Latest / Inside Country with Wayne D / Cody Johnson's Mental Health Takes a Front Seat

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Cody Johnson's Mental Health Takes a Front Seat · Inside Country with Wayne D

0:00
Speaker 1: A little bit, It'll be right, We'll figure it out.
0:01
Speaker 2: My man. Uh, I'm gonna tell you, I'm sitting in
0:05
Speaker 2: the room with the guy who has been nominated for
0:07
Speaker 2: Entertainer of the Year more than once, and at some
0:09
Speaker 2: point you're gonna have to carve his damn name in
0:11
Speaker 2: one of these things because he deserves it. Cody Johnson,
0:13
Speaker 2: I'm said, Kojo, my boy. Uh, the nominations still mean
0:19
Speaker 2: a lot after all this time, because I know at
0:21
Speaker 2: one point you're like whatever.
0:24
Speaker 1: You know, Sometimes you say stuff and then you look
0:25
Speaker 1: back and you're like, that was that was wrong, that
0:27
Speaker 1: was inaccurate? Was a that was a younger version. I'm
0:30
Speaker 1: my best. I heard Red ste Gull say one time,
0:33
Speaker 1: out of all the lives I've lived, this one's by
0:35
Speaker 1: far my favorite. Like I feel like I'm at that
0:37
Speaker 1: point fixing to me thirty nine years old, like starting
0:40
Speaker 1: to really actually figure life out, my career, my my self, discipline,
0:45
Speaker 1: you know, my drive, my goals. You know that that's
0:48
Speaker 1: like marriage, kids, you know all that stuff, not just
0:51
Speaker 1: the career. But you know it sounds cliche, just say, like,
0:55
Speaker 1: when you're nominated for Entertainer of the Year, you've already won,
0:58
Speaker 1: But it's the truth because it you're putting a different
1:01
Speaker 1: category of artists, you know, and so you're being really
1:03
Speaker 1: you're being recognized for all your hard work even if
1:06
Speaker 1: you don't win it. But I mean, I would be
1:08
Speaker 1: lying if I didn't say, like, that's the one I
1:10
Speaker 1: want to win the most. You know, I work for
1:12
Speaker 1: that every night on stage, you know, I work for
1:14
Speaker 1: that every day going out and doing what I do.
1:17
Speaker 1: It's all for that goal of winning Entertainer. But honestly,
1:20
Speaker 1: everybody in the category deserves it too. I personally feel
1:23
Speaker 1: like Luke Comb should win it, So I appreciate you
1:25
Speaker 1: saying that, but I don't think anybody in that category
1:28
Speaker 1: has worked as hard as Luke Colmb's to get Entertainer
1:31
Speaker 1: of the Year. So that's who I'm pulling for, is that?
1:33
Speaker 2: So let me ask you, a younger version of Cody,
1:36
Speaker 2: could you have said that?
1:37
Speaker 1: No? No, I'd have been already rehearsed what I was
1:40
Speaker 1: gonna say in my head before I got here. And
1:42
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm comfortable in my own skin now. Man.
1:44
Speaker 1: I'm I have nothing to prove to anybody. It's one
1:48
Speaker 1: of those deals that, like, you know, financially I could
1:51
Speaker 1: walk away, but I just don't want to. I just
1:54
Speaker 1: love my job, man. I love making music that influences
1:57
Speaker 1: people in a positive way. You know, it's said it's
2:01
Speaker 1: the funnest job in the world, even when it's the
2:03
Speaker 1: hardest job in the world. But I'm telling you, man,
2:05
Speaker 1: I think Luke deserves it. He's opened so many doors
2:07
Speaker 1: for me. He's been I was there the night that
2:10
Speaker 1: one of his sons was born, and we were overseas
2:12
Speaker 1: in Australia and he's crying in the bathroom, and I'm like,
2:16
Speaker 1: I don't really know what to say to you right now. Besides,
2:19
Speaker 1: he's not gonna remember that you weren't there, and.
2:21
Speaker 2: What you're doing is building your wife will forever.
2:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's that's the downside of it. But I'm like, dude,
2:28
Speaker 1: you're building a legacy not only in country music, but
2:30
Speaker 1: for your kids. Like they're gonna benefit from the hard
2:32
Speaker 1: work you're doing. But like I said, I just know
2:34
Speaker 1: the man deserves it. So if I get it, I'll
2:36
Speaker 1: probably dedicate.
2:37
Speaker 2: It to him. That's so cool, man, that's big. When
2:41
Speaker 2: you think of where you're at now, and every time
2:44
Speaker 2: we talk, I remember, you know, and I bring up
2:46
Speaker 2: back to like some of our first conversations where you're like, yeah,
2:49
Speaker 2: they're making me come talk to radio. I never throw
2:53
Speaker 2: that in your face until wow, but it's but you
2:57
Speaker 2: you have come such a long way, and with that,
3:00
Speaker 2: there are versions of of you that and you said
3:04
Speaker 2: and it's funny because you're gonna be thirty nine, I'm
3:06
Speaker 2: forty four. Yeah, there is something about this season where
3:10
Speaker 2: you're like, things start to make sense, things shift into
3:13
Speaker 2: place where you're like, why do I why does that
3:16
Speaker 2: bother me? Why did that bother me? Before? Yeah, So
3:19
Speaker 2: as you look at earlier versions of yourself, what are
3:22
Speaker 2: things you're still proud of and what are things that
3:24
Speaker 2: you're like, Man, I was glad I was able to
3:26
Speaker 2: let leave that behind.
3:27
Speaker 1: Man Like. So I've been doing a lot of like
3:30
Speaker 1: self soul searching lately, and I don't want to get
3:33
Speaker 1: like just kill the vibe in here and get too deep.
