Cody Johnson: His Impossible Dream Collaborations
Cody Johnson’s new Leather album has a collaboration with his friend Jelly Roll and with Country Music Hall of Famers Brooks & Dunn. The deluxe edition of the project, which has no release date yet, will also feature a duet with Carrie Underwood.
When we interviewed Johnson for the new album, we asked him who he would like to collaborate with in the future. He told us, “Man, it depends on what age group, it depends on what genre. You know I was lucky enough to do a collab with Willie Nelson on my last record so that I can cross that off the bucket list.”
He added that it would be impossible to collaborate with his true musical hero, “A lot of my heroes are already gone. If I had one person in the world, anytime I could do a duet with it, it would be Merle Haggard. He’s gone, and it sucks for an old soul like myself that loves country music to know that someone as wonderful as him ain’t here anymore because I’d love to do a song with him.”
Cody didn’t stop there, saying, “I’d really like to do something with Loretta Lynn, but I can’t do that either.”
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One of his country’s music heroes is still alive, although Johnson thinks a duet with him may only have a slim chance. “George Strait is one of those guys that doesn’t really do collabs. He does what he wants when he wants because he’s freaking George Strait. If I could ever get to do a cowboy song with George Strait, that might cap it off for me.”
Cody is now on top of his game. When we talked with him recently, he told us that early on in his career, before he signed with Warner Brothers Nashville, many people wanted to change his style. He said, “You just have to stand your ground. I had a big fat record deal sitting in front of me when they asked me to take my hat off, and I turned it down. At the time, I was starving. My wife and I didn’t have anything, and that was a hard pill to swallow. This is not an easy thing to do to stand up and say, ‘I know who I am already. I don’t need you to tell me who I am. This is who I am, musically and personally.'”
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