Cody Johnson's new “Leather Deluxe” features a song that made even him cry

Cody Johnson is now piercing hearts with his powerful new duet with Carrie Underwood, the opening single from his highly anticipated album Leather deluxe. But if you want Johnson to talk about the song on the just-released album that touched his own heart the most, he'll probably bring up a very different cut — one that even produced the self-described “rough cowboy” cry.

But then how could this proud girl dad not ponder “Come on, Cowgirl”?

At a recent media roundtable in Nashville, Johnson vividly described the moment he heard the story song — which chronicles a years-long father-daughter relationship in just 217 exquisite words — for the first time with his wife of 16 years, Brandi , and their daughters Clara shared Mae, 9, and Cori, 7.

Shortly after learning about the song as a possible album addition, the 37-year-old artist remembers rehearsing it in the barn office of his Texas ranch when his girls came over. “And I thought, 'Everyone sit down, I want to play this song,'” he remembers.

He admits he avoided eye contact with the girls just to get by – but then his wife walked in and he knew he had to start over.

“And I read the lyrics,” he says, “and tears are streaming down my cheeks… and I look up and everyone is crying and smiling at me.”

At this point it was curtains. Johnson stopped the song, put down the guitar and invited his family into a tearful hug, which was quickly followed by a firm decision. As he puts it: “How are you? not cut the song?”

“C'mon, Cowgirl” is just one of 13 new tracks that his fans expect on what is now essentially a double album – a dozen songs added to the original 12 songs released almost exactly a year ago. While so many other “deluxe” albums contain a handful of tracks equivalent to a ladle of gravy, that was never Johnson’s plan. He planned to serve, to use rancher's language, a side dish of prime beef.

Johnson said he learned from leaving a year between the two releases Humanhis double album from 2021 with 18 tracks.

“A lot of that album was skipped because it had so much content,” he recalls.

This time his label boss suggested the split, and Johnson set about creating two distinct halves of a whole: “I had to dive into each song and think, which ones are similar in tempo? Let's separate them. All clear, topic? Let's separate them somehow. Maybe in the same key or almost the same melodic structure? Let’s separate them.”

What ties the entire project together is Johnson's rich voice and his impeccable taste in song selection, starting with “I'm Gonna Love You,” his heated duet with Underwood that is now making its way up the charts.

Johnson reveals that he always had Underwood in mind for the duet. “It’s like Carrie Underwood or nobody,” he says. “I just heard her voice.” But he also reveals that her first rendition of the song – with parts recorded separately – didn't achieve the goal he had set out to achieve.

“It didn’t hit you in the face the way I thought it would, and I’m like, Man, I don’t want to waste that,” Johnson remembers. “And she says, 'I think we should sing it live.'”

The artist fondly remembers the magic of their voices as they merged in the same studio space. “I watch her mouth and I can see where each breath will be,” he says. “We just stare at each other and kind of fall apart. It was strange because it was the first time Carrie and I sang together and it was just perfect family harmony. And I think that speaks to the caliber of singer that she really is.”

Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood

Now Johnson hopes the song will work its magic on the charts. “I feel like it's big enough that it could maybe even be a pop crossover song, like a big icon,” he says. “I just want it to be its own thing.”

Johnson has co-written three pieces, including “Georgia Peaches,” which he says “fell out of nowhere.” The inspiration: the “big ol’ jug” of 80 percent Georgia peach moonshine that he keeps on his tour bus.

“It’s delicious,” Johnson says. “It’s also very, very sneaky. You have to be very careful because it’s so good.”

One evening after a show, Johnson and his bandmates Jake Mears and Jody Bartula smeared a picking session with the drink, and after a few glasses, Johnson simply blurted out the first line of today's song: “Georgia Peaches, they'll y'all in.” Pieces will break / as soon as you run them through a copper pipe.”

Luckily, Johnson was sober enough to hit record on his phone, and the resulting song — about an outlaw moonshiner — eventually found a spot on the album.

