph loren and like he got even wrangler
11:25has stepped up their stuff sponsored by wrangler um but like you know i mean i'm telling wrangler's
11:30got you know got bought out by a company like in la and like all this fashion stuff he got boot
11:34barn doing damn runway shows and like i don't know it's it's definitely it's it's not it's not just
11:41you're uh you're you're cost of course you're always going to have your drunk broadway chick
11:47hat that they sell to 7-eleven but they're never going to get rid of that but now it's like it's
11:52a little more like no this isn't the level right here yeah i say all the time i'm like i feel very
11:56lucky to be working in country music at this era and this point in time yeah like it's a it's a good
12:03time to be here it's going to be the album everybody like yep he's right exactly let's
12:09talk about the single friday night heartbreaker talk about the story behind this song well when
12:13i first heard this and i had to listen to so many songs this one stuck out i mean stuck this one stuck
12:19out and it was like in a good way and i just i hear it it's got a great beat it's got a it's kind
12:26i gotta listen to me vibing it but also like set the tone of like a different feel from me like
12:34you're like what is this what's what's going on in john party's world and you knew like something
12:38changed when you hear honky-tonk i mean when you hear all the songs but like friday night heartbreaker
12:43especially you knew something like something going on in a good way like but it had that like spooky
12:49sexy i always say like you know every girl wants to break a man's heart somewhat like especially your
12:55husband you just can't wait just can't wait to see yeah whatever you know like um and i just
13:03picture girls getting ready like i'm with sexy sell the nine one plus that guy's heart tonight i don't
13:08know i'm just being funny but i don't know it's it's a it's a fun song it stuck out to me no and i
13:13think there's a lot of truth to what you're saying exactly um you are gonna be headed out on a
13:18honkyton hollywood tour this spring bringing cory kent and cassie ashton with you talk about bringing
13:24them out on the road well i mean cory kent's i've always i remember when i first met cory and
13:31saw him singing songs with a guitar pool i don't know where but it was at like a guitar pool like up
13:36in the northeast and we had a lot of fun and i i could just see the potential in him and then
13:41you know he started getting wild as her and like uh just kind of popping off and he was like reaching
13:47out to write and like we got together and um you know it was like just everybody was like hey we'd
13:54do a tour thing like god it's like good tour man like why not you wanted to come i was like hell
13:58yeah feels very natural yeah and then then cassie luke laird songwriter and friend dear friend and
14:04he produced cassie ashton's records and like he's been working with cassie since i've known cassie and
14:10he he sent me the album he's like hey take cassie on tour and summer loves cassie loves her music
14:17love like it's like i feel like cassie got the like wand that like gets all the chicks like she you
14:26know she speaks the language of chicks and girls and females that men can't like and i don't know
14:33and i really liked her record and i thought it was great so i was like and she's phenomenal singer so
14:39like heck yeah i brought her and i'm um you know i'm hoping i'm getting like you know every girl i
14:44brought on tour you know from hayley widers to laney's now like crazy and then ella look at ella
14:51she's like scrap i was like well get ready hopefully cassie's the next you know and didn't you just like
14:56see i swear i saw a video of you talking about like didn't you meet ella like in a lobby somewhere
14:59she was like playing songs and you were like who's this girl like isn't there some crazy story to that
15:03yeah we were at sony and she was like recording something in the studio there and she came out and i was
15:08like having a snack because the snack i was waiting for my coat right you know you gotta wait what
15:13room you're at and i was got a drink in a snack bar or something she came out and she was like hey
15:19we were both kind of shocked to see each other and i remember telling my publisher i was like like
15:23that girl the cowboy hat and that's all i said yeah and then i was like i'd bring her out on tour
15:29and then yeah been been torn ever since now she's all got a hit song new new new uh record coming
15:38out looking i don't know she even summer's like ella looks different now she's like got a glow up
15:45like i mean she looks great she looks incredible yeah so i don't know yeah yeah something lucky
15:50about going out on the road with john i guess i said it does like i'm like the good luck chuck of
15:54uh female come on there superstar i love it i love it you also you just got back from australia
16:04just got back from australia okay so how was australia it was amazing yeah did you do the whole
16:09shoey thing that they no no not doing that not drinking out of a shoe no i mean people did it you
16:16know i saw zach top did it you know i was like oh zach larry fleet did it right before me
16:20the ad guys do it you know i just don't you know like i just want to you know like i know one guy
16:28did it never heard from him again it's already it's already hard doing three shows i could imagine
16:35with a little bit of bacteria on my vocal cords yeah right because isn't it your shoe or is it yeah
16:40no the shoe comfort like the real shoe is you take your boot off and you pour beer in it and you drink