3:35
Speaker 1: But like when I was when I was a kid,
3:39
Speaker 1: like the church that I went to that my parents
3:40
Speaker 1: went to, that it like the religion was like if
3:44
Speaker 1: you do this, you're going to hell. Like if you
3:46
Speaker 1: go here, you're gonna go to hell. Like and so
3:49
Speaker 1: at a point I think there was like so much
3:51
Speaker 1: of this like shame, like you're c're around the shame
3:52
Speaker 1: and regret and guilt that at some point I was like, well,
3:56
Speaker 1: if I'm going to go to hell, like, there's no
3:59
Speaker 1: point in try, and I just I give up. I
4:01
Speaker 1: give up. And I just went absolutely nuts, like for
4:06
Speaker 1: a while. And when I started going and playing with
4:09
Speaker 1: my band, you know, in a trailer and a van,
4:11
Speaker 1: we were we were hell on wheels, man like it.
4:14
Speaker 1: We were. We were pretty wild, and I think that's
4:17
Speaker 1: what I thought music was about, was it was this
4:19
Speaker 1: big party. And I finally got out of that lifestyle
4:23
Speaker 1: and started really applying myself to my craft and having
4:26
Speaker 1: goals and having a vision. Cleaned up my life and
4:30
Speaker 1: it helped my marriage, It helped my career, and then
4:33
Speaker 1: this thing blew up, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
4:35
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that I got rid of that version
4:37
Speaker 1: of myself because I don't think he could have handled
4:39
Speaker 1: fame and all that.
4:40
Speaker 2: You know.
4:42
Speaker 1: But even like finances, like I placed, I've got mentors
4:45
Speaker 1: that have mentored me financially of how to how to invest,
4:49
Speaker 1: how to make money, how to let your money make
4:52
Speaker 1: you money, and you know, It's not like I don't
4:55
Speaker 1: measure that as success, but it is nice to know that.
4:57
Speaker 1: Like I've got the mental fortitude now to know how
4:59
Speaker 1: to sit in a business meeting and handle myself and
5:02
Speaker 1: actually know what the hell they're talking about. And that
5:04
Speaker 1: looks like an idiot, but man like self discipline, like
5:08
Speaker 1: my diet, my workout regimen, the peptides and the vitamins
5:12
Speaker 1: that I take and sleep habits and stuff like that,
5:15
Speaker 1: Like it just bleeds over into my work ethic with music.
5:18
Speaker 1: So now like when I get in the studio, I
5:19
Speaker 1: feel like I am on point. Man when we get
5:21
Speaker 1: to the show, I'm on point. And it just makes
5:24
Speaker 1: it fun because it's always more fun to win.
5:27
Speaker 2: You something you've always done from the beginning, and somebody
5:29
Speaker 2: who may just you know, open up the iHeartRadio app
5:32
Speaker 2: and pop in one of your songs or here's you
5:34
Speaker 2: on the radio, might not realize is you are such
5:37
Speaker 2: a and you brought up business right like Businessman said
5:40
Speaker 2: you are, so like in chart, you're in the driver's
5:44
Speaker 2: seat of your career. And there's a lot of artists
5:46
Speaker 2: in Nashville and in other music formats where they're just
5:51
Speaker 2: there and that's not a disrespect, but like, I'm just
5:55
Speaker 2: happy you're just having to sell tickets. I'm just happy
5:57
Speaker 2: to why has that been? And I bring this up
5:59
Speaker 2: because some of the first conversations we ever had as
6:03
Speaker 2: I got to know you and you had you don't
6:05
Speaker 2: wear anybody else's hat, you wear Cody Johnson has. Yeah, right,
6:09
Speaker 2: So why has Why has that part of this always
6:11
Speaker 2: been important to you to be a businessman and an artist.
6:15
Speaker 1: As a businessman, Like if you don't do business, business
6:17
Speaker 1: does you? And so then but now you're you're a
6:20
Speaker 1: slave to the trade, you know, And that's it's I
6:24
Speaker 1: believed in a hat partner was resist all. Now that's
6:27
Speaker 1: my hat, and we're the highest hat seller at the company.
6:30
Speaker 1: Like it, and we're proud of that. I believe in
6:34
Speaker 1: Wrangler clothing. So now we have shirts and jeans. That's
6:37
Speaker 1: what I'm wearing. It's and if I'm endorsing something, it's
6:39
Speaker 1: because it's real. Like I just did a Justin Boots deal,
6:43
Speaker 1: and honestly, whenever Howie, my manager brought me the justin
6:45
Speaker 1: Boots sales pitch, I just didn't believe in their product.
6:49
Speaker 1: I was like, I feel like the company is kind
6:52
Speaker 1: of slowly dying off. I'm not gonna let them piggyback
6:55
Speaker 1: my success to build their own company. So if we
6:57
Speaker 1: do this, I'm not First of all, I'm gonna have
6:59
Speaker 1: to believe in the product. Second of all, we're gonna
7:01
Speaker 1: have to sit down and go through this portfolio and say,
7:03
Speaker 1: if you're gonna piggyback on me, I'm gonna I'm gonna
7:06
Speaker 1: put in my part. Yeah, but we're gonna be compensated
7:09
Speaker 1: for that, And so it's a partnership. It's not an endorsement.
7:12
Speaker 1: But uh, he brought me two pairs of Justin boots.
7:16
Speaker 1: I put spurs on both of them, and I never
7:18
Speaker 1: walked around a rock or a mud puddle or a
7:20
Speaker 1: pile of cowshit or anything like that. Like, I just
7:23
Speaker 1: tortured these boots for a year. They're the most I
7:27
Speaker 1: have really bad ankles and knees from bull riding days,
7:29
Speaker 1: and I have like bad planners fascy fasciatis, and like
7:32
Speaker 1: broke both the bones in my right ankle. So I
7:34
Speaker 1: have a lot of I have a lot of foot
7:35
Speaker 1: pain right plus I'm getting old as hell. We're like
7:39
Speaker 1: I wore those boots and my pain wasn't there, like
7:42
Speaker 1: better than on cloud tennis shoes, like it's crazy. So
7:45
Speaker 1: I was after a year, I said, Okay, I'm a
7:47
Speaker 1: firm believer. Let's talk designs and you know so it's
7:49
Speaker 1: like once I once I really believe in a product
7:53
Speaker 1: and I want to put my name on it. I
7:54
Speaker 1: know that that's going to just be another form of
7:56
Speaker 1: passive income. And it's easy to wear. Like I just
7:58
Speaker 1: put on my clothes and say, hey, look, this is
8:00
Speaker 1: a Cody Johnson's shirt. You know you should you should
8:03
Speaker 1: buy one. I know a guy if you want someone.
