Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Cody Johnson Spills Deluxe Details

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Cody Johnson Spills Deluxe Details · Inside Country with Wayne D

0:00
Knowing you, it's little, but knowing you as much as I do,
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that Bridgestone show hit a reset button for you, or you know what I
0:08
mean, Like it felt I could see in your eyes and in your face
0:11
and in your smile. You let people in that night and you normally don't
0:16
do that. Well, here's the difference, you know, when you spend
0:20
over a decade in that town being told you're not gonna make it your Texas,
0:26
your cowboy, you know your two traditional you know, neo traditional leaning,
0:31
You're not going to sell records. There's a lot of work that goes
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into going and doing an independent career and then making the type of deal that
0:37
I did with Warner Music Nashville to get to the point where we have radio
0:41
hits and we are selling out places like Bridgestone. I mean, and between
0:44
me and you and whoever's watching this, really we probably could have done back
0:49
to back nights, but you know, we just be in that position.
0:52
That town was more so an accomplishment than any other show that I think I've
0:57
ever played. I mean, you go sell out Houston Rodeo seventy five thousand
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tickets. Well, I'm from Texas, I'm supposed to write. That's what
1:03
people always said. But when you saw it Bridgestone in Nashville, it was
1:06
a statement. And when I got to walk in there, it was almost
1:07
like a McGregor walks into the octagon. It's like, Hey, I'm not
1:11
here to play. I'm here to show you guys exactly who I am and
1:14
exactly what the damage I've come to do. Man. And that's that's what
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it felt like on stage, and that at that point when you get a
1:21
crowd like that and you can slow down and be quiet and you can hear
1:25
a pin drop, you know, oh my god, this is the most
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this is the largest most intimate show I think I've ever played. So you
1:30
I'm glad you caught that because it was real. Yeah, I could.
1:33
I could see it in your face and you're and when I say you're not,
1:36
I feel like you don't necessarily let people in. I mean, you're
1:38
still working your ass off and putting on a great show. I don't mean
1:42
that by any means, But there was something about the look in your eyes
1:45
and in your face that night that like that was that was it's gonna be
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tough to beat that night. Well, it didn't help that, right,
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before the show, I got presented with a plaque that had like seventeen triple
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platinum and platinum and gold records and all this crap on it, and the
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radio room felt more like a meet and greet, and I was like,
2:01
everybody's telling me, oh, you're it. You know, you're saving country
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music and all this stuff. And I was going like, boy, if
2:07
there's ever been a night to let it all hang out, tonight the night.
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But you put on a hell of a show man, and congratulations a
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night. It's a night that's been too long in the making, but very
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well deserved. Man. When you got off stage that night, I feel
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like you're a guy that feels accomplished every show, right, Like, and
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maybe there's things that you noticed that a fan wouldn't that you like, got
2:28
to fix that for next time, got to fix when you got off stage
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that night, what was there a feeling that you've never had before? Was
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it? Was it different? Like? What was it about wrapping up that
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show that might have been different from you know, the night before, the
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weekend before, the year before. Man, there's you know, whether you're
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whether you're riding bulls, playing football, whatever you're doing, you always feel
2:47
like you could have been better. You know, you could have been better
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in some way, whether you're whether you're on stage, you feel like you
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could have been better. Uh, that night, I felt like we threw
2:57
the perfect game. It was like, man, nothing went wrong. It
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was almost like auto. It was too easy. It was too much fun.
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And it reminded me of like why I play music in the first place.
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It should be that fun, It should be that fluid, it should
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be that easy. And then afterwards I came to the bus, got my
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little girls and my wife. We went to the after party and hung out
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for a little bit and my kids complained because they didn't have chicken nuggets at
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the after party. It was pretty simple night. Man, that brings you
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down to earth real quick. Sold out one of the biggest buildings in country
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music doing you Dad, there's no chicken nuggets. They had lobster and like
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filet bys and stuff. And then they're like that they don't have like giral
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cheeses and chicken nuggets. You. You know what's funny about that is the
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kids are off today for some reason. I know Monday is a holiday,
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but they're off today too, And I'm in Williamson County, so just south
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of Nashville and so as I just walked in from coming back from the studio.
