Naomi Johnson is an American country music singer-songwriter best known as the former lead vocalist of the trio Runaway June. She grew up as one of 11 children in rural Virginia, where her early life was marked by poverty and resilience. After working various jobs—including waiting tables and fishing—she saved enough to move to Nashville, where she performed at the iconic Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. As part of Runaway June, Cooke Johnson co-wrote and sang on hits like the Top 5 single ‘Buy My Own Drinks.' She left the group in 2022 to pursue a solo career, bringing her powerhouse vocals and fiery spirit to a new chapter in her musical journey.
In June 2023, as Naomi Cooke Johnson she launched her solo career with the single ‘Girls of Summer,' a nostalgic anthem inspired by her free-spirited childhood spent traveling the country in a renovated school bus. The song marked a bold new era, blending upbeat energy with autobiographical storytelling. She followed it with ‘Livin’ Ain’t Killed Me Yet,' a track that channels her tenacity and zest for life. This year she released the powerful ‘Bricks Make Houses' as Naomi Johnson, continuing to explore her upbringing and how that influences her now, as a mother, something she's stepping confidently into as she releases her latest single, ‘Mama Ain’t Jesus,' today – continuing her evolution as a solo artist with a voice rooted in grit, heart and authenticity. We were thrilled to catch up with her to talk all about it.
Thanks for speaking to us today Naomi, it's lovely to catch up with you again. What a busy year you are having with ‘Bricks Make Houses' and now ‘Mama Ain't Jesus.' ‘Bricks Make Houses' is such a personal song – there's so many fascinating lines that you drop in the song that are real ‘WTF moments'! Can you tell me a little bit more about your upbringing and how it inspired that song?
Yeah! I'm one of 11 kids – I'm number 5 in the line up! (laughing) My parents were hippies and Dad was a park ranger. Mum was a midwife and we lived amongst the Amish Mennonites whilst I was growing up and my mom was a midwife to those communities. We lived simply, we lived off the land and we were kind of barefoot and wild.
My parents were interesting people – kinda wild themselves – and we ended up leaving Virginia and travelled round the United States in a renovated school bus. It was very rugged – plywood bunks, no heating or air and no toilet! It was before people lived nomad life or van life like they do now! (laughing) We lived in national parks and state parks in the bus and we'd camp and sleep on the roof of the bus under the stars.
It started off really fun but ended really hard. My parents' marriage fell apart and my dad struggled with depression whilst my mom was bi-polar so it wasn't easy! That was part of why we lived such a wild, adventurous life, those two combinations, but if you don't get a grip on that kind of stuff early it can be really damaging.
I'm part Cherokee, native American, so being in nature is natural to me, it's the first thing that I want to do when I go anywhere so it felt really good to be living an outdoors life. We also grew up really humble and shared beds and shoes until I moved out at the age of 17 – that was my upbringing – it was exciting and whimsical in a lot of aspects but when I look back now it was also extremely hard and burdensome. It also made me tenacious and gave me a desire to work really hard for the things that I want.
How has that upbringing influenced how you want to be a mother to your own child, do you think?
Wow. No-one's asked me that before, that is a great question. I want my daughter to have the stability that I did not have. I grew up with two parents who, until I was about seven years old, were very much in love. They were pillars of their community and looked like they had it all together until it fell apart. I also want my daughter to grow up close to nature – she also has my Cherokee heritage and blood so I think that is important but I also think being outside is good for children anyway – it can help ground them and keep them focused on good things.
I want her to feel wild and independent like I did – do you know, I never went to school! We were unschooled and there is a part of that that is interesting to me. There are parts of my childhood where I wished I had got to go to school and now I'm a little bit older I wonder where I would have gone if I had gone to school – I love to read and I'm smart and I wonder what I could have done with that if I had gone to school? I was never in a classroom or had to do what authority figures told me to do so it made me very independent and I carved my own way in the world which I think came from me not having to conform in a school setting so I really want to raise my daughter to feel that she can do what she wants, I just want her to have more structure and stability than I did.
You tap into those feelings on your new song ‘Mama Ain't Jesus.' I really love the line about you keeping a loaded .45 for a reason. Tell me about the inspirations at play on that song.
Thank you. My dad was a park ranger and he was Native American, as I've mentioned, so he always hunted for our food. I didn't have a steak until I was about 15 years old! We only ate venison and fish and stuff that he could hunt. I grew up around guns and he taught us how to use them very early so I've always been comfortable around them.
The song was inspired by the realisation that came to me that my parents were just ‘figuring it all out,' you know? There was no grand plan! I was about 16 years when I just kinda went ‘Wait a minute, you don't really know what you are doing, do you?' (laughing) That can be a very scary feeling! I think we all come to a point where we realise that out parents are all just figuring it out and don't have any secret or special knowledge! I know that one day my daughter is going to figure out that I am far from perfect – I've started fights, I've told lies and yet I tell her to never do those things! She's gonna figure out that am not perfect but what I will do is kill someone for her! That's the drive behind the song. I would lay down my own life for her.
