- 6 months ago
Cody Johnson talks with Katie Neal inside our Nashville studios at the Hard Rock Cafe, about his big house remodeling project, and the 'expectations' and details of his upcoming album. Powered by Spirt Airlines.
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00:00CMA and ACM award-winning Cody Johnson is here hanging out with us, and we were just
00:04talking taxidermy.
00:05You were saying, you've got a room that you built that is a trophy room for your actual
00:09trophies, and then your trophy kills as well, right?
00:12Is that how you would describe it?
00:13Yeah, yeah.
00:14Kills is such a horrible word.
00:15Riley Green always says, I caught one.
00:16I caught one, yeah.
00:18No, I don't think you catch an elk.
00:19Yeah, no, you definitely don't.
00:22No, we're finishing up the remodel in the house.
00:24It's been three years.
00:26The first year was mold remediation.
00:28The second year was re-engineering everything because of the redesign.
00:32It's just note to the wise, if you have any substantial income whatsoever, and you tell
00:37your wife, hey, build it how you want it.
00:39Go crazy.
00:40I can afford it.
00:40Don't say that.
00:41Because you can't.
00:42Because it turned into a full year project, and now we're building back.
00:46But we wanted our house to have a different feel, and I was like, I didn't want Cody Johnson
00:50posters and things everywhere in my house.
00:53I've been in people's houses, athletes and stuff like that.
00:56It's like, man, where are the family photos, you know?
00:59So yeah, I built a little trophy room.
01:00But it's got a golf simulator and a bar and a kitchen.
01:03It's just a space for us to have a little party to get together Thanksgiving, Christmas,
01:08a company party.
01:10But I built a studio upstairs, so I can have my own space of creative space.
01:14I've never had that.
01:15Yeah.
01:16It's like ultimate man cave vibe.
01:17It's real.
01:18Yes, it is very much a man cave.
01:19It sits right at the end of my rope and around.
01:20What is your favorite thing in your man cave?
01:22So right now we're doing a penny floor in the bar.
01:26But isn't that, I've seen people like do this on TikTok by hand, and it's like a crazy thing.
01:30It's insane.
01:31And I've got two guys that are really good.
01:33They're not a flooring company.
01:35They're artists.
01:36Yeah.
01:36And so there's all these shiny pennies.
01:38But then my branch logo, the J-Bar C, is in pesos.
01:42And it's surrounded by like this mosaic, like square looking thing with three rows of like
01:48dark pennies.
01:49And we hid like two of them are tails up.
01:52One's a shield.
01:52One's a building.
01:53There's a Canadian penny in there.
01:55That's fun.
01:56There's a wheat penny.
01:57Yeah.
01:57And it's at the bar.
01:58So like after everybody gets some cocktails in them, they're going to be walking around
02:01with their hands and knees trying to find it.
02:01If you're going to be down on your hands and knees anyway, you might as well pretend that
02:04you're looking for something, right?
02:05Yeah.
02:05Oh my God.
02:06I love that.
02:07What is like your latest project out at the ranch that you guys are working on?
02:10Well, we just, I mean, as you know, we had this freeze.
02:13So, I mean, the ranch has been a five-year process, building hay barns, purchasing more
02:18land, purchasing more cattle and selling more cattle and raising, you know, baby horses,
02:23little colts and fillies and sending them off to go get the proper training before we
02:28start entering them up in the rope and fertility world.
02:30But this freeze was, this was the first year I've ever had fall calves.
02:33I've never, I've always had spring calves.
02:36And I've sold all my Brahmin cows last year and bought Charlay, a friend of mine, Chef
02:42Austin Simmons.
02:42You guys can look him up.
02:43He's got a company called Chef and Rancher.
02:46He's opening a restaurant called Charlay in Houston, I believe next month.
02:50Okay.
02:51Anyway, but these are French Charlay cows bred to Wagyu bulls so that we can raise them
02:55for his beef product for his restaurant.
02:57And they're not as hearty as my Brahmin cows were.
03:00So we've, we've lost a few calves this year.
03:02Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
03:03It is what it is as part of ranching.
03:05But also kind of cool that you'll be able to go into a restaurant in Houston and eat
03:08meat that came from Coney Trap.
03:09I raised, yeah.
03:10Oh my God.
03:11Wait, so I do want to ask you about the name of the ranch because that has influenced,
03:15I believe I read this right, the name of your new baby boy.
03:18Yeah.
03:18Congratulations to your ride last fall.
03:20Is that correct?
03:20Did I have that right?
03:21Was the internet right?
03:22Yes, for once.
03:23No, no AI on that one.
