Cody Johnson admits being a country singer wasn’t his first choice. The Texan originally planned an entirely different career instead. Fortunately, at least for country music fans, his first choice didn’t work out.
“It wasn’t necessarily my choice because my choice was to follow rodeo,” Johnson says. “I believe that God’s got a bigger plan for all of us. And sometimes, when hard-headed people like me stop and ask what that plan is instead of trying to control that path, good things happen. Like my career. I wouldn’t have this career if I hadn’t stopped and said, ‘You know, what do You want for me in my life?’
“And I think that’s how we’ve gotten here,” he adds. “That and the support of my family and my team of guys that I’ve placed around me to be positive influences on my life. I think that’s all you need to be successful.”
Cody Johnson Talks Evolution Into Superstar
Johnson is by now a bona fide superstar, but his climb was slow. In fact, there were times when Johnson was ready to quit, but fortunately persevered.
“When it was me and the guys in a truck and trailer, it was a crazy party,” Johnson recalls to Billboard. “Then you get a van, and you’re traveling all over the country, kind of just a vagabond, sleeping in a van, and no money. It wore me down to the point where I really thought I wanted to quit. I had to dig deep and say, ‘How bad do you want it?’”
By 2017, Johnson began to see his hard work pay off. From there, his ascent felt quick, bringing along an entirely new set of challenges.
“Everything started to take off,” Johnson says. “And then it was dealing with a different beast, parts of fame nobody told me about. Because I’ve never in my life said, ‘I want to get rich and famous.’ I just wanted to play music. But dealing with fame, it changes the vernacular of a lot of relationships, how people treat you. There will be people who are no longer friends, now they’re fans. A lot of personal relationships changed for me, and it was tough.”
Cody Johnson to Release ‘Banks Of The Trinity’ Album
View this post on Instagram
Johnson’s fourth studio album, Banks Of The Trinity, will be out on June 26.
“On this album, I wanted to tell the story about my childhood,” Johnson said when the project was announced. “When I heard the song ‘Banks Of The Trinity’ for the first time, it was like this portrait showed in my head of memories that I had honestly forgotten. It just took me back home to Sebastopol, Texas, where I grew up on the Trinity River. I had tears in my eyes when I heard it for the first time.”
Banks Of The Trinity includes collaborations with both Luke Combs and Brothers Osborne.
Combs joins Johnson on “Shoot The Bull”, a song written by Josh Phillips, Drew Parker, Casey Brown, and Ray Fulcher, specifically for the two to sing together.
“If you take that chance, and an artist is like, ‘I’m not really comfortable with the representation of myself in this song’ or whatever, there goes your song, because you can’t really pitch it to another artist,” Johnson shares. “But Luke was like, ‘There’s no way we can’t do this song.’ So, it was a done deal. [Lines about] tattooed knuckles, gold plated buckles, and me talking about this wild card band selling out every seat, it literally sounds like me and Luke sitting in a bar, just shooting the bull.”