HONKY-TONK HERO

With six number-one hits, Jon Pardi is the biggest country singer you may not have heard of. For his new album, he drew on a music legend's approach to rock 'n' roll.

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JON PARDI HAS MADE HIS BONES ON straight-down-the-middle, old-school country. With his brawny twang, clever (but not afraid to be corny) wordplay, and fiddle-forward arrangements, he's had six number-one country hits across the past decade—including back-to-back singles, “Head Over Boots” and “Dirt on My Boots,” that were both certified six times platinum. And yet, pop fans have probably never heard his name.

His success helped clear the path for classic-sounding Nashville stars like Luke Combs and Midland. But like pretty much everybody, he's trying to make sense of the current, rapidly evolving state of country music.

“In all honesty, I don’t know what country music is anymore,” says Pardi. “We got Hardy heavy-metal country, we've got Beyoncé country, Morgan Wallen country, Jelly Roll. Everybody’s bringing in the stuff they grew up listening to, and it’s awesome. If it’s a good song and it’s moving the soul and it has some semblance of country, we're stamping it country music.”

Pardi, 39, is a traditionalist by nature. “Of all the new guys I’ve heard, I like that Jon is closer to country than most of the others,” said Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson when he took Pardi out on tour in 2015, “and I thought his songwriting was better than what I’ve heard in a while.”

Still, Pardi couldn’t help but wonder if the genre’s expanding definitions offered him some new possibilities. “I was like, ‘Well, hell, let me do some stuff,’” he says. “Maybe it’s time when I can step out a little.”

And then he got a message from somewhere in the Great Wide Open. He was watching the 2021 documentary Somewhere You Feel Free, about the making of Tom Petty’s