03:25We can talk about AI here in a minute.
03:27Yeah.
03:27I've, I've been busy this year according to AI.
03:29I'm sure.
03:30Yeah.
03:30Right.
03:30We all have.
03:31Yeah.
03:31Um, no, it was so originally when I started my LLC for my ranch and everything, it was
03:36Johnson land and cattle.
03:38So a proper, you know, brand to go on a cow or a horse is just J bar C after we'd already
03:44registered the brand, all of our cattle and our horses are brand in the state of Texas,
03:47kicked it back and said, it's already, it's already in use.
03:50And it hadn't been in use since 1986.
03:52We tried to buy the rights from the family and they wouldn't sell it.
03:55And so my business manager, Katie said, why don't you just do Kojo land and cattle?
04:01Like nobody's going to have that.
04:02So that is our blanket LLC that owns, we just kept it the J bar C ranch.
04:07Well, people that don't know how to read a cattle brand, just say the JC ranch.
04:10And so we, when we had, we found out we were having a boy, it was like J A Y C E E.
04:15Like that's little JC.
04:16Oh my God.
04:16That's perfect.
04:17That also just reminds me of like the episode of landman that I just saw where he had to
04:19make an LLC and it was like something, something ranch and cattle.
04:23And they're like, we don't have cattle.
04:24He's like, just, we need the dumbest name.
04:25Yeah.
04:26So that nobody has it.
04:27No way they can't take it from you.
04:29Exactly.
04:29How is baby boy JC doing?
04:31He cries and poops and sleeps a lot.
04:33Yeah.
04:34Are the girls like obsessed with him?
04:36I imagine they're treating him like their little baby doll, right?
04:38Oh yeah.
04:38It was just crazy because you know, when we had Clara, um, in 2015, it was like, that's your
04:44first child.
04:45So you're like all in.
04:46And then two years later we have Corey.
04:47It's like, I just did all this.
04:49This was easy.
04:49When you skip eight years and have a baby, I was like, so out of practice.
04:53I told my wife, I was like, look, nothing about me says comes equipped with instant maternal
04:57instincts.
04:58Help me.
04:59Tell me what to do.
05:00Yeah.
05:01Yeah.
05:01I thought you got rid of all the diapers and all that stuff.
05:03Like, I'm sure you're like, how do I do this again?
05:05He's, he's fun though, man.
05:07He smiles a lot.
05:08He giggles.
05:09I've got him to where if I, it's really different.
05:11Cause like with my girls, it was always, they were very snuggly with dad.
05:13And all daddy's beautiful little girl and him, like the rougher, the rougher I am with
05:19him, the more he laughs, like I can grab him by the feet and scare him.
05:23And he giggles and smiles.
05:25And then he gets with mom and he's like a little sweet baby.
05:29Oh my gosh.
05:31I love that.
05:32Well, I'm happy to hear that.
05:32Everybody's doing good.
05:33That the house remodel is coming along.
05:34Great.
05:35Let's talk music.
05:36We've got a single doing really well right now.
05:38Tell me about, yeah, I think.
05:40Tell me about the fall when you heard it, what you loved about this song, why you felt
05:45like it fit your catalog.
05:46Well, I don't, I don't want to like pigeonhole the idea, but it felt to me like, it felt to
05:52me kind of like a till you can't part two, because till you can't talks about doing all
05:58these things before it's too late.
06:00But to me, the fall was a retrospective.
06:03It was looking back at the reason I think it relates to me for till you can't was till
06:07you can't was so universal.
06:09Anyone can relate to that in any sense of, you know, your occupation, your marriage, your
06:14goals, your career, whatever.
06:15But I think we can all do that with the fall.
06:17And that's where it got me was like thinking about my career and how long it took being independent
06:24and being told no so much.
06:26I'm so much more wise.
06:28And if you were to dig into my record deal in my publishing contract, that time as independent
06:35really worked out really well for me financially, but it wouldn't happen if I hadn't had those
06:40hard times being broke and not really knowing what, you know, what tomorrow brings.
06:44So in that instance, like the ride was worth the fall, you know, I had a rodeo career that
06:49didn't work out, but that led me to where I am now.
06:53You know, I've got, I'm more, I'm doing more cowboy stuff now than I ever was rodeo.
06:56And so again, the ride was worth the fall.
06:59Exactly.
07:00You know, my marriage with Brandy has not always been great or perfect and it's been my fault.
07:05It's been her fault.
07:06And there's been times where, you know, 16 years of marriage where we thought, man, are
07:10we going to make it?
