Jon Pardi’s New Album ‘Honky Tonk Hollywood’ Drops April 11

Fans tuning into Backstage Country this week will have Jon Pardi as Elaina Smith’s co-host for the entire week! Throughout the week, Pardi offers listeners a behind-the-scenes look at his career, and the process of making and recording his latest album, Honky Tonk Hollywood. 

As country music fans get ready for the release of Honky Tonk Hollywood, Smith asked Pardi about the title track and how he deemed the track to be worthy of being the title song. Pardi admitted that the decision was easy. He said, “We had ‘Honky Tonk Hollywood,’ the song but I always ask, ‘What do you think when you hear Honky Tonk Hollywood?’ When I first heard it, I thought, ‘This is Nashville, yeah, Honky Tonk Holly.’ We got 500 bars down here and it’s all crazy dancing glammed out, we got the fanciest hotels, restaurants. We got film and television coming in and artists doing crazy things.”  

He added, “Country’s bigger than ever. We got Beyonce trying to come up here and get some co-writes of Music Row and everybody's in Post Malone. It’s Honky Tonk Hollywood!” 

Pardi also shared that they had the song since 2022. “Bart [Butler] and Benjy [Davis] wrote it. They wrote up thinking about summer: 'Fell in love with a singer in a band / She's my blue-eyed blue jean baby / Kinda California crazy.'" The singer-songwriter admitted that the song “got everything” and that it was “a great lead in,” and how they all knew that the album was going to be called Honky Tonk Hollywood. 

Honky Tonk Hollywood is Jon Pardi’s first album with producer Jay Joyce. He admitted that he and his team, the band, and the songwriters have been waiting for a long time for the album and how “it’s been a test of patience.” He also shared that they “made a record the whole month” and how they took their time. “We would do two songs a day, and then we would sing the vocals those days. We got it done so quickly. It was done on July 24.” 

However, he shared his label gave him the date April 11 and told him, “That’s the quickest we can get.” Pardi, of course, understood given it was an election year and that since the album was “so good,” they would “want to have it full send.” He continued, “So that's why I'm so excited this is out, but it is finally out.” 

Be sure to tune in to Backstage Country all week to hear Jon Pardi co-host with Elaina Smith and get the inside scoop on his upcoming album. And don’t forget, Honky Tonk Hollywood drops on April 11, so mark your calendars!