We now know all 12 songs on Cody Johnson‘s new Leather album, out on November 3, including who is joining him on the record. The Texas native reveals that Jelly Roll joins him on a song called “Whiskey Bent,” while Brooks & Dunn join Johnson on “Long Live Country Music.”
Jelly Roll was originally planning on singing another song, “Jesus Loves You,” from Leather. But when Johnson played him “Whiskey Bent,” the “Save Me” singer asked if he could join Johnson on that one instead.
“He asked me what else I was working on and I played him ‘Whiskey Bent.’ He just started crying and was like, ‘Bro, I ain’t never heard a song like that. If I’m gonna be on a song, can it be that one?’’ Johnson recalls to Billboard. “I gave him the entire second verse. It didn’t take him long to learn the song and he did incredibly.”
While Johnson and Jelly Roll might seem to be polar opposites, in terms of their music and their lifestyles, the former prison guard says they actually have a lot of similarities as well, including their own struggles with mental health.
“I think we’ve both lived that song in our own ways. People look at me as this clean-cut, wholesome guy, but I’m no different than anybody else,” Johnson remarks. “I’ve got demons in my closet and things in my past that are hard to deal with, that I go to therapy sometimes to deal with. I’ve lived a very fast-paced, lot-of-pressure kind of life and I’ve made mistakes.
“I haven’t started doing regular sessions; I need to talk in the moment,” he continues. “I’m slowly but surely softening up, just like the song ‘Leather.’ I know it takes time to open up and not be so hard-edged on that. But just recognizing it is the hard part.”
Ironically, it was when Johnson was giving his acceptance speech at the 2022 CMT Music Awards, for CMT Male Video of the Year (for “‘Til You Can’t”), that the idea for “Long Live Country Music” began, even though Johnson didn’t write it.
“At the end of the speech, I said, ‘Long live country music,’ and that night Trent [Willmon] called me about writing a song with that title,’ Johnson remembers. “It ended up being a perfect fit for me. I reached out to Ronnie and said, ‘Would you and Kix be cool with doing this? We have a country music anthem here and if anybody can fly the flag of ‘Long Live Country Music,’ it’s Brooks & Dunn.’
“We recorded this the same day I recorded with Jelly Roll,” he adds. “We also did a track with Randy Houser that day, and I think he might be holding onto that song.”
Johnson also has a song he recorded with Carrie Underwood, which will likely be from his next project. The 36-year-old says he had the perfect song for them to sing together, but even he was surprised at how well they sounded when they combined their voices.
“I love Carrie’s music, but she wasn’t like — I don’t have her poster on my wall,” Johnson says (via iHeartCountry). “But when I heard this song, I heard her voice, and I just knew that it was going to work out. We had never sung together, so when we get in the room and we start singing together, it’s like family harmonies. The only way I can describe it is kind of like the way it was growing up, singing with my mom. It just instantly fits and it meshes.
“It’s really interesting to me, because my voice and her voice are really drastically different,” he remarks. “But put together, they make a very, very unique sound. So I’m excited for it to come out. I’m not sure when it is. We’re kind of holding the ace card close to the sleeve.”
Johnson’s current single from Leather, “The Painter,” is in the Top 30. He also just dropped “That’s Texas,” in advance of the record’s release. See a track list for Leather below. Pre-order the project, and find music and tour dates at CodyJohnsonMusic.com.
Leather Track List:
1. “Work Boots” (Jason Afable, Brett Beavers, Canaan Smith)
2. “Double Down” (Jeff Hyde, Adam James, Clint Daniels)
3. “Watching My Old Flame” (Kat Higgins, Wynn Varble, Clint Daniels)
4. “That’s Texas” (Andy Sheridan, Erik Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin)
5. “Dirt Cheap” (Josh Phillips)
6. “Jesus Loves You” (Mark Holman, Chase McGill, Michael Hardy)
7. “Whiskey Bent” (feat. Jelly Roll) (Adam James, Mikey Reaves, Rocky Block)
8. “Leather” (Ian Munsick, Rivers Rutherford, Jeremy Spillman)
9. “People In The Back” (Devin Dawson, Austin Taylor Smith, Mark Trussell)
10. “Long Live Country Music” (feat. Brooks & Dunn) (Phil O’Donnell, Wade Kirby, Trent Willmon)
11. “The Painter” (Kat Higgins, Benjy Davis, Ryan Larkins)
12. “Make Me A Mop” (Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington, Alan Shamblin)