8:05
Speaker 2: By the way, because I'm still waiting for the cowboy hat.
8:09
Speaker 2: I was promised that stage coach at twenty eighteen. Are
8:11
Speaker 2: you serious?
8:12
Speaker 1: Hell, that's not on me, that's on management. I told
8:14
Speaker 1: him again, here we go here, we're gonna blame Jackson
8:17
Speaker 1: for that.
8:18
Speaker 2: He was in the room that I need Kojo Mertz,
8:20
Speaker 2: I need It's I'm just saying that's fine.
8:22
Speaker 1: I'll keep text me your address. Oh he said, they
8:26
Speaker 1: don't have eight What hat size are you, watermelon?
8:32
Speaker 2: I'm seven and five eights. I'll hat swap you right
8:35
Speaker 2: now like an NFL gamer.
8:37
Speaker 1: No it, text me your address, look, get it, taking
8:39
Speaker 1: care of it. But on the business thing, I do
8:40
Speaker 1: have to give credit to how he takes care of
8:43
Speaker 1: a lot of that stuff where I make the deal
8:46
Speaker 1: and then I turn it over to him and go
8:48
Speaker 1: handle that. That's a nice siren in the background. But
8:52
Speaker 1: when you say handle that, it's like I see emails,
8:55
Speaker 1: I see text messages, I get updates, but I'm not
8:57
Speaker 1: the one that has to do it. And that's the
8:58
Speaker 1: benefit of having a great manager that you trust.
9:01
Speaker 2: You brought up your love and respect for Luke Combs.
9:05
Speaker 2: Obviously you just share details about a new album coming out.
9:09
Speaker 2: Collabs are such a massive deal to country. You are
9:13
Speaker 2: a guy.
9:14
Speaker 1: They're bigger now than they used to be, which is.
9:16
Speaker 2: Weird because it was a massive thing and then it
9:18
Speaker 2: kind of went away.
9:19
Speaker 1: And then it resurgence.
9:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you're You're a guy who I don't want
9:25
Speaker 2: to say you didn't care, But it's like I just
9:28
Speaker 2: do Cody Johnson does Cody Johnson's things right, and Collabs
9:32
Speaker 2: never felt like a priority, never felt forced. You're to
9:36
Speaker 2: a point where we're hearing you work with people. What
9:41
Speaker 2: brought that in? What opened the door and why did
9:43
Speaker 2: why did now feel right? Versus the last album of
9:46
Speaker 2: the album before all right, tell.
9:47
Speaker 1: Him out real quick? Can I talk about this?
9:52
Speaker 2: Playback is for next Saturday. We'll clip out whatever you
9:55
Speaker 2: need us too.
9:56
Speaker 1: I won't say anything about the stagecoach thing, but can
9:59
Speaker 1: I talk about Okay you can cool?
10:01
Speaker 2: That'll that's how okay? Sorry, and just hey whatever, if
10:05
Speaker 2: you hear something, just tell me or tell tell you
10:07
Speaker 2: and well we'll chop it off. Okay, cool? Yeah, perfect.
10:14
Speaker 1: So I think Riba is what really changed it for me,
10:17
Speaker 1: because I mean I've done collabs with a lot of
10:19
Speaker 1: my Texas heroes, you know, Roger Craig or Kevin Fowler,
10:22
Speaker 1: Gary penaon even, Like I've done a lot of those things,
10:27
Speaker 1: but like Riba changed it for me when she when
10:30
Speaker 1: she wanted to do Deer Rodeo, Like they're like, hey,
10:32
Speaker 1: Reba called, she really wants to sing on the song.
10:34
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is this life? You know, Like what
10:37
Speaker 1: do you mean? Reba called? Like it was her idea.
10:40
Speaker 1: And then like whenever Ronnie and Kicks decided to do
10:43
Speaker 1: a song with me, like it just kind of started
10:44
Speaker 1: opening my eyes of like I have an opportunity to
10:47
Speaker 1: sing with some of my heroes, and I think that's
10:50
Speaker 1: where I started and then I started to really realize
10:53
Speaker 1: like some of my comrades, like some of my friends
10:55
Speaker 1: are my heroes too. Like I always wanted to do
10:57
Speaker 1: something with Luke because of all the doors he opened
10:59
Speaker 1: for me. You know, Jelly Roll was on the last album.
11:04
Speaker 1: So this time around, like I had this song called
11:07
Speaker 1: Rabbit Gets the Gun and it was it was a
11:10
Speaker 1: Travis Meadows co right, but it was so rock man like.
11:14
Speaker 1: It was just screaming to be a rock song. And
11:16
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do what uh some artists do and
11:20
Speaker 1: throw a fiddle on it and call it a country song.
11:22
Speaker 1: Like I'm one of those. Like my grandpa always said,
11:24
Speaker 1: don't piss on my back and tell me it's raining.
11:27
Speaker 2: So, by the way, I could get the most clickable
11:30
Speaker 2: headlines ever if I if I push what he's saying,
11:33
Speaker 2: I love you and respect you, and I'm not that guy,
11:35
Speaker 2: So go ahead.
11:35
Speaker 1: I no, you can put that out of there. I
11:36
Speaker 1: don't care. That's what that was My grandpa's the words,
11:38
Speaker 1: not man, Okay, okay, I was just I was just
11:40
Speaker 1: making a quote. You say whatever you want if you're
11:42
Speaker 1: quoting somebody else, right exactly, But like, uh, so I
11:47
Speaker 1: wanted to make it a rock song, so it didn't
11:48
Speaker 1: go on my album Banks of the Trinity. But my
11:50
Speaker 1: favorite rock band is Rival Sons. They're an indie rock
11:53
Speaker 1: band out of California. That's what I listened to when
11:55
Speaker 1: I work out, Like it's my I love every song.
