Jon Pardi Reveals the Surprising Way Luke Bryan Invited Him on Tour

When a superstar like Luke Bryan invites a rising star like Jon Pardi to tour with him on Bryan’s first stadium tour, What Makes You Country: XL Stadium Sized Tour, one might imagine there were contract negotiations and late-night phone calls between managers and agents before sealing the deal.

Surprisingly, that’s not the case. Pardi reveals that Bryan reached out to him by himself, via text.

“Luke just sent me a text. It was just, ‘Man, you wanna go on tour?’ I was like, ‘Yeah,’” Pardi tells CMT. “Everybody’s really excited. Because me and Luke, we go way back. We’re buddies. I met Luke in 2011, when we were playing little 1,000-1,500 seat theaters.”

Bryan’s career started his rapid ascent around that time, when he scored his first multi-platinum hit.

“And then he put ‘Country Girl (Shake It For Me)’ out, and I never saw him again,” quips Pardi. “When you’ve got history like we do, though, it’s fun to be like, ‘Hey, look at us. We’re still here. And we’re on tour together.”

Pardi is currently on the road with another big star, serving as the opening act on Miranda Lambert‘s Livin’ Like Hippies Tour.

“Miranda’s so great,” Pardi says. “She just has such a different way of looking at things, because she’s a female and because she’s a headliner. She’s the only female headliner we’ve ever opened for, and I respect her for that.”

“Her songwriting and everything else about her. She does it all from the way she looks at things,” he continues, “and she just puts it all out on the table.”

The reigning CMA New Artist of the Year just released the video for his latest single, “She Ain’t In It.”

“When I first heard it, I had to listen to it over and over again, and it was so like 1980s George Strait and just something that I hadn’t heard in a long time,” Pardi says of the song. “There’s no question. When I heard it I was like, ‘This is on the record. This has to be on the record. I want this. This is mine.’ Trying to be anything but just pure country. It’s got that heart-break to it and it’s got that moving on and just very good lyrics and a great melody, and it was one of my favorites to ever call mine. It’s going to be great. If you like country music, you’re going to like this song.”

A list of all of Pardi’s upcoming shows is available on his website.