07:10But, but here we are, you know, just had our little boy and like, we're moving into our
07:14house and it's like, man, the ride was worth the fall and, and who knows, you know, there
07:18may be more of a, a ride coming, you know, but I just felt like this song would relate
07:23to people all over the world.
07:25Um, and then getting to go overseas last year and play it, I saw it relate to people all
07:29across the world and it was just, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
07:32Yeah, it really is incredible.
07:33And I feel like you also had a really cool moment not that long ago.
07:36You finally gave us Traveling Soldier, like after years and years and years.
07:41Everybody talks like I held that song hostage or something.
07:43It was like five years ago.
07:44I remember like, I would get so excited when I'd see a video, it would be a Monday after
07:48you played a show over the weekend and it'd be like, Cody Johnson played Traveling Soldier
07:50this weekend.
07:51I'm like, oh great.
07:52Yeah.
07:52So talk about this song and like this one-off cover that you did that became something so
07:57much bigger.
07:58Well, it was in 2020 when we were doing all of our like COVID sessions because we were bored
08:01to death and we wanted to play music and we were trying to come up with cool stuff to
08:05play.
08:06Like I did one night, I did a song, uh, Jay Buchanan wrote the song.
08:10He's the lead singer of a rival sons, a rock band.
08:13And we did one like that, you know, and I think it was Jody, my fiddle player was like,
08:16we should do a chick song, not like the chicks, but like just a, just a female song.
08:20Like, and that's kind of where the Reba, whoever's in new England idea kind of started to come
08:25around.
08:25It's like, nobody would expect me to play a female song, especially from a female perspective.
08:30And I just thought, man, what about traveling soldier?
08:33Obviously I know Bruce Robertson from Texas wrote that song and I was one of the writers
08:38on the song and, uh, we did it and I had no idea that it was going to come back later
08:42on.
08:43Uh, we, we actually just put it in the set and people were going crazy.
08:47And then we started showing up to shows and there were, there were signs in the crowd
08:51that didn't say the fall or till you can't, they said play traveling soldier.
08:54And then like, I saw all this media frenzy on the internet about it.
08:58And so we moved it into our encore and it was like, we'd already played all the number
09:02ones.
09:02We've already had all the big moments of the show, walk back on stage to play traveling
09:06soldier.
09:07And it was like the first song of the set.
09:08Like there was just a different energy.
09:10So I just said, man, it doesn't fit the album that I'm working on right now.
09:13It really didn't fit my project that I'm working on.
09:16I said, why don't we just release it like on veterans day, just around veterans day and
09:21just tip our hats to those who serve.
09:22And it's, it's done incredible.
09:25That's amazing.
09:25I'm so happy that you did.
09:26I love when a song like grows legs of its own and it's like, you can't ignore this
09:30anymore.
09:30Like people want it.
09:31So it definitely begged for itself to be put out because it just kept coming back
09:36and coming back.
09:36But to put it in perspective last year, total streams of all music of mine, traveling
09:43soldier has already surpassed a quarter of that entire total.
09:46It's crazy.
09:47So yeah, the fans definitely wanted it.
09:49That is incredible.
09:50I love that and then I also just love the collab that you recently put out with Brandon
09:54Lake.
09:55Yeah, that was one cowboy praise.
09:56Talk about this song.
09:57Again, that was the fans talking.
09:59He, he does something that I don't do.
10:01Like if I write a good song or if I have a good song, I'll keep it so close to my vest
10:05for sometimes two years before I put it out and say, here's the, here's what, here's
10:10the version I want you to hear.
10:11He's the opposite of me.
10:12Like if he writes one on a Friday, he'll get up on stage and just play it acoustic on Saturday
10:16and say, what do y'all think?
10:16And he did it and the internet broke and said, Kojo, Kojo, Kojo.
10:21And so my phone rings, I'm sitting on the couch and my phone rings and he's like, Hey,
10:25it's Brandon Lake.
10:26I don't know if you've heard.
10:27I'm like, yeah, I heard.
10:30He's like, I think we kind of need to record this song.
10:33So again, it goes back to giving the fans what they asked for.
10:35It really is.
10:36It's incredible.
10:36Such a good song.
10:37And then there were a couple of things I wanted to follow up with you on that we talked
10:39about the last time you were here.
10:40And one of them was how you want to start dipping your toe in the world of acting, but
10:46scheduling wise has not worked out.
10:47Is that something that's still on your radar or?
10:50Yeah.
10:50Like secretly, I'm a, I'm a cinema guy.
10:53Like I just love, I love the art of especially like seeing different tricks that producers
10:58do or different characters that different actors that play different parts.
