Nothing raises the bar quite like an award for Album of the Year. So it goes for Cody Johnson, who is hard at work on his next project after winning the CMA Awards' top prize in 2024 with his LP, Leather.
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Cody came by our studios in Nashville at the Hard Rock Cafe to talk with Katie Neal about what's next, the success of his song, "The Fall," and his massive remodeling project at home. Along the way he shared some details about the upcoming album, which finds Johnson once again trying to outdo himself and only himself.
"When you win, 'Album of the Year' with 'Leather' before the 'Leather Deluxe' comes out, your back's against the wall as far as expectations," he admits. "I think I don't ever focus on trying to be better than anybody else. I really just wanna, if I can just constantly beat myself and if my next song is better than the last song, and my next project is better than that project, and my next performance is better than the last performance, then that's what keeps me motivated and driven."
"I took like a half and half approach to this record," Cody continues. "Some of this stuff is like so stone cold Country, or it's like so left Motown, or it's like really leaning Rock, or it's really leaning Bluegrass. I don't have a radio agenda with those songs. It's just I recorded these songs because I love these songs and I wanted you to hear me sing these songs, so you can take about half of that and put it over here for 'this is who I am.'"
"Then you're gonna hear certain ones on the record where you're like, 'OK, that's gonna be huge, that's gonna be a big song' and you're gonna hear that one on the radio. Trying to whittle it down. I'd like to get it down to about 16, I've got about 20 tracks and it's pretty hard because once you invest the time in the studio with them and you kind of get to know them, it's really hard."
Although Cody is "emotionally attached to all of them," he'll trim down the tracklist after listening sessions with friends, seeing which get the most play while riding around. The project also incudes a few collabs, which Johnson revealed to Katie. "I know that me and Luke Combs, we cut one together, we finally got on it."
"Brothers Osborne. That was kind of a last minute deal," he says. "I heard this song and I was like, 'man, this sounds like John and TJ.' And they had happened to be reaching out at the same time of like, 'hey, when we do our next project, would you do this song with us?' I was like, 'yeah, absolutely. Would you do this with me on my project?' So it's kind of a trade-off."
"There's a couple of collabs that haven't happened yet. It's still just a lot of cell phone conversation," explains Cody. "As a matter of fact, I got a call right before I walked in here and I had to say, 'hey, I'm walking into Katie. I'll holler back at you,' but that person is in to do the collab so far. So there's gonna be some cool surprises on here."
To hear much more from Cody Johnson, listen all week on the Superstar Power Hour during Katie & Company, and check out the full conversation above.