That's why I keep my gun loaded – it's right under my pillow and it's to protect her so that's what the new song is about – it's a true story, true line!
You're going to be fun at the PTA evenings when your daughter does go to school, aren't you?
(dissolves into fits of laughter) I don't want to be that parent that steps in and saves her either because she will have to work these things out for herself. I want people to see me as a mom that won't ‘F around' and I want them to see my husband that way too. We're very protective about the people we love and fiercely loyal too. I've had to step into that parental role with some of my siblings so it's something that comes easily to me – once I'm on your side, you've got me for life!
How has your creative process changed now that you are writing just for yourself? Have you connected with any specific writers around Nashville or where you live in Utah?
That's another great question. I've connected so much deeper with the writing community now that I have started to tell my own story. This record is an autobiographical album. I had some reservations about it before: you know, for the longest time I wasn't even sure that I had a story worth telling or I felt it was a little pretentious to go this deep on my own story or that I thought people wouldn't connect with it because it is such a wild and unique story.
I almost died in childbirth having my daughter and I have a really difficult relationship with my mother too so those two things combined…….. man, I started writing a whole record and had no reservations anymore about what I wanted to say and if people weren't onboard with that, then they weren't the right collaborators for me.
People's ability and desire to jump in the trenches with me and get these stories right has been so amazing. That has led me to finding my producer who is out here in Utah with me so I'm making my record out here, which has been such a beautiful gift. I drive out to a horse ranch everyday where there is a studio inside of the stables and we are making this beautiful music every day! I don't have any other influences on me right now and so it feels like we are inside this bubble here where I can really pour out my soul without any other outside influences or distractions getting in the way of that.
When you are making music in places like Nashville or L.A. what is happening around the town and what is popular at any given moment can have an effect on the people writing or working there, explicitly and implicitly. That can be a positive but it also can be a negative as it drags you away from what your original vision for your project was. For me, it feels a bit scary to be outside of those communities right now because I don't want people to think I've turned my back on the people and the writers there, I'm just making this record out in Utah right now and enjoying the freedom and lack of boundaries.
Look at somebody like Ian Munsick – he lives out in Wyoming – and he's just doing things his way and he's found an audience and a voice…….
Yes! That's inspiring. God, I love him, he's a great artist.
What's been the most challenging this you've had to face stepping out as a solo artist?
There are pros and cons to being part of a group. The pros are that everyone shares in the failures. It's not just you. Everyone makes decisions together and if you win, you win together and if you fail, that's together too. I loved the group setting – I mean, I had ten brothers and sisters so I grew up in a group, right?
On the flip side of that, there are compromises that you have to make to your artistic independence when you are part of a group. It cant be just about you – you have to work to make things work, if that makes sense? We had a different trajectory as a band whereas a solo artist it's all on your own shoulders. That can be exciting and it can be scary too. I'm not afraid of failure now as much as I used to be – we have different goals now – and it's really exciting for me to be in a room with a songwriter or my producer and we come up with something that's just totally weird!
I've been able to connect with people on a much deeper level making this music than anything else I have done in the past. Previously people were entertained by the music I put out and that was fun and I love entertaining but with this project, people have got invested in me or invested in the story and then they will open themselves and their own stories up to me. There are fans and people I have known for ten years who, out of the blue, have told me that they used to live in a car after hearing a song like ‘Bricks Make Houses.' It gives them a space to say something real and that is a very rewarding feeling.
By opening up your story to the public you are opening up other people's stories too….
Yes. That's what vulnerability does. It invites other people in to do that as well. As people, we naturally want to connect with each other but it sometimes takes an invitation and so that is what is this music is – and I didn't deliberately set out to do that but that is the path that we are on now.
You've released two ballads in a row now this year. What's the plan for the rest of the year in terms of new music? You've referenced ‘the record' a couple of times.
This will be a full-length, autobiographical record. I'm about halfway through right now. The story of my life….. (laughing) it has some intense moments but there is also some rock ‘n' roll in there too. The music, I'd say, is kinda somewhere around Sheryl Crow meets Springsteen, right? Both of them are storytellers but they also like to have some fun too so there are some tracks on my record where we are going to get a little wild with it and have some fun!
It's not ballad-heavy but it was important to me to bring ‘Bricks Make Houses' and ‘Mama Ain't Jesus' out first, to show people that I'm just about to tell a story – this is not just about me selling tickets and beer, it's more important to me than that. Uptempo doesn't necessarily equal ‘hit' – I've learned that first hand! I want to intentionally tell my story and that was built upon me releasing two ballads upfront first but there is so much more to come! I mentioned earlier that I'm from a Cherokee Indian heritage so I was able to express that heritage through my music for the first time ever and that has been so fulfilling too. I hope people will love it!
Check out Naomi Johnson's fabulous ‘Mama Ain't Jesus' song which is out everywhere in all the usual places today.