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I'm working from home the rest of the day. My son had left
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over chicken nuggets, so I go ooh, and I dipped one and the
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yeah, right, take me through now. I want to talk obviously the
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number one song, but the album Leather is seeing a ton of success and
4:06
every time I turn around. The cool thing is if we interact with your
4:10
fans at the show, we interact with fans of Cody Johnson on the radio,
4:13
on social media. You're to the point now where when you're like,
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what's your favorite song, you're getting album cuts just as much as you're getting
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singles, which has got it, which has got to be a great feeling.
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But for you, do you look past this album now? I know
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that last time we talked there was you were poking around on the idea of
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like a deluxe or like a part two, or where are you at with
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that deluxe album? The deluxe edition of Leather. There's thirteen more songs coming
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and we'll have it out in the fall. We're gonna be coming a right
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back with right after the Painter. We're coming with Dirt Cheap, everybody was
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like, you need to go tempo, You need to go tempo. Look,
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you want tempo, come to my show. It's very energetic. I
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don't think I'm ever gonna be labeled as a ballad guy. But when you
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have a song like dirt Cheap that's already charting and we haven't gone for ads
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yet, like, why would you not go to radio with that song?
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So many people at the shows we're playing Dirt Cheap and they're singing it just
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as loud as the painter, and I'm going, man, this is this
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is the song? You know, But there's so many songs on this album,
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like People in the Back. I recorded that just to go play it
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live shows. We have an entire light show around the song People in the
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Back, and it's like, you know, you know me, man,
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I'm never gonna chase the number one I'm gonna chase songs I believe in.
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Whether their spot is that one time I play a long live country music with
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Brooks and Done, that may be the only time we ever play it live.
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But we recorded it for that purpose and it still has a statement piece
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on the record. Now, the deluxe edition will come out sometime in the
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fall, sometimes September through November ish. I'm not really sure where that'll be,
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but there will be DSPs coming out before that to kind of to kind
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of guide people into the next part of the record. I still I feel
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like we've got a lot of singles to go, you know, either from
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Leather. We want to call it Part one or Part two, just because
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it was such an integral record in the in the in the point that we
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went into make a record to make a record, not to go get anything.
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We were just making country music. And I think that that alone,
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in and of itself, is a statement, and it stands alone when you
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say it's it's a deluxe edition or Leather to two point zero whatever, it's
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thirteen songs, that's a whole new album. Why why do they fit under
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the Leather category versus a whole new album. Well, because whenever I was
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picking songs for Leather, I just picked good songs, and I was writing
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and trying to stay with good songs, and I was like, shit,
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now we've got twenty four of these things, Like and I just did Human
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the double album, and I didn't want to create another double album. So
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what Chris Lacey with Warner suggested was since these songs all hold value together in
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and of themselves as one piece of work, why don't we just split it
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up and then that we can have similar artwork. We can have similar here.
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Sorry, this i'v thing. Are you are you? Are you?
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Are you bleeding this a little bit? No, I feel like they will
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compliment them. So here's what I did when I took twelve and twelve and
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separated them, and I made sure that subject matter wise, tempo wise,
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key, all that stuff was separate, so that if I had two set
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lists, two twelve song set lists, I could play you two different set
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lists, but it's all still the same show, you know, so it's
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like each one. It's basically if I were to play you in the same
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if I play two Knots at Bridgetome, I could play leather and then I
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could play leather with the deluxe edition has two different set lists, and so
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that's kind of where my thought process was. So let me ask you this.
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I spent five years on the radio in Las Vegas. That's where I
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first Well, I met you at Stage Coach, but I was working for
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the Vegas radio station at the time. George Strait had his residency in Vegas
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and he would play back to back nights. That was his thing during this
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residency. He'd go Friday Saturday, come back in a couple weeks Friday Saturday,
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and he would do sixty songs his all of his number ones, and
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he would do that Night one, you get thirty, Night two, you
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get thirty, and he'd mix it up any part of that inspired by King
7:59
George. For you, it's ironic not to no, but not really.