11:02And I'll like, especially if I'm watching a show by myself, I can mimic, I'm really good
11:07at impersonations.
11:09No.
11:09Okay.
11:09Wait, wait, no.
11:10Who's your best one?
11:11I don't know.
11:12I can do a lot of them, but like even like mimicking.
11:14No, I'm looking at Jackson.
11:15Who's his best one?
11:16Somebody tell me.
11:16No.
11:16Even mimicking different accents.
11:18Okay.
11:19Like I'll just, I'll just try to like, it's, it's interesting to me to try to put yourself
11:22in that other place.
11:23Like maybe this character's Australian and he's really dark.
11:26And then the next character is like an old Western thing or, you know, like you're the, you're
11:31the criminal or you're like the, the hero, you know, just, but I've got a lot going on.
11:37So I don't know, maybe acting will come around someday, but, uh, right now between the ranch
11:42and the album and coming back off of my exploded eardrum to tour.
11:46So how is your eardrum?
11:48It's good.
11:49Fully healed.
11:49I just actually spent seven days a couple of weeks ago in the studio doing all my vocals
11:54for this new album that I'm putting out.
11:56And it felt really great.
11:58My, and honestly, my vote, my voice sounded better than it ever has.
12:01Cause I got three months off.
12:02Yeah.
12:02I'm sure that it did talk about this next project.
12:05And like, I know you can't say a lot about it, but what can you tell us about the next
12:08era?
12:09Um, well, when you win a album of the year with leather before the leather deluxe comes
12:14out, you're, you're kind of your backs against the wall as far as expectations.
12:19And so, um, you know, I think I don't ever focus on trying to be better than anybody else.
12:26Like I really just want to, if I can just constantly beat myself and if I, if my next
12:31song is better than the last song and my next project is better than that project and my
12:34next performance is better than the last performance, then that's what keeps me motivated
12:38and driven.
12:39And so my goal was to maybe not put out a double album.
12:43Uh, I feel like a lot of songs don't get the light of day that they deserve whenever there's
12:46that many songs.
12:47Um, but I did kind of, it took like a half and half approach to this record.
12:53Some of this stuff is like, so stone cold country, or it's like, so left Motown or it's
12:59like really leaning rock or it's really leaning bluegrass.
13:03Like I don't have a radio.
13:05Um, I don't have a radio agenda with those songs.
13:07It's just, I recorded these songs because I love these songs and I wanted you to hear
13:11me sing these songs.
13:12So you can take about half of that and put it over here for this is who I am.
13:16And then you're going to hear certain ones on the record where you're like, okay, that's,
13:20that's going to be huge.
13:21That's going to be a big song.
13:22And you're going to hear that one on the radio and, um, trying to whittle it down.
13:26I'd like to get it down to about 16.
13:28I've got about 20 tracks and it's, it's pretty hard because once you invest the time in the
13:33studio with them and you kind of get to know them, it's how do you, yeah.
13:36How do you cross one off the list?
13:38It's really hard.
13:39I have a trick that I do and I put them all in a drop box and I'll just listen, especially
13:45for like my friends that don't play music or don't know anything about music.
13:47I will just ride around and just listen, get their reactions from the song.
13:52And after about a month, I'll notice there'll be two of them that I haven't clicked on in
13:57a month.
13:58And if I haven't clicked on it, I don't think you're going to click on it.
14:01Interesting.
14:02And maybe it's not that it's, it's not that it's a bad song.
14:04It's not that we did a bad job.
14:05It's just, maybe it's not flowing with the rest of the songs on the project, you know?
14:10That's a good way to test that out for sure.
14:11Yeah.
14:11It's, it's hard though.
14:12I feel like I'm emotionally attached to all of them.
14:15I'm sure.
14:16Are there any collabs on this album potentially?
14:19Do you know yet?
14:20Yeah.
14:20We've, uh, I know that me and Luke Combs, we, we cut one together.
14:24Um, I was going to ask you about that cause we talked about it the last time.
14:27Yeah.
14:27We finally got that done.
14:29Um, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
14:30Brothers Osborne.
14:31That was, so that was kind of a last minute deal.
14:33I heard this song and I was like, man, this sounds like John and TJ and they had happened
14:38to be reaching out at the same time of like, Hey, when we do our next project, would you
14:41do this song with us?
14:42And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
14:43Would you do this with me on my project?
14:46So it was kind of a trade off.
14:47Yeah.
14:47Um, and there's, there's a couple, there's a couple of, uh, collabs that haven't happened
14:52yet.
14:53It's still just a lot of cell phone conversation.
14:55Like, as a matter of fact, I got a call right before I walked in here and I had to say,
14:59Hey, I'm walking into Katie.