11:58
Speaker 1: J Buchanan is the lead singer, and imire him so
12:00
Speaker 1: much as a vocalist. So just we just kind of
12:03
Speaker 1: reached out like would J. B Cannan be on the song?
12:05
Speaker 1: And he immediately said yes. So I called Trent Willman,
12:09
Speaker 1: who calls Dave Cobb, which is Jay's producer. So not
12:13
Speaker 1: only was it a collaboration between me and Jay, it
12:17
Speaker 1: was a collaboration between Trent and Dave, and I just
12:19
Speaker 1: know pride in the game. I was like, dude, I
12:21
Speaker 1: don't know the rock world. Like you picked the musicians,
12:24
Speaker 1: you picked the vibe however you want it to be.
12:28
Speaker 1: And it turned into one of the coolest things I've
12:30
Speaker 1: ever recorded because I got to show a side of
12:32
Speaker 1: myself that nobody's really seen yet and I got to
12:35
Speaker 1: be the rock star. And so like then, like Brothers Osborne,
12:39
Speaker 1: I hear this song on my record called Foolproof, I
12:42
Speaker 1: just hear Brothers Osbourne. I'm such a big fan of
12:44
Speaker 1: TJ's voice and such a big fan of John's his
12:47
Speaker 1: right hand really like he can everybody. They say in guitar,
12:51
Speaker 1: like the left hand is what you know, the right
12:53
Speaker 1: hand is who you are. John's right hand on a
12:55
Speaker 1: guitar is just monstrous, And so I knew that I
12:59
Speaker 1: wanted them to be on the record. And then freaking
13:03
Speaker 1: Drew Parker and Josh Phillips write this song called Shoot
13:06
Speaker 1: the Bull that is so specific, really bold, by the way,
13:09
Speaker 1: yeah buld move like they wrote it so specific to
13:12
Speaker 1: me and Luke Colms that if we didn't like the song,
13:15
Speaker 1: that song never gets heard. Like it's not like if
13:17
Speaker 1: if you write a song that two artists could do
13:18
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to do it. We go to
13:20
Speaker 1: these two artists like, you know, it's it's about Cody
13:22
Speaker 1: Johnson and Luke Colmbs. And so I sent it to
13:24
Speaker 1: Luke in like two months go by, Luke is the
13:27
Speaker 1: worst about answering his freaking phone man.
13:29
Speaker 2: I swear to Bailey Zimmerman sent the collab that they did,
13:32
Speaker 2: and Bailey said he got his number at Stage Coach
13:36
Speaker 2: and a couple of weeks later it's like I was
13:38
Speaker 2: sitting on this song, send it to Luke. He got
13:40
Speaker 2: back to them like six weeks later.
13:42
Speaker 1: He was like, but see I talked. I talked trash
13:45
Speaker 1: about Luke not answering his phone, and he's like, that's
13:46
Speaker 1: the pot calling the kettle black. You're just as bad,
13:49
Speaker 1: And like how many interviews knowing if I said when
13:52
Speaker 1: I go home, this phone goes face down and it's
13:55
Speaker 1: the truth. Like, so we're we're both the worst at it.
13:57
Speaker 1: But he finally did get back to me and agreed
13:59
Speaker 1: to do the song, and it was really cool because
14:00
Speaker 1: we got to do it in the studio together. I've
14:02
Speaker 1: played hundreds of shows with Luke and been around him
14:05
Speaker 1: on the road, you know, a good friend, but we've
14:06
Speaker 1: never been in the studio together. So that was really
14:08
Speaker 1: that was a cool experience.
14:09
Speaker 2: Something else that is super unique about your approach to
14:13
Speaker 2: how Cody Johnson does country music the way he wants.
14:17
Speaker 2: A lot of artists make massive like life sacrifices and
14:21
Speaker 2: move to town, right they set up shop in Nashville
14:24
Speaker 2: surrounding areas. You started in Texas, Texas. You know, all
14:31
Speaker 2: respect to your work, all respect to your work and
14:35
Speaker 2: effort Texas made you the artist that you are, and
14:38
Speaker 2: then you took off after that? Why was it important
14:43
Speaker 2: for you never to come here and chase what a
14:46
Speaker 2: lot of artists do.
14:47
Speaker 1: I swear like me and Lou were just talking about
14:49
Speaker 1: this in the car on the wheel where you're watching
14:51
Speaker 1: like all these party buses go down Broadway and like
14:54
Speaker 1: the Wu girl woo. You know, everybody's hammered by eleven
14:57
Speaker 1: o'clock and just people just walking around this town just
15:01
Speaker 1: enjoy a Nashville. And now I love Nashville, like I
15:04
Speaker 1: really love this town, but I don't want to live
15:07
Speaker 1: here because if I lived here, everything's an opportunity. There's
15:12
Speaker 1: in the music business, there's what I call the dangling carrot,
15:15
Speaker 1: and they dangle it out there and go, look, this
15:17
Speaker 1: could make you rich, this could make you famous. This
15:19
Speaker 1: is a big opportunity. It's like to a manager or
15:22
Speaker 1: to a record label head, every opportunity is a big opportunity, right.
15:25
Speaker 1: But I see a lot of people in the industry
15:28
Speaker 1: who don't know how to say the word no. It's
15:31
Speaker 1: just yes, I'll do it, Yes, I'll do it, Yes,
15:33
Speaker 1: I'll do it. And it's like you can only milk
15:36
Speaker 1: the cow so much. Man, like I need a counterbalance
15:41
Speaker 1: in my life. And so it's not just because of
15:42
Speaker 1: my love for Texas, but like when I get on
15:45
Speaker 1: the jet or I get on the bus and I
15:46
Speaker 1: know that we're coming to Nashville, I know that it's
15:49
Speaker 1: going to be work. When I show up, my schedule
15:52
Speaker 1: is stacked every day. Again. I enjoy what I do,
15:56
Speaker 1: just like sitting here talking to you. This is fun, man,
15:58
Speaker 1: but I know that it's going to be all all
16:00
Speaker 1: day long, and and and put on. I told my
16:02
Speaker 1: kids time to put the Superman cape on. So when
16:04
Speaker 1: I walk out of the door, I put my Superman
16:06
Speaker 1: cape on and I go do the thing right that
16:08
Speaker 1: I'm good at, and I'm thankful that I'm good at it.
