Jon Pardi

“We travel so much as touring musicians and artists that sometimes, when you hear a great song that you really think could be on your project, you go ahead and record it instead of try to write it.”

“I love coming back around Northern California.”

“Take everything you can from what people say. Keep going and stick to your instincts. And what your soul tells you to do, use that.”

“If you get music on a personal level, you are doing something right. It's not just in one ear and out the other.”

“I've been able to carve my way out with lyrics and melodies.”

“Having two back-to-back No. 1's is unbelievable.”

“I have a great band of great guys. We're a lot of fun.”

“Getting a beginner publishing deal really helped me gain the skills. I just kept writing and writing. You just take everything out of life and turn it into an idea or a melody or a song and find the best writers you can to write with that fit you and know what you want to do.”

“I'm helping country sound a little more country.”

“'Swagger' would be the word for 'Dirt On My Boots.' With the real funky drum loop and the ganjo rolling down, and then the fiddles and the guitar and steel, it really took an old school style where it's fiddle, steel, guitar, and mixed it with a drum loop.”

“I started playing guitar by the time I was 9.”

“For my shows, I don't play too many slow songs.”

“There's a connection when people are dancing, laughing, and singing, and that definitely happens with 'Head Over Boots.'”

“As a songwriter, we're looking for a good story, and we're always looking to push the limits.”

“If you can take a piece of life and put it in a song, it's going to be a good song - especially if it's from the heart.”

“Sing your heart out and write the best song you possible can.”

“I've really been studying lyrics, printing out lyrics to songs I love and reading them like a letter.”

“I played the bars in northern California since I was 18. We played at least three hours, and there's no which-way about it: That definitely helped.”

“I love performing, and if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be doing it.”

“I always want to just stay humble, and I always want to keep climbing.”