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I mean I didn't even know that fact. Honestly, I think it was
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more so I went in to make a record, picked the songs I wanted,
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and I thought, man, this is a lot. I don't want
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to do the same thing twice. How do we make it different? And
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I thought about doing a part one and a part two, but that separates
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it. You know, if you're doing a volume one and a Volume two's
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two different volumes. But if it's I found out that if you release it
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within three sixty five days, then it's still part of one record, and
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then once you have it on your iTunes and your whatever you need, it's
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all one record. And all the singles that I release from Leather and Leather.
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Deluxe editions all still count towards one album, which to me matters for
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things like Album of the Year nominations and things like that. So when it
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comes to obviously we get the painter, you're talking, Dirt Cheap is next.
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If Dirt Cheap wasn't performing the way it was like organically, would you
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have just been like cool on a part? Now? No, I think
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that there's other choices that I could have made all of this record that might
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have had a little bit different flair to him. I thought Leather was a
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great song just because it kind of personifies me as a cowboy as a person.
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But then I was like, man, you know, it's a little
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close to dear Rodeo. There was a lot of other things that I could
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have done besides that. But I've got some surprises on Uh honestly, I
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might have gone whiskey bit with jelly Roll. Uh, you know, but
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there's some smart there's some surprises left on the deluxe edition, and I think
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are gonna blow people's minds. It's funny because I'll ask questions about what's next
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for you to like your team and everything, and everyone will hint. No
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one will say nothing. I'm like, y'all got this locked up. Okay,
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that's fine. I know now all get mad at me because I'll I'll
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tell a little subtle hints and they're like, don't do that, don't do
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that. The music is coming, well, we're excited for it. Man.
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Uh speaking of the Bridgetone show, and you brought up the special moment
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you had with Brooks and Done, Nashville is a city that almost expects that,
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right, like we're spoiled. You never know who's gonna pop up at
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any point. Was it always Brooks and Done? Or did you put a
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couple of irons in the fire to see who else you could possibly get?
10:07
No, it was so we always planned are you out? Sorry, hold
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on just a second. You're the only guy I could do this with.
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Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Enjoyed talking to you. Thanks
10:15
for taking care of my friend. Uh No, it was always so.
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I approached Rannie and Kicks and they they were just like, man, we
10:24
got to check our dates. We got suphe we're at I called Jelly.
10:28
Jelly had to be at the Grammys, had to be at the Grammys,
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and then uh, he was gonna try to get a jet. He was
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gonna go play in l A and then get a jet and flying in time
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for the show. But there was no way possible he could make it.
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And I even was gonna put it as the encore, the last song of
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the night, and you know, he's like, man, Cody, I'm
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gonna I'm gonna catch you the next time you play. I promise you I'll
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be there, and this and that and and then I just happened to be
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texting Randy Hawser, who's a good friend of mine, and I was like,
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He's like, I'm coming back from Australia. Actually it was the day
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before. He's like, I'll be I'm not gonna I'm gonna make your bridgetone
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show. I'm gonna try to make it back in time. And I was
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like, so you text me the next day. He's like, hey,
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I'm definitely gonna make it back in time. And I went, well,
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you want to do mamas, don't let your babies grow up the cowboys.
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He's like what key I said, key a. He's like perfect. I
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mean it was like zero rehearsal. Said do you need your mix? He
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goes, no, I need a microphone in two witches I was like,
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you, dude, he's a rock star. That's so awesome. Man,
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knowing that you are a country music fan yourself, which is why you are
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where you are right we last time we talked, and this is probably before
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Bridgestone was even on the books for you, knowing you're a rodeo guy,
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I said, would you rather play Bridgestone or ride at Bridgestone? And you
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said play Bridstone. Well, now you've done that, and you did it
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at one of the highest levels. So is Cody Johnson ready to ride at
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Bridstone? No, man, I'm way past those days. If I ever
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get on a bull again, it'll be for charity, and I'll train for
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a year before I do it. People underestimate, people underestimate how hardcore that
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sport is. Man. And you know, I've done really well team rope
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in this year. I actually last weekend in Brian, Texas, I won
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a us A US Team Roping Championship, So it was pretty fun, man.