15:00I'll holler back at you.
15:01But that person is in to do the collab so far.
15:05So there's, there's going to be some cool surprises on here.
15:07I'm very excited to hear this.
15:09Um, another kind of like silly question I wanted to ask you about is, you know, whenever I see
15:13you, you were like always in your uniform, your whole team, everybody's in their
15:16cowboy hats, their pressed jeans, a little blazer.
15:18Like, I feel like you always look so buttoned up.
15:20So I'm curious, like, is it easy for you to still go out in public?
15:23Like if you're in like gym shorts and a ball cap, like, can you go to the grocery store
15:26or do people, do you still like still find you?
15:27It used to be like, I thought I could put on, you know, a t-shirt or, you know, a hoodie
15:32and, you know, like joggers or shorts and some, and it doesn't work.
15:38No, not anymore.
15:39Not anymore.
15:40Things have definitely changed.
15:41So I, you know, I, I stay pretty reclusive whenever I get home, but we live in a pretty small
15:45town that is now for the most part, they're over it.
15:49Yeah.
15:50They're like, ah, this is Cody Johnson.
15:51Yeah.
15:51I mean, like when you see me at the same Mexican restaurant sitting in the same table, it's
15:55like, Hey, you know, and it's mostly an old like cattle ranch town.
16:00Yeah.
16:00And so a lot of it is like, you can walk up to the table with the older gentlemen sitting
16:03around talking about ranching and they're, they don't, they don't care.
16:06You know, they're just proud of you, boy.
16:08Keep doing a good job, you know?
16:09And so, but yeah, outside of where I live, uh, I have to have a security team.
16:14Thus the big man back here.
16:17I bet.
16:17And then you are going to be playing Rodeo Houston.
16:20Yeah.
16:20Talk about what did it like, what does it mean to you every year when you get to play Rodeo
16:23Houston?
16:24What do you love about this?
16:24Well, it's been a while.
16:25I mean, we, we kind of bowed out of it for a little while.
16:28Um, you know, I think that a lot of artists get caught up in like, you feel like you have
16:33to do the same thing.
16:34It's like, man, you kind of need to demand like less is more a lot of times.
16:37And so we did a couple of years ago.
16:40It might've been last year.
16:41We played a two back-to-back shows at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion there in Houston.
16:45And, uh, basically over two nights played for the same amount of people and financially
16:49it actually worked out better.
16:51Um, so we still hit the market, but there's something special about Houston Rodeo, uh,
16:57for me, because I feel like that was a pivotal moment in my career, getting that call up in
17:002017 to come play that really, I got the opportunity to prove to the world, like we deserve to be
17:07here.
17:07Me, this band, this management, this, this record deal, this crew, we deserve to be on
17:13this stage.
17:14And then from, from there on, you know, it just, it turned into wildfire.
17:18Yeah.
17:18Um, but I always wanted to come back and do the show that George Strait does.
17:21No Rodeo.
17:22It's a standalone.
17:22I get to bring a couple of my buddies out to play and it's Brandy Houser and John Party.
17:26And, um, it's going to be a huge night.
17:28And so hopefully we sell it out and maybe get close to George Strait's record.
17:33Yeah, no, you will.
17:33You feel very confident in that.
17:35And then last thing I want to ask you a little bit silly, but we have you on this week right
17:39before Valentine's day.
17:40So what is your like, uh, pro tips as a husband, what to do or not to do around Valentine's
17:45day for the guys?
17:46You know, it's, this is going to be a silly answer.
17:49Like we've never celebrated Valentine's day.
17:51I could see that.
17:51Like maybe when we were dating, you know, and we were still in the phase of like, I really want
17:55you to like me and you do the thing, you buy the flowers and you buy the chocolates, but
17:59like I'm playing a show on Valentine's day.
18:02So I'll probably just have some flowers delivered to the ranch to probably my wife, my girls and
18:08my sister-in-law that lives there on the ranch, just kind of, this is the extra, the other
18:13women in your life.
18:14That's the pro move.
18:15It's like when you send them to your wife's sister or your mom or her mom, that's the pro
18:20we've never been like my tattoo.
18:21I've got tattoos for all my kids and, uh, my tattoo on my right shoulder is a big
18:25rose for Corey because she was born on February 12th.
18:28And I would say that's like the best Valentine's present I've ever had.
18:31So that, that's about it.
18:32Oh, amazing.
18:33Well, listen, thank you so much for the time.
18:34I really appreciate you making the trip to come in here and see us and how busy you are.
18:38So great to see you as always.
18:39Cody Johnson.
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