16:13
Speaker 1: But when I go home to Texas, I'm separated from
16:16
Speaker 1: the town, from the buzz. So half the time when
16:20
Speaker 1: a when a when a song comes out and it
16:22
Speaker 1: goes viral, or if the merch sales spiked over something
16:26
Speaker 1: or whatever the thing is, I literally don't know about it.
16:30
Speaker 1: Like my wife tells me, did you see this? And
16:32
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, I didn't see what happened. He's like, oh,
16:35
Speaker 1: kid rock did your song? I'm like, oh cool, And
16:37
Speaker 1: then the next day, a six one five number calls
16:41
Speaker 1: my phone and it's Bob Ritchie and You're like, oh,
16:43
Speaker 1: what's up talking kid Rock at a Mexican restaurant in
16:46
Speaker 1: Texas right now, you know, like as you.
16:48
Speaker 2: Go, did you go who is this? And he goes,
16:49
Speaker 2: my name is Works. I just keep it.
16:56
Speaker 1: I need that balance because when I go home, we
16:59
Speaker 1: have a right under right short of eight hundred acres
17:04
Speaker 1: and by the end of the year we'll be running
17:06
Speaker 1: about two hundred head of cows. And so I do
17:09
Speaker 1: have a ranch manager that I have to keep up
17:11
Speaker 1: with in a ranch hand that I have to keep
17:13
Speaker 1: up with, and you know, what are the daily activities.
17:15
Speaker 1: And but then also like being an assistant softball coach
17:19
Speaker 1: and you know, a dad of a six month old
17:21
Speaker 1: right now, like there's a lot going on at home
17:24
Speaker 1: that the Superman cape has to be hung up at
17:25
Speaker 1: the door. And I think if I lived here, I
17:28
Speaker 1: would always try to keep the cape on. And I
17:30
Speaker 1: got to go home and be me too, you know.
17:32
Speaker 1: And I also like it kind of adds a little
17:35
Speaker 1: bit of a mistique, like you can't get to him,
17:38
Speaker 1: you know, And I'm like, less is more a lot
17:40
Speaker 1: of times.
17:41
Speaker 2: That's important for your sanity too.
17:43
Speaker 1: Dude. My mental health is so good because I don't
17:46
Speaker 1: live here.
17:47
Speaker 2: And I ask you this as a challenging question, is
17:51
Speaker 2: Cody Johnson's music is good as good as it is
17:55
Speaker 2: if you don't go back to home no versus.
17:59
Speaker 1: Living easy answer?
18:01
Speaker 2: No, Why do you think that is?
18:02
Speaker 1: Because a lot of times? Man like, So I'll get
18:05
Speaker 1: my drop box on my phone. Yeah, and I've got
18:08
Speaker 1: all these new songs right and say there's forty of them.
18:11
Speaker 1: A lot of the times going back and forth to
18:13
Speaker 1: the horse vet or taking cows of the sale, or
18:15
Speaker 1: just driving around the ranch checking cows or whatever. I
18:18
Speaker 1: plug it in and I just just listen to stuff,
18:21
Speaker 1: you know, and I think that my sense of what
18:25
Speaker 1: is a great song is getting better, like just because
18:28
Speaker 1: I have that time. It's just like you go out
18:30
Speaker 1: to my place and we just stopped talking. It's quiet,
18:34
Speaker 1: like you can't hear it. There's birds, you'll hear the wind.
18:37
Speaker 1: You may hear a cow on a background, but that's it,
18:40
Speaker 1: man Like, that's it.
18:41
Speaker 2: Are one of the ranch hands because you don't feed
18:43
Speaker 2: nobody that works for you. Those guys are.
18:48
Speaker 1: But like and plus like having like one of my
18:50
Speaker 1: best friends back home, Kolbe Lovell. He don't. He's got
18:54
Speaker 1: an eclectic music taste, but he doesn't play so like
18:56
Speaker 1: I'll play stuff for him, or like my brother in
18:57
Speaker 1: law is my ranch manager, Carson will be out team.
19:00
Speaker 1: We're opening up bluetooth to the speakers in the arena.
19:03
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, check the song out, man, what do
19:05
Speaker 1: you think? And look at their reaction. You know, if
19:08
Speaker 1: he's like it's okay, I'm like that song's out even
19:11
Speaker 1: if I loved it. If he's like all right or yeah,
19:14
Speaker 1: it's a good song, I can tell like he's he's
19:16
Speaker 1: like lying to me. But then I play the one
19:18
Speaker 1: where he's like, dude, that's a freaking smash. I'm like, yeah,
19:22
Speaker 1: that's going We're gonna push save on that one. And
19:25
Speaker 1: it's just it's clarity time, like I'm building. Obviously, we're
19:28
Speaker 1: about three or four months from being in this house
19:30
Speaker 1: that my wife has spent way more money than I
19:33
Speaker 1: want to say on your it's insane.
19:36
Speaker 2: I was wondering why you're still working so hard.
19:40
Speaker 1: By the time she gets through with this chip and
19:42
Speaker 1: Joeyanna Gains will be at my house taking pictures. Yeah,
19:44
Speaker 1: once we got in some of the final stages, I
19:46
Speaker 1: was like, oh, like now okay, now, now I get it.
19:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, your wife's about to have Kojo Home and Ashley
19:53
Speaker 2: Furnishers type stores going on here.
19:55
Speaker 1: You're gonna be She's done such a freaking great job.
19:58
Speaker 1: For like a year, I was like, what the hell
20:00
Speaker 1: is the hold up here? Yeah, like, let's just get
20:03
Speaker 1: it done.