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And like you know, like I go to Bridgetown. I'm not even
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gonna tell you the money we made. And then I go out and I
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go to a Team rope and I split six thousand dollars and I lost my
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mind. It was like in that Jackson you know, Jackson goes Jackson,
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my tour manager goes, you know. That's what I love about you is
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He's like, you can go perform at the highest level and and sell out
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this this freaking huge arena, just shy of Nissan Stadium pretty much. And
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he's like, and then you go get excited about three thousand bucks in a
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belt buckle and I'm like, that's who I am. Man. Then that's
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three g's you didn't have the day before, dude, And I made it
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with a rope. Man. Uh, when it comes, I will wrap
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shortly here. When it comes to career milestones, right, and like obviously
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the Bridgetone play was there more maybe more personal than anything else, right to
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be like I thought I couldn't do it right? Right, What what's left
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for you to be? I don't want to say to be happy, because
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I know that you're fulfilled by being you every day. Right, But you
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look back on your career some date, your kids study your career a little
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more. What are moments that that you will pull out now and you hope
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to be able to pull out like, yeah, I did that, man,
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Like performing on the opera with my little girls the night before Bridgstone was
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really cool. I've gotten to become pretty good friends with Colin Reid, who's
13:26
who owns the Opry, and man, he's a great guy. And I've
13:30
always had a passion for the Opry and I've always wanted to become a member.
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Now, look when you're starving and you're in a white van, like
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you can't go play the Opry on Tuesday night because I had to go play,
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you know so. But now I'm at the point in my career where
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like, I don't, I don't care, it doesn't I'll play it for
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free. I just I'll fly. I'll get a jet, fly up on
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Tuesday night with my little girls and play three songs and go back home.
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Because I love country music and I love the heritage that we have with the
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Opry. So getting to share the stage with them and stand in that circle,
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I hope that they look back and go, wow, that was so
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cool and I didn't even know it, Like Dad put us in the circle
14:00
at the Opry, you know, and selling out the Rhyman was always very
14:05
special to me. I can still remember though, like whenever playing the Grizzly
14:07
rolls in Denver and playing back to back nights was something that was so incredible
14:13
to me, and I miss thirty five hundred capacity bar and it was some
14:15
of the most fun I ever had. I played there with one hundred and
14:18
two degree fever, man, And that's back when you could go on stage
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with one hundred two degree fever and nobody freaked out over COVID like, yeah,
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I played, They're sick. I played, They're tired, And those
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milestones like that are something. There are things I'll never forget, man,
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like I'll never forget some of the smaller I say smaller, but on a
14:33
on the scale, like the beginnings of what got me there. But now
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I'm at a point where I'm looking. I saw bridgetone and the first thing
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I thought of the other night when I walked off stage was Nissan. I
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want to move to the stadiums. I want to step into that big arena
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and go look, man, I can I can adapt to this too and
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hold seventy five thousand people in the palm of my hand, because I feel
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like, dude, I feel like that's what I was born to do.
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It's not an arrogance thing. It's not a clout thing. It's not a
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money thing. It's a I always want a new mountain like it. And
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I'm maybe it's a self deprecating type scenario, like every time I accomplished something,
15:07
I always look up and go, well, next, what's next?
15:11
You know? How how can? And something else I wanted to compliment you
15:16
on. And this is something I'm glad you brought up playing Nissan because it's
15:20
something I wanted to say before we started like officially talking is And I said,
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who did I say this to? I might have said it to Tom
15:28
Martin's from the label we went. We did a dinner thing with him and
15:33
somebody else recently and they were like, oh, how what'd you think of
15:37
the Cody Show? And I'm like, you were like in the round but
15:41
like kind of but kind of not right yeah, because but dude, you
15:45
did such a great job at like not making any side feel forgotten, right,
15:50
Like even though maybe only fifteen percent of the audience was behind you,
15:54
they didn't get fifteen percent of your attention where you'll see that at other shows.
15:58
So I wanted i'd want to commend you for like do you made sure
16:02
like everybody felt that show no matter where their seat was. I appreciate it.
16:06
We're doing a lot of shows like that this year in the round and
16:07
so like even with people in the back. I was at sound check that
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day and I was like, Hey, my white guy's name is Wookie,
16:14
And I was like, Wookie, these people are literally in the back.