16:45out of that i know they love that they love it i think it's hilarious i thought of actually doing
16:51it sounds i was a big fan of the crowd doing it and so like i mean you're like my favorite your
16:59shoe my favorite audience shoey we were playing this club it's packed it's rocking everything's
17:05awesome we're all hot and sweaty and like literally like they got them on the shoulders
17:10takes off his boot fills it up drinks it everybody has their cell phone light on like
17:17shining at the like there was like his own little his own little production so make sure i saw it
17:24everybody saw it and it was pretty funny and then there was like they also did it out of shoes
17:30like i don't know man i i you know i love drinking beer i don't need to drink it out of my boot
17:36i don't blame you i don't blame you but i always am curious to see who comes back from australia and
17:42did do it but well yeah i'm with you i saw i saw some you know artists did it and you know what they
17:47they're representing the shoe they did um you were also you've gone for that what like two weeks
17:52probably 10 days 10 days it's gonna be hard to kind of be away from the girls that long at this
17:57point like they're changing so much i'm sure yeah i mean got back everybody was bigger yeah um
18:02but it was nice i'm not gonna lie they're like what did you do in our stress i did nothing i
18:08slept i slept and i was in my hotel room had great breakfast stayed at great hotels had great shows
18:14did nothing after the shows went back like literally i just slept the whole time so
18:20summer's like how was your vacation oh yeah i don't even talk about i don't talk like that around
18:24summer trust me i don't say nothing like that i miss y'all so much i miss you so much i didn't sleep at
18:30all oh my gosh how are the girls they're great precious everybody's great growing smart press is
18:36so smart um she loves putting on her shoes correctly okay okay i was laughing at her
18:42following you and her little pink tractor while you were in your track oh yeah
18:46she loves her tractor she loves the can-am rides she loves the jeep rides anything outside
18:53yeah so she loves being outside very fun i was also laughing i think it was yesterday summer posted
18:58something of you you were out mowing the grass and you were cruising oh yeah that's fast i literally
19:04was like is this video sped up no those the new mowers are so fast and they cut with the speed so
19:12like normally if you're going that fast your grass will look like crap but this thing is this and the
19:17grass ain't too thick right now so it could really handle i would just like yeah i also love that you're
19:23doing it yourself like i figured like well i have a i have a yard guy but i was like first mow
19:27i was excited to cut the grass but i have that mower that's that's backup mower in case i need to get
19:33out and do it myself really oh my gosh that's so funny are you listening to anything while you're
19:36out there or you're just i had earplugs in you did okay you know when you don't it's like the first
19:41mow it's like you don't put music in you listen to that engine you listen to the mow baby you listen
19:46you get the get the feel for it it's the first mow of the year yeah it looked like you were really
19:52it's a dude thing yeah so all my dudes get the first most coming and all the dudes are getting
19:56excited this is like who did i used to know that would play like a video game of like mowing a lawn
20:01like that was the whole like game on their phone and i was like what is but it was like all guys
20:05yeah well some of my favorite videos on like a dead scroll as we call it or like the guys that like
20:11weed eat like an abandoned or like somebody's yard he guy's got a broken leg or he's got like he's got
20:18one leg and he can't really do yard work in his yard his yard is just overgrown and he comes in
20:24and saves the day and you see the whole thing it's incredible and it's like that that is that is that's
20:30social media crack right there that's what is on you that's what like side of tiktok what do they say
20:34that's what you're on is like yard cleaning yeah i mean it's like that meme of like the cartoon like
20:40of the guy and girl sitting laying down in next to each other and like what she thinks i'm looking at it's
20:47like some some hot girl and then a guy's looking at like a car or a guy mowing the lawns
20:53it's so true i also see there's like all these videos that you've had lately like out like clearing
20:59a bunch of land are you working on something right now out of the house are you just like getting
21:02stuff cleaned up once again that project was done in about a day and a half okay last year last year
21:10you know what we love our content yeah stretch it out just take something that doesn't take that long
21:16and make it months worth but i mean it's fun people enjoy it what were you doing though like
21:21what were you working on we put uh clear the road and built a water line we've dug water line to put
21:26city water on 211 acres which is a big deal to have city water and power yeah no for sure for me
21:32that place is a fun place for my family and just go out there shoot guns right around and it's also
21:39it's an investment it's 30 miles from now not 30 minutes from nashville and you just never know
21:46is this separate from where the house is yeah okay got it got it got it so you got like a little
21:49place that'll land yeah i mean i'm not much of a stock market guy but i don't know one thing they
21:55ain't making no more dirt that's buy dirt i tell everybody get some money put it in the ground it