20:03
Speaker 2: You're buying it, you're building it on the property you
20:05
Speaker 2: already have.
20:06
Speaker 1: It was a house that we bought. It was an
20:07
Speaker 1: old house. We found mold in the house, so there
20:11
Speaker 1: was a year of mold remediation. Then I screwed up
20:14
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, babe, making more money than
20:17
Speaker 1: I ever thought i'd make in my life. We've got
20:19
Speaker 1: all these investments paying off. Build it how you want
20:22
Speaker 1: to build it. And I immediately I was like, shit,
20:25
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have said that, because we had to have
20:27
Speaker 1: a tile roof shipped over from Spain, and uh, like
20:32
Speaker 1: that's not a joke. Like everything is immaculate. But she's
20:35
Speaker 1: done such a great job of designing this house. And
20:37
Speaker 1: my sister in law, her half sister, has been so
20:41
Speaker 1: great about being like her personal assistant on this thing.
20:43
Speaker 2: So this is.
20:44
Speaker 1: So then she says when we get in this house,
20:46
Speaker 1: like I don't want a lot of mounts. Do you
20:49
Speaker 1: know many trophy mounts I have, and like ACMs and
20:53
Speaker 1: cmas and Platinum records and all this stuff that. Like
20:55
Speaker 1: She's like, I just really don't want it in the house.
20:57
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, where am I supposed to put
20:58
Speaker 1: all this? You get a room anything, So I built
21:02
Speaker 1: at the end of my rodeo arena. I built this
21:04
Speaker 1: like fifty five hundred square foot quote unquote trophy room.
21:09
Speaker 1: So then it escalates really quickly, like now there's a
21:11
Speaker 1: golf simulator room, there's a there's a gun room that
21:15
Speaker 1: has the padlock you know, and everything, and a bar,
21:18
Speaker 1: a full kitchen, and it just gets worse and worse,
21:22
Speaker 1: Like the further we go, I'm like, what is this life? Man?
21:25
Speaker 1: Like I've got I've got stuff all in this thing.
21:28
Speaker 1: Like it's crazy.
21:29
Speaker 2: But I can tell like over the years, the more
21:32
Speaker 2: you it's funny because the more you're in control of
21:35
Speaker 2: your career, you're doing this right, yeah, but it feels
21:38
Speaker 2: like at the same time you're doing this and when
21:40
Speaker 2: you get the happy medium between the two, you're smiling
21:43
Speaker 2: talking about everything you're doing in life like you are.
21:45
Speaker 1: Now you got to learn to let go, Like you've
21:47
Speaker 1: got to learn to let go, Like if you hold
21:50
Speaker 1: the reins too much, too tight, it doesn't leave room
21:54
Speaker 1: for God to be God Like, it doesn't leave room
21:57
Speaker 1: for him to work his magic in your life. And
21:59
Speaker 1: I think that that. And here's the thing, like, like
22:02
Speaker 1: even in the studio, like why do you have the
22:03
Speaker 1: producer you trust so much and the engineer you trust
22:06
Speaker 1: so much if you're not going to listen to them,
22:08
Speaker 1: Like at some point you have to take your pride
22:10
Speaker 1: out of the picture, out of the equation and say,
22:13
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not right, Like what do you think? What
22:15
Speaker 1: do you want to do? And then let it go,
22:17
Speaker 1: you know, like with my life, you know, just let
22:19
Speaker 1: go of the reins and still be me and still
22:22
Speaker 1: be very much in control of who I am and
22:23
Speaker 1: everything that I do, but with every step along the way,
22:27
Speaker 1: Like this is a cool piece of life advice, and
22:29
Speaker 1: I hope this helps you. Like I pray for roadblocks
22:33
Speaker 1: so like I really want to buy this piece of property,
22:37
Speaker 1: but I take my hat off and I say, all right, God,
22:39
Speaker 1: if you don't want me to buy that piece of property,
22:42
Speaker 1: I want you to put up a roadblock that I
22:45
Speaker 1: can't get around. Like, if there's bumps in the way,
22:48
Speaker 1: that's cool, But like put up a roadblock, and when
22:51
Speaker 1: you see that roadblock, go, man, even though I wanted that,
22:54
Speaker 1: if you said no, I'm not going to do it,
22:56
Speaker 1: and I feel like you get rewarded in your faith
22:57
Speaker 1: for that. Like sometimes it's just personal. Sometimes it's financially,
23:02
Speaker 1: but like being able to let go, you're in more
23:05
Speaker 1: control than you think. Does that make sense.
23:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a wild way to look at it. I mean,
23:09
Speaker 2: because a lot of people would be like, I'm just
23:12
Speaker 2: I'll just keep chipping away at the roadblock until it
23:15
Speaker 2: falls over.
23:15
Speaker 1: Sometimes, man, like bumps in the road or bumps in
23:17
Speaker 1: the road, you're gonna have that no matter what in
23:19
Speaker 1: your career your personal life, you're gonna have bumps in
23:21
Speaker 1: the road. But when there's obviously a roadblock, that's like,
23:24
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm gonna get around this. If
23:27
Speaker 1: you're actually praying for roadblocks and saying, hey, God, if
23:30
Speaker 1: there's something I don't need to do, just put up
23:33
Speaker 1: the wall, it's like, well, if you see the wall,
23:35
Speaker 1: then you have to have the no pride self respect
23:37
Speaker 1: of like, all right, you said no, I'm not gonna
23:39
Speaker 1: do it, and then like all of a sudden, this
23:42
Speaker 1: other thing happens and you're like, Oh, that's where I
23:44
Speaker 1: was supposed to go. That's what I was supposed to do.
23:46
Speaker 2: That has a trophy room in the house. Yeah. Yes.
23:50
Speaker 1: To be honest, when she said I had to build
23:51
Speaker 1: a trophy room, I was like, God, this is gonna suck. Dude,
23:54
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm having so much fun with my
23:56
Speaker 1: designer going through all this stuff. It's gonna be freaking cool.
