Cody Johnson joins Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen to celebrate the release of his highly anticipated album ‘Leather.’ Johnson describes his unique position in the music business, stacking his album with Song Of The Year contenders, and why he doesn’t drink whiskey anymore.
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Cody Johnson Talks to Apple Music About Kicking Off ‘Leather’ with ‘Work Boots’
I want it to kind sound like Jerry Reed. It had that funky kind of cool. I feel like in the last 10 years, Brothers Osborne have really touched on that Jerry Reed-ish type thing… I didn’t want to copy, but I need to have something that was just fun. I want you to kick on the record and go, “Yeah, here we go.” And just so you know, when you’re listening to these things, one through 12 in sequential order, that’s me preparing a live set list. That’s exactly how I would play it for you live.
Cody Johnson Tells Apple Music About ‘That’s Texas’
That was the goofiest thing we were going to put on there just because it was so dang goofy… That’s my band on there. Let me tell you how goofy this was. I took a snuff can out, an empty snuff can, and held it up in the microphone and did the percussion on it on that song… We were just in there goofing off and everybody’s so crazy about it. I’m like, that’s fun, man.
Cody Johnson Tells Apple Music About Hearing ‘Leather’ for the First Time and Knowing It Was Time to Make an Album
The day that Ian Munsick played me ‘Leather.’ We were just sitting on the bus getting to know each other, picking guitars and stuff, and he plays me the song and I’m like, “Dude, I will cut that in a heartbeat.” I was like, “That would be such a cool album title.”… And he’s like, “I didn’t even know you were cutting an album.” I was like, “I’m not, I don’t think. Maybe I am… But if you’ll give me the song, I’ll cut a record around it.” And it just happened.
Cody Johnson Tells Apple Music How Jelly Roll Ended Up Singing on ‘Whiskey Bent’
I was on my way to [Nashville] to record some vocals, and I had originally text [Jelly Roll], we’re just texting about anything. We’re just buddies. And I said, “Man, what about this song “Jesus Loves You”? It’s got a prison thing. I’m an ex prison guard. You’ve been incarcerated. It freaks people out that we’re friends because I’m the cowboy hat, you’re the face tattoos. Totally different.” I was like, “We should do this together.” And he’s like, “Man, brother, I’ll do whatever you want.” And he said, “What else you working on? What else you going to sing on tomorrow?” And I sent him ‘Whiskey Bent’ and he said, “Hey man, I’m laying in bed with my wife right now and we are both bawling.” And I’m like, “Well bro, if you feel that, if you feel that on that song, then that’s the one you need to sing with me on.”
Cody Johnson Tells Apple Music How He Goes About Picking What Outside Songs to Record
When I’m picking songs, outside cuts, I don’t want to know the writers… I’m having to go through and memorize all these writers. Half of them, I don’t know. But that opens the door for me to go meet these people and go hey, maybe we should write.
Cody Johnson Tells Apple Music How He Connects to ‘Whiskey Bent’
I’ve been that guy. And I’ll admit it… [My wife and I] got married when we were 18 and 21. We were kids. And so I made a lot of mistakes. She made a lot of mistakes. The one thing that we have that kept us together is determination, hardheadedness to just stick this out. And our love and passion for each other.
No matter how much one of us has ever hurt the other’s feelings, there’s no way we would want to be with anybody else. We know that we are where we belong with each other forever. But I had to apologize to her and say, “I did not mean what I said. I said those awful things and I didn’t mean any of it. And I will not ever drink whiskey again. I will not do that again.” And I don’t, out of principle. And it’s because of the awful things I said to her. And Jelly kind of felt the same way. He’s… “It doesn’t matter if it’s whiskey, it doesn’t matter if it was a different substance or a behavioral pattern or a mistake you made. It’s about a mistake and it lingering and you’re trying to fix it.” And that’s powerful. I think that’s why it’s so universal, because we all understand that nobody’s perfect.