16:18
So you're gonna have to turn some of these fixtures and make sure that we
16:19
light up not only the people in the back, but the people in the
16:22
back, you know, And then you know, you have to take care
16:26
of these people on every side. Make sure you're going over and you're making
16:29
eye contact, and left and right, make sure you're looking at the front
16:30
row you're out there, and the thrust in the pit, like that stuff
16:33
really matters to me, and it's very very intentional. So I appreciate you
16:37
saying that that. That means a lot to me because we're doing a lot
16:40
of these and like I say it, you know, I want to move
16:42
to stadiums and if I get that opportunity, that's where I'm gonna get to
16:47
try to prove to people. Hey, look, I can make eye contact
16:48
with you too. You may be seven hundred yards away, but I'm talking
16:52
to you. We talked at the CMA radio remotes about a leather extended to
16:57
diition or whatever. Right, Yeah, have you thought any more about adding
17:02
Cody Johnson Leather cologne to the Leather Deluxe Edition? No, so I said,
17:07
we should do like like sip tabs for your car, like you know,
17:12
like the little little the little uh pine tree that hangs from your rear
17:17
view. But yeah, there's definitely stuff in the works. Or do one
17:22
of those remember like the old school magazine inserts where you could just pull it
17:25
open and smell. But do that on like the booklet, you know what
17:27
I mean? Yeah, it's not bad. Is this gray sniff? Where
17:33
are you? Because you're on the road right now? Where you playing this
17:36
weekend? I'm in Miami tonight tomorrow somewhere else in Florida, Miami. I've
17:42
heard that's Eastern time zone. Yeah. Yeah, we're gonna have to tell
17:48
Tom to get his paperwork. Bro. He blamed it on somebody else.
17:52
Two I passed that info. I'm like, no, no, no,
17:56
no, I saw the email go out, uh let and let me let
18:00
me ask you last. And I'm sorry that I'm keeping you this long,
18:02
good man. The painter is you're a great storyteller, dude, and you
18:07
have been since the beginning. But there's something about this song. And I
18:12
don't know if it's the inclusion of your wife versus like playing a character with
18:17
some other chick in a music video. Like it's raw, it's real.
18:22
Anybody on any level can connect, right, whether you've lost the painter,
18:25
right, the one that got away or whatever. Everybody has had or has
18:29
a Painter. What's it going to mean for you to be able to add
18:32
this to the number one tab in your career? Man, It's huge because
18:37
it's such a it's such a simple song, it's such a simple concept,
18:41
it's such a simple production. We didn't try to church any of it up.
18:45
Like when you watch the Painter music video. Dustin Hanney, who's one
18:48
of the most incredible music video producers in the business, he's like, we
18:52
were actually when we were recording Human the video, we were on the bus
18:56
and we just got through with like the last shots and uh, we're sitting
18:59
on the us having a drink and rolling down the road and he was like,
19:02
cause he's he's he was newly married and and talking about having kids,
19:07
and he's like, you know, how did you and Brandy meet. You
19:08
know how long you guys been together, and you know what was it like
19:11
when you had kids and we're just kind of getting to know each other.
19:12
And he's like, this is an incredible story, like that really happened that
19:17
way. And I'm like it really, it really did happen that simple.
19:19
So when it came to the painter, he's like, we should just tell
19:22
that story. It's simple. It's so simple that nobody would believe it.
19:25
I really did say that to her the night I met her. I was
19:26
like, you we should get married. And we've been I've we've not ever
19:32
been separated since now. We've had ups and downs and hard times, and
19:36
man, I've I've made her life pretty miserable at times, just you know,
19:40
but we've we've worked through it and she's stuck with me and she has
19:42
been the backbone that has kept me together and kept my feet on the ground.
19:47
And and it was like, let's just tell that story. You know,
19:49
like whenever it says for every wall I built, she saw a canvas,
19:53
that's Brandy. That's that's really because I mean, like I am the
19:56
tough cowboy that I can build some walls. I can be hard headed and
20:00
she can too, but like for me personally, I was like, you
20:04
know, we've both lived this song with each other, you know, whether
20:07
it's been her or whether it's been me. But I'm the one singing it,
20:10
so I get the opportunity singing about her. And it's like, let's
20:11
just keep it simple. So it means a lot to add And you say
20:15
add to number one. I hope that's a hint that this is really going
20:17
to go down because it's in top five right now, but if it gets
20:21
number one, it would be it would mean a lot to me for sure.