23:59
Speaker 1: You'll have to come to check it out out. We'll
24:00
Speaker 1: play around the golf inside. I'm all in.
24:03
Speaker 2: I'm all in.
24:04
Speaker 1: Uh.
24:04
Speaker 2: We just got details on the album a couple of
24:06
Speaker 2: days ago. It's Banks of the Trinity. As much as
24:10
Speaker 2: you're going to answer a million questions about what was
24:12
Speaker 2: the inspiration and why were these songs right for this album,
24:16
Speaker 2: I want to ask out of these group of saying
24:19
Speaker 2: and not not all the songs you recorded and then
24:20
Speaker 2: whittled it down. Out of the songs we're getting, what's
24:23
Speaker 2: the best story in writing, recording anything, The best story
24:29
Speaker 2: that's coming out of one of these songs on the album.
24:31
Speaker 1: I mean not to disrespect any of the rest of
24:35
Speaker 1: the songwriters on the album. The very last track is
24:37
Speaker 1: called Yippy Tao Hey Hey, and it's a don't put.
24:41
Speaker 2: That on the radio because we will screw that up.
24:43
Speaker 2: Yippie ta hey Hey, We'll mess it up somehow.
24:46
Speaker 1: The hook line is it's it's like the hook line
24:49
Speaker 1: is like Yippie Tao whoa hey hey, and it it's
24:55
Speaker 1: this cowboy song man like I started writing this thing.
24:57
Speaker 1: It's one hundred percent right for me, which I rarely do.
25:01
Speaker 1: We were working, we were gonna work cows one day
25:03
Speaker 1: and it rained us out. And so I'm sitting in
25:06
Speaker 1: the barn in the office and I've got my grandfather's
25:09
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three J forty five sitting there like and
25:11
Speaker 1: and so it's so old and I've never had it refurbished,
25:15
Speaker 1: but you can't. It's like a step and a half
25:16
Speaker 1: low from standard tuning. So it's it's this low, gravelly,
25:20
Speaker 1: rattley thing. And when you use different guitars to write,
25:23
Speaker 1: it makes you right different, makes you sing different. I
25:25
Speaker 1: picked this thing up and I was picking around on it,
25:28
Speaker 1: and I'm like, well, the wind's too high to brand today.
25:30
Speaker 1: Can't even start a fire. It ain't raining three damn months.
25:33
Speaker 1: So I'm here patching this barbed wire and Carson comes
25:36
Speaker 1: in and we were talking about the weather and you know,
25:39
Speaker 1: like the year, and I said, how many bells of
25:40
Speaker 1: Hey do we have left in that barn? He said
25:42
Speaker 1: thirty six bells. So it was like, and I'd hate
25:44
Speaker 1: to think what did happened if I actually starved to death.
25:47
Speaker 1: But at least my horse is and my cattle. Wont
25:50
Speaker 1: I got thirty six bells left? You'd be told whoa hey?
25:56
Speaker 1: Hey started telling this story about this cowboy and his
26:00
Speaker 1: land that you know that his grandpa had was passed
26:02
Speaker 1: down to his dad, and I get to the chorus
26:05
Speaker 1: and talking about the Trinity River. You know, this land
26:07
Speaker 1: was cut by the river, the damned old Trinity. And
26:09
Speaker 1: when she gets to feeling mad, lord, she sure gets mean.
26:12
Speaker 1: So I get all this stuff done and I the
26:15
Speaker 1: next week or two weeks later, Chris Douglass comes down
26:18
Speaker 1: to do the photo shoot for Leather and he's like, man,
26:20
Speaker 1: I really love that guitar. I love that it's your
26:22
Speaker 1: grandpa's guitar. Want me take some pictures. And you've seen
26:24
Speaker 1: the pictures of me holding that guitar. So he's like,
26:26
Speaker 1: instead of posing with it, why don't you play me
26:28
Speaker 1: something that way? It's natural, And so I just started
26:31
Speaker 1: playing the song and he goes, what the hell is that?
26:33
Speaker 1: I was like, Man, it's just this thing I'm writing.
26:35
Speaker 1: He goes, man, that's really good, Like where's it going
26:39
Speaker 1: in the photo shoot? I wrote the next part of
26:42
Speaker 1: the song. So then I come out on the road
26:44
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting on the bus with NOEH and I
26:46
Speaker 1: was like, check this thing out that I've been writing,
26:48
Speaker 1: Like check this out. Tell me if it's crazy or not.
26:50
Speaker 1: And he goes, man, I love it. Like when is
26:53
Speaker 1: this song taking place? Like when is this story taking place?
26:55
Speaker 1: Is its present day? Or so he walks out of
26:59
Speaker 1: the bus, and I was like, it was a spring
27:00
Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty five of a cold and clo cloudy day,
27:04
Speaker 1: Like what happens here? Like in a good story, somebody's
27:06
Speaker 1: got to die. So I'm like, twelve cowboys came in
27:09
Speaker 1: to take this land away. Daddy grabbed a shotgun and
27:11
Speaker 1: I grabbed it. Twenty two. I buried all twelve men
27:14
Speaker 1: that day, and then I buried Daddy too. Yippie tae, hey, Hey,
27:16
Speaker 1: it's just it started falling out wow, And I wrote
27:20
Speaker 1: the rest of it. To this day, i've still never
27:22
Speaker 1: written the song down. So when I got home, I
27:24
Speaker 1: took this phone and I went in my tack room
27:26
Speaker 1: where all my saddles and bits and stuff are. I said, man,
27:29
Speaker 1: I really need to make a work tape of that
27:31
Speaker 1: before I forget it. And so I set my phone
27:34
Speaker 1: down and I recorded it. And when we went to
27:36
Speaker 1: go do the album, I said, that's what I want
27:38
Speaker 1: to put on the album, the very last song. So
27:39
Speaker 1: it's the iPhone recording of me doing that in my
27:42
Speaker 1: tack room. Like, if you listen close, you can hear
27:44
Speaker 1: a couple of in the background. I was like, I
27:47
Speaker 1: don't want to church it up like I want it
27:49
Speaker 1: to be raw. I want it to be as raw
27:51
Speaker 1: as the story is. So I think that's what I'm
27:54
Speaker 1: the most proud of on the record, because you don't
27:56
Speaker 1: have to be a cowboy to enjoy this song, just
27:59
Speaker 1: like you don't have to be a cowboy to enjoy Yellowstone.
