It’s been 10 years since Jon Pardi released his breakthrough album California Sunrise.
Apparently, it’s time to reboot.
Sunrise, released on June 17, 2016, stomped the competition when it debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums. Pardi kicked off its promotion with “Head Over Boots,” then followed it with “Dirt on my Boots,” both of which topped Country Airplay. That, it was widely believed, would be the end of the “boot” songs.
Pardi’s thoughts changed, though, when he struggled to relax during a post-show routine in 2023. After ripping through a concert performance, he found it difficult to free his heels and toes from confinement.
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“Sometimes when you’re wearing boots all night – especially Lucchesi, it’s real leather – they heat up and they’re hard to get off,” he says. “I was like, ‘Man, if it was coming down in prime time, and it was your time to go have some fun, you know – I can’t get my boots off quick enough – that’s a fun kind of saying.’”
Pardi carried that idea into the room during an Aug. 1, 2023, writing session with Luke Laird (“Pontoon,” “Am I Okay?”) and Wyatt McCubbin (“Sounds Like the Radio,” “Good Times & Tan Lines”) at Creative Nation on Nashville’s Music Row. Laird co-wrote “Head Over Boots,” so he, in particular, knew the unofficial moratorium Pardi had placed on “boot” themes.
“I’m like, ‘Well, he’s the artist, and he brought that in, so I guess we’re doing a boot song,’” Laird remembers. “Which I’m fine with, but it’s just so funny.”
If there were any doubts about proceeding, they faded when Pardi poured energy into the process. He was as enthusiastic in that setting as he is on stage.
“He’s a tornado in the best way, because he keeps a room moving,” McCubbin says. “With ‘Boots Off,’ it was immediate, just boots stomping on the floor. I wouldn’t be surprised if Music Row heard us that morning, just because it was so much energy, and so loud and fun, and honestly, it matches the the entire song. It started that way and kept going that way and obviously ended that way.”
Pardi had a bit of a melodic idea – it wasn’t clear if he meant it to be sung or to be an intro fragment – but Laird fleshed it out quickly on guitar, and it created a grinding signature instrumental lick for the song. “It’s like a little ‘ronka, ronka’ kind of guitar thing,” Pardi says. “It just kind of came together.”
That gave them a solid starting point, and they worked through the song in order, front to back, knowing they were headed to the “Can’t get my boots off quick enough” hook. They cast it as a couples song, rather than a singles night out, introducing the characters’ itch to go out dancing. When they reached the chorus, Pardi came up with a soaring opening line – “He is a melody machine,” McCubbin suggests – before they even had words to go with it.
That happened with the chorus’ second line, too, with Pardi introducing a slight pause that, once it had lyrics, gives him a spot to take a breath and puts a half-beat hesitation before the phrase is over. That ends up working as a unique hook: “There’s a whole lot more than a pretty good … [gulp] chance.”
“That push is where me and Luke Laird look at each other and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, let’s do that,’ because that’s not something that anyone other than Jon Pardi sings in that room for the very first time,” McCubbin says. “All of a sudden, it feels like something you’ve grown up with and heard your whole life that’s already a hit in a weird way.”
In verse two, they skipped the stereotypical truck when they needed transportation home. Instead, the couple gives instructions to a driver to get them back to the house fast. They’ve presumably taken an Uber or Lyft ride – “more of a modern way” to travel, Pardi says, before he breaks into a sarcastic snicker: “We’re going way deeper than what the song actually is.”
Eventually, the second and third choruses ran longer than the first, with an extra, energetic line – “She starts turnin’ me on and turnin’ it up” – emphasizing the action that’s in store. There’s a chance they wrote that piece into all three choruses but ended up dropping it from the first along the way.
“It gives the song a nice build,” Laird says. “You still get a little bit of repetitiveness, but then, as it builds, you get those extra couple lines in there.”
Laird produced the demo, playing that sig lick on a country-sounding Telecaster, though he intentionally kept it spare – two guitars, a drumbeat, bass and Pardi’s vocal – knowing that producer Jay Joyce (Eric Church, Miranda Lambert) prefers it that way. “If you try to fully develop it too much, it probably just cuts into his creativity,” Laird theorizes. “You do want to kind of leave it open. I’ve had that experience with Jay a lot of times.”
Pardi recorded with his road band, augmented by three additional musicians – Joyce, plus guitarists Rob McNelley and Jeff Hyde – enhancing the intensity beyond the demo by incorporating snarling slide guitar. The twisty sig lick was reimagined with two electric guitars in unison – one rockin’, one country – and they sped up the tempo by one beat per minute underneath the guitar solo as they built a track that’s as much 1980s Bon Jovi or 1990s Black Crowes as 2020s country.
“Country is the new rock ‘n’ roll in some aspects,” Pardi says. “It’s just a rock ‘n’ roll country song.”
With a touch of Will Farrell. After they tracked the instrumental foundation, drummer Kevin Murphy overdubbed an insistent cowbell. “That is all Jay Joyce,” Pardi says. “He’s the only guy that was like, ‘Cowbell.’ Then we heard it, and we’re like, ‘Okay, now we need the cowbell.’”
Pardi played it live for the first time on March 20, 2025, in Sydney, Australia, inserting it right before “Dirt on my Boots” in the set list. “It just lit up,” Pardi recalls.
Capitol Nashville released “Boots Off” to country radio via PlayMPE on Dec. 15. It’s boot-scooted to No. 41 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated Feb. 14 after three weeks on the list.
“It speaks for itself,” Pardi says. “It’s just fun, and it’s my 10-year anniversary ‘boot’ song. Hopefully it’s a ‘boot’ trifecta No. 1.”