Johnson also co-wrote “The Mustang,” which he considers one of his favorite films of the project. The credit, he says, was actually a gift from collaborator Wes Bayliss after Johnson changed some parts of the tune.

“I do that all the time with songs, and no one makes me the writer, just so you know,” Johnson says. “But Wes did it.”

The song uses the life of a tamed wild mustang to tell a human story, and although Johnson says he wasn't involved in the lyrics, he immediately saw himself in them: “I used to run like a mustang / with my head down to the wind.” / at a pace too fast to recognize / the places I’ve been.”

“This song came to me at a time in my life and my career — and, to be honest, my marriage — when I felt like I had hit a real low point,” he says. “I looked in the mirror and thought: I really don't like what I see. …At this point I asked myself: Am I even worthy to pray? Does God even hear me when I pray?”

Johnson actually owns a stubborn horse that has a tendency to run away, so he easily understood the connection between a skilled rider and a higher power in the lyrics.

“As the man with the reins, I have certain parts that I can put in his mouth and that will stop him,” Johnson says of his horse. “If you apply that to your relationship with God, it's like sometimes he lets us run away – and he let me run away when I was younger. Like, “Okay, fine, go ahead. You're going to come back anyway, because if you're hungry, I'm the one who's going to feed you.” And that metaphor kind of stuck.”

The message, he says, “did something for me.”

Today, Johnson says he's in a much better place – one that allows him to reach the career highs he's enjoyed since his breakthrough 2021 blockbuster “'Til You Can't.”

“This year marks 18 years of making a living from live music, if you can even call it a living to begin with,” he says. “I've been preparing for this my whole life… I've been waiting for this my whole life, so I'm happy.”

Later this month, he'll find out if he'll reap even more of the rewards of that career success: He's nominated for five CMA awards, including Album of the Year (for). leather), Single of the Year (for “Dirt Cheap”) and Male Vocalist of the Year. He also received two nominations for Video of the Year for “Dirt Cheap” and “The Painter.”

Cody Johnson

Johnson admits he didn't even pay attention to the news the day the nominations were announced. “When I go home, I'm all over myself,” he says, “and then my phone dies and I have 48 missed calls and 107 text messages, and I'm like, 'Who died?'” And I pick up my phone and It’s all congratulations.”

Johnson, who has previously received six nominations including awards for music video and single of the year, says he's working to keep these new career opportunities in mind.

“I think if you want something too badly, you're probably going to be disappointed,” he says, but “I'm really grateful that I'm finally getting recognition in these areas, because you have to remember that I'm the guy who does that does.” 18 years ago they said: You’ll never make it in Nashville. The cowboy hat doesn't work and your music is too country for the radio. So when you get nominated for so many CMA Awards, it’s a little bit in the back of your mind.”

Of course, there's no laurels in Johnson's makeup. He has spent most of the year traveling, hitting arenas and stadiums with his Leather Tour. In January he will start a Leather Deluxe Tour. And he's already talking about getting back in the studio to “start over and really try to outdo himself.” leatherif it is possible.”

He says he's considering another duet with Jelly Roll (“Whiskey Bent” is their collaboration). leather) and possible duets with Lainey Wilson and country newbie Post Malone, who has made advances to Johnson.

“I figured when you're done duetting with everyone else in Nashville, let me know and we'll do something!” Johnson says.

He knows there could already be another hit in the rich collection of material he's constantly adding to, including a song he and his wife Brandi wrote during their lean years.

“I played her the first verse and she said the second verse should be from a woman's perspective,” Johnson says. “And I thought, 'Well, tell me what she would say.' … And we sat there and wrote this song together, and it's beautiful, but it's never been on an album before.”

Johnson recently got back into it by playing it on his tour bus just to pass the time, and he says he realized, “This is really fucking good.” This is really good.”

It's tempting to think that fans will be able to figure this out for themselves one day.