28:02
Speaker 2: Yeah.
28:03
Speaker 1: So I can't wait for you to hear it. I'll
28:04
Speaker 1: send it to you please.
28:05
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear it. And it's funny because you
28:07
Speaker 2: brought up Yellowstone because fans are like, oh, you know,
28:11
Speaker 2: Cody Johnson makes great music, you go see a show
28:13
Speaker 2: and works his ass off, but like then you go
28:15
Speaker 2: home and like you live what you sing about. Now,
28:19
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people that have you know, farms
28:21
Speaker 2: and ranches, but then they go home and there's other
28:23
Speaker 2: people working it for them. Right, I mean I do
28:26
Speaker 2: have good people, for sure, but you're not afraid to
28:28
Speaker 2: like you very much are involved.
28:30
Speaker 1: No, So, like when I hired my brother in law, Like, so,
28:33
Speaker 1: Brandy and Savannah are half sisters. She marries Carson. Right,
28:36
Speaker 1: he's a cowboy. I know, he team ropes And we
28:38
Speaker 1: were sitting at like one holiday and he was talking
28:40
Speaker 1: about how horrible his job is and he just can't
28:42
Speaker 1: make ends meet, and I was like, why don't y'all
28:45
Speaker 1: just move in here? So, like for a year they
28:47
Speaker 1: lived in the house with us, the house that we're remodeling,
28:49
Speaker 1: before we found them old. They live with us for
28:51
Speaker 1: a year before I was able to buy another piece
28:53
Speaker 1: of property that connects to me with a house on it.
28:56
Speaker 1: So they live in the ranch house. Savannah works for Brandy,
29:00
Speaker 1: Carson works for me. So when he first started working
29:02
Speaker 1: for me. If there was teaposts to be driven, I
29:04
Speaker 1: drove all of them and I made him watch me.
29:08
Speaker 1: And I've got the blisters and blood on my hands,
29:10
Speaker 1: and I've got all the sweat running down my back.
29:11
Speaker 1: But I did the work intentionally in front of him
29:14
Speaker 1: and said, this is what I'm expecting out of you.
29:16
Speaker 1: So then Scott Brown is one of my great friends,
29:19
Speaker 1: known him forever. I lease all my buses except for
29:22
Speaker 1: my own personal bus, from him. He started the bus
29:24
Speaker 1: company because I needed buses. His son, Aidan graduates high
29:28
Speaker 1: schools going to college. I hired Aiden told Carson, I said,
29:32
Speaker 1: when you get that boy out there, I've known this
29:33
Speaker 1: kid since he was eight years old. I'm like, when
29:35
Speaker 1: you get that boy out there, you do the work.
29:37
Speaker 1: You show him what is expected of him. So when
29:40
Speaker 1: I say I've got good people around me, half the time,
29:43
Speaker 1: they've already got. And if I mentioned something and that
29:47
Speaker 1: needs to be trimmed up, that tree needs to be
29:48
Speaker 1: trimmed up, it's gonna fall the next time I drive
29:50
Speaker 1: past it. It's already trimmed up. But like I've instilled
29:53
Speaker 1: that work ethic in them. And when it comes time
29:55
Speaker 1: to work cattle it's my show. I do the I
30:00
Speaker 1: run that show.
30:01
Speaker 2: That's so that's so crazy, and I'd imagine that's pretty
30:04
Speaker 2: helpful when it comes to wanting to write as well, right,
30:06
Speaker 2: because you're writing about things, but you're also like living
30:10
Speaker 2: or living it, so there's more inspiration than a lot
30:13
Speaker 2: of other artists would see.
30:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I finally, like back to the trophy room thing,
30:16
Speaker 1: there was this attic space that we couldn't figure out
30:18
Speaker 1: how to get to, and so I just said, let's
30:21
Speaker 1: build some stairs. Let's cut a hole in that in
30:23
Speaker 1: that ceiling. Let's build some stairs that goes up like
30:25
Speaker 1: you kind of have to like duck to get into it. Yea,
30:27
Speaker 1: it opens up to this big area probably ah, I'd
30:32
Speaker 1: say maybe twice the size of this. It's like a
30:33
Speaker 1: shotgun style. I just said, let's put in a studio.
30:36
Speaker 1: I've never had a studio in my life. But instead
30:39
Speaker 1: of no, I've never had a studio. Oh wow, So
30:42
Speaker 1: instead of recording it on the iPhone, now I've got
30:45
Speaker 1: the capability or I will have soon, the capability of
30:47
Speaker 1: no windows, very vibey light fixtures, you know, dim lit
30:51
Speaker 1: carpet where you can walk in kick your shoes off,
30:53
Speaker 1: but like have a soundboard and vocal and acoustic booth
30:57
Speaker 1: and like just be able to go up there and
30:59
Speaker 1: just write. Like I I want to be able to
31:01
Speaker 1: wake up in the middle of the night with a
31:03
Speaker 1: song going through my head and instead of writing it
31:04
Speaker 1: down and then kind of the next day being I
31:06
Speaker 1: can't really remember what that tune was, I can just
31:08
Speaker 1: go to the trophy room, go upstairs the studio, put
31:10
Speaker 1: it down, and I'm like, now I have like a
31:12
Speaker 1: real raw work tape of it I can send, which
31:15
Speaker 1: also keeps me from coming to Nashville for a lot
31:17
Speaker 1: of stuff.
31:17
Speaker 2: So there's just say, yeah, dude, you're a busy guy.
31:22
Speaker 2: I appreciate the time. Man, It's always so good anytime, anytime.
31:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, you beat buddy,