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Jon Pardi’s favorite Christmas memories from his childhood might have helped inspire him to become the country artist he is today. The “Last Night Lonely” star remembered the first guitar he ever received, and now, he credits the gift with lighting a “spark” for him.
“One Christmas I got a guitar, but I was real young, so this guitar spent multiple nights in the backyard and probably got hit by a sprinkler,” Pardi recalled in a statement shared by his record label. “I was a kid. I didn’t know what to do with this thing. It was like I knew how to strum it, but I didn’t know how to take care of it. I must’ve been six or five, you know, I thought it was kind of a toy then, but it started the whole spark. So, I always kind of say, I always tell parents you just never know, if you get a little toy that’s a guitar or drum set, you never know what that’ll spark in a child’s mind. So, who would’ve (known) if I had never gotten that guitar.”
Pardi — who became a parent in February 2023 when he and his wife, Summer, welcomed their firstborn child, daughter Presley Fawn Pardi — also developed a love of Elvis Presley music at a young age. He remembered an Elvis ornament that was always on his grandmother’s Christmas tree, and “you’d hit a button, and it’d sing ‘Blue Christmas,’” Pardi said, adding, “I think that’s probably why I like Elvis so much.
Pardi released his first-ever holiday album, Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi, in late October. The country superstar recorded “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow,” “Winter Wonderland” and more on the 12-track project:
- Beer For Santa
- 400 Horsepower Sleigh
- All I Want For Christmas Is You
- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
- Merry Christmas From The Keys
- Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
- I’ve Been Bad, Santa (And Pillbox Patti)
- Reindeer
- Swing On Down To Texas
- Winter Wonderland
- A Long December
“When you hear this record, I think you’re gonna say this is the Christmas album I’ve been waiting for that’s a little different and a little more contemporary and not too Christmas-y, but Christmas-y at the same time,” Pardi previously said of his album, per his record label. “I know that doesn’t make any sense, but we didn’t go full Christmas. We went about 75% Christmas; that way you still get a little bit of the country, rock-and-roll, jazz, reggae, all the stuff that’s in this record. It’s very diverse, but I feel like it’s upbeat and fun and I think that’s what they’re gonna take away.”
Find the full Merry Christmas From Jon Pardi collection here.