Jon Pardi Artistfacts

May 20, 1985
Jon Pardi carved out a niche in modern country music by blending classic country influences with contemporary production, so you'll get fiddles and twang, but also big drums and blazing guitar solos. It's a honky-tonk swagger that you can hear in hits like "Up All Night," "Dirt on My Boots" and "Last Night Lonely."
He never recorded it, but one of his popular live numbers early in his career (2011) was "The D.U.I. Song," which won him $300 in a contest to write a song that discourages drunk driving. Instead of writing something sobering, he wrote a catchy tune about a regular guy who gets a D.U.I. and must suffer the consequences.
He likens his music to that of Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt, artists who specialize in fun party songs with modern production. He told Rolling Stone that when fans get sick of those guys, "they'll wanna listen to my record."
Pardi is a talented guitar player but he usually lets other guitarists play lead and do the solos. For instance, session player Danny Rader has the lead on "Head Over Boots" and studio pro Rob McNelley lends his licks to "Night Shift."
Jon Pardi lives in the Nashville suburb of Goodlettsville, Tennessee, on a 15-acre property surrounded by hardwood forest. On his days off, he enjoys working on the house, doing yard work, hanging out with his dogs.

"I know a lot of artists that live in the city in the sky rises," he told Sounds Like Nashville. "I couldn't do that. This is my place, so I can go start a fire, shoot a gun or run with the dogs. I can take my Jeep off-roading. You've got to have something to take your mind off of music and being on the road."
His wife Summer, a hairstylist by trade, has a big following on social media, especially Instagram. She and Jon got married in 2020 and had their first child, daughter Presley Fawn in 2023. Another daughter, Sienna Grace, followed in 2024. Summer shows up in Jon's "Cowboys And Plowboys" video.
Growing up in Dixon, California, Pardi stayed with his grandmother when his parents went to work. She had a karaoke machine that Jon loved. They would use it to sing songs by country stars like Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks and George Strait, giving him a solid musical foundation at an early age.
Pardi is the first performer inducted into the Grand Ole Opry who was born in California. Somehow, none of the 232 members who entered before his 2024 induction were from the Golden State, surprising considering it's where Bakersfield, home of the "Bakersfield Sound," is located. Merle Haggard, who exemplified that sound and was born in California, was never inducted.

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