Jon Pardi on Touring With Miranda Lambert: ‘She’s a Headliner For a Reason’

Jon Pardi is currently serving as the opening act on Miranda Lambert‘s Livin’ Like Hippies Tour, and the 32-year-old has nothing but praise for his tour boss.

“She is a great artist, and she kicks ass up on stage,” Pardi shared with PopCulture.com at a recent media event. “And her new set, she’s putting on a great show. It really shows the true songwriter in her, and what she stands for in her music. It’s really hard to be on tour with her. I always give her credit and much respect; she’s the only female headliner I’ve ever been a part of in the show biz side … She’s one of our only girl headliners out there.”

Pardi, who also opened for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill on a couple of nights on their Soul2Soul Tour, thinks that Lambert’s role as a headliner is proof that country music continues to head in the right direction, and become more supportive of female artists.

“I feel like regardless of what you are, female or male, if you’re headliner, you’re headliner for a reason,” said Pardi. “And Miranda’s headliner for a reason. “

The “She Ain’t In It” singer hopes to duet with Lambert, at some point while they are on tour together, performing a song Lambert wrote, along with Eric Church, that will be on Pardi’s new album.

“I think she’s in,” Pardi said hopefully. “When we first started talking about her singing with me on her song she wrote, she goes, ‘Let’s just see how the end of tour is.” I said, ‘OK.’And if you know Miranda, that’s something we’re working on. It’s looking good. She’s a sweetheart, and we’re having nothing but fun on tour.”

Pardi will also perform for several shows on Luke Bryan’s What Makes You Country: XL Stadium Sized Tour. A list of all of Pardi’s upcoming shows can be found on his website.