Jon Pardi has a lot to celebrate!
The 39-year-old country crooner has notched his 6th No. 1 hit with “Your Heart or Mine” and commemorated the milestone with a party on Monday (June 10) at the Nashville Palace, an iconic venue that is close to Jon’s heart.
“No. 1s seem harder and harder to get, so when you get one, you always celebrate it. That’s why we have No. 1 parties,” Jon said with a smile during a media session prior to the event.
“This is my spot… when I’m here it’s the Pardi Palace. It’s a fun place and I think this is one of the last real Honky Tonks we have [in Nashville]. Everybody can say their bars are Honky Tonks, but it’s more like ‘let’s get drunk and throw up.’ This is more like ‘hey, let’s dance and listen to music.'”
Hosted by BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, the Capitol Records Nashville artist was joined onstage by the hit song’s writers Bart Butler (BMI), John Pierce (ASCAP), Justin Ebach (SESAC), and co-producer Ryan Gore. The event was emceed by BMI’s MaryAnn Keen and sponsored by Studio Bank, as Ron Cox made a special donation presentation on behalf of Pardi and the songwriters in support of The Starlight Fund, which was created by Pardi and his wife, Summer, to support youth enrichment in trade, agriculture, and construction.
“Your Heart Or Mine,” which topped the charts back in August of last year, is the follow up to the ACM and CMA award-winner’s smash hit, “Last Night Lonely,” and is on his latest studio album, Mr. Saturday Night.
Known for his sultry songs with a contemporary twist on ’90s country that everyone knows and loves, Jon knew from the beginning that he not only wanted to cut “Your Heart Or Mine,” but also that it was going to shoot straight to the top upon release to Country Radio.
“It just had swagger. That’s the word we hear a lot of with this song,” Jon explained. “It has this kind of gangsterous attraction. It’s dance-y, fun and sexy, so that’s what really drew me into it.”
Detailing that the song’s inception started just how smash hits always do — a good cigar in one hand and eventually a cocktail in another — co-writers Bart Butler and John Pearce reveal to Celeb Secrets that it was Justin Ebach’s idea to create a song with a “gangster groove” and they were just trying to “give it some sauce.”
“I was told that one of the writers was like, ‘I don’t care what we write about as long as we’re able to write that,” Jon shared.
This summer, Jon is slated to perform “Your Heart Or Mine” along with many other songs on his massive Mr. Saturday Night Tour, which found the award-winning artist selling out venues in the U.K. and Europe for the first time earlier this year.
When reflecting on the experience to Celeb Secrets reporter Juliet Schroder in the media session, Jon revealed that playing at smaller venues in a different country brought him right back to a place that he hasn’t been in a long time, as the European run focused more on him and his music rather than his music and a over-the-top production.
“We went to Europe and all of the production brought me right back to a place I haven’t been in a long time,” he explained. “I feel like you get spoiled when you sell more tickets and get more production. You forget like… playing in this bar where you ain’t got a lot of production. You become the entertainer, you become the entertainment. You are it. Where we played, there were lights, the PA system was great, but it brought us right back to the roots of performance, and I think just this year alone and from now on forever changed that feeling.
“Kenny Chesney at one point did a club tour, and I feel like artists shouldn’t forget about things like that because there’s something to it. It brought me back to entertaining the crowd,” he concluded.
Bringing his iconic live show back to North America for the warmer months, Jon recently unveiled sixteen additional dates that will kick off September 5th in Baltimore, MD and will run through October in markets like Wilmington, NC, Charleston, SC, Toronto, Canada, a hometown show in Bakersfield, California, and more.
“For the new dates, there will be lots of high energy. We’ll probably change up the set a little bit… It will just be good,” he shared.
Listen to “Your Heart Or Mine” below and let us know if you’re loving the track by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecretscountry.
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