22:00doesn't matter number how much it is like something you know my buddy always said this like you never
22:05really heard horror stories of some guy buying land this is very true unless it's haunted which
22:11could be a thing it'd be a true but i feel like in nashville even if it's haunted it doesn't matter
22:16like oh yeah you got a haunted house they don't care they're gonna burn it down burn it down build
22:20burn it down build a shoebox build a shoebox sell for a million dollars i love it i feel like you're
22:26you stay very busy though like i imagine you're like you know getting off the bus getting out of the
22:30studio and you're going home and you're probably still working right like i don't imagine you
22:33sitting around well i mean i i'll probably mess you know i'll probably see what the girls are doing
22:39um presley's gonna be up from that pretty soon she's probably up you know hit a little twinkle
22:45twinkle little star go out there see what's going on outside um the day has pretty much been done today
22:51so i might just go home and relax yeah are you in summer are you binge watching anything good do you
22:56guys do that we haven't been really watching tv um you had two tiny kids so that's not surprising
23:03we watch a lot of uh presley relax paw patrol um and miss rachel miss rachel's great it's it's like
23:13she's teaching things and the kids love it paw patrol it's more like just imagination and flying
23:19around on things and like literally the my dad was in town we were working on something he went to go
23:24get like a sandwich and came up the back way and there's a steps and presley was playing on the
23:28steps and we were watching her but she's never done this like senior was coming up the steps
23:33and she just looked at my dad and said catch me and jumped off the stairs and fell i mean roll
23:41bomb bomb bomb bomb down the stairs and senior caught her and then she was crying and once she cried
23:46she started you know she's tough kids are tough i mean it they're not heavy it's not like i fell
23:53like it's gonna be like oh man what was that big cannonball sound thing like but it's still scary
23:59and then she still can get hurt but nothing happened and after she got done crying she was like sad
24:05because she like she said i can't fly oh so she's watching paw patrol and so paw patrol like you get
24:11and they're always paw patrol they got some wire they're always jumping off some cliff saving the day
24:17you know it's like that it just it's crazy the amount of these cartoons how they impact toddlers
24:23yeah and it's like i heard there's like horror stories at the coco melon like show like we don't
24:30let her watch oh yeah there's some people yeah there's some you just like can't let them watch
24:32yeah they're just like you don't it's like crack or something but wait that's what that's but we
24:37we love paw patrol yeah but we're you know bluey and like miss rachel and like all that
24:42those like just some just like more she loves uh kipper which is like a 1990 show and it's like
24:48super mellow you guys have been building this house for a while now what's the latest moving in the
24:54summer i don't know i told summer well christmas for sure it's like ins and outs like we have some
25:01great guys that have done great work and then we have some guys that do you know want to set us back
25:06sets back so and it's just a pain in the ass that's just the reality of building a house building houses
25:12i mean and doing anything in construction these days is like just a pain in the butt but there's
25:17some great guys out there and there's some you know and i i say the pool guys in nashville is highway
25:23robbery like literally the pure insulting fact that they would try to charge me a hundred thousand
25:34dollars for a backyard experience experience that's what they did no it's an experience it's like
25:41i'm not spending a hundred thousand thank you for the video game you built us and it's like
25:47you walk in it's like it's like a hotel i was like what am i going to do charge a
25:53day pass for this thing like insane literally you you're charging me a hundred thousand dollars
25:59that is a house it's crazy it really is and that's on the low end of what i've heard some
26:04people get quoted that's on the low end in nashville like i got i got a backup i can dig a
26:09hole pour some concrete in it and they're like well you know it's not california prices everybody's
26:15got a pool i was like i don't know i think you guys i think one day we're gonna know somebody
26:19and go to this house it can be a huge mansion he and you ask him what he did he said i
26:23installed pools in nashville my friend built his pool and it's an affinity pool and it is
26:29huge and he did it for 35 000 which is still kind of a lot for a pool right 2025 my business
26:40manager said she had a client it was 105 000 for a drop-in fiberglass pool for a drop-in i'm telling
26:49the pool guys if all my pool builders right there move to nashville if you know how to do
26:54a pool move to nashville you will be a millionaire in no time no time at all no time they're robbing
27:01people well listen i hope that you get a nice pool and that the house is done soon and you can enjoy it
27:07but yeah i think anybody who's built a house or had a pool recently can a backyard full of grass is
27:12just as luxurious as a nice pool yes it is thousand percent john thank you for coming in thank you for
27:17talking about this album and sharing all these things about your life i always appreciate it
27:21the album is amazing i love listening to it i'm excited for everybody to hear it oh no i'm i'm so
27:26excited