Cody Johnson Has More ‘Leather’ On The Way

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

May 31st 10:18 AM

Cody Johnson released his ACM-nominated Album of the Year, Leather, late last year. According to Cody, that project has twelve more songs that will be released at a later date.

Johnson told us how that came about in a recent interview, “We just went in and started recording, getting these songs, and we get to the end of the pile, and we’ve got twenty-four songs. We just did a whole album, but I love each one of these songs individually, so I leaned on Warner (his record label) and said, ‘How do I do this without doing another double album?'”

He then came up with an idea, “So, to get people to really digest and go through these twelve songs and to figure out what their favorites are, what their least favorites are, live with it a little while, then they can have the next twelve. It’s kind of like an appetizer entre situation. In doing that, I put all these songs next to each other to figure out what has similar themes and songs that touch on subject matters.”

He concluded, “Once I separated the songs twelve and twelve, then I started looking at it from a live aspect. I made my bread and butter in the last several years playing songs live, and so if you listen to this album, it should sound like a setlist.”

There is no word yet on when Cody will release the next twelve songs from what he is calling his Leather Deluxe project.

Johnson is proud of his Texas heritage, but when it came to making it in Nashville, being from Texas made it harder for many to see him as a commercially viable artist.

Cody is a bonafide Nashville country star as he is often nominated among the best in country music for the CMA and ACM Male Vocalist categories.

Johnson told us that getting from Texas to Nashville stardom had some bumps in the road. He said, “I’ve spent so many years as an artist trying to prove to people that you could go from a Texas country artist and get a label in Nashville and not have to change your style, not have to change your producer.”

He said they even tried to change his look, “One of the first times I ever came to Nashville, they asked me to take my hat off, and I’m like, ‘That’s not me.'”

Johnson concluded, “I think the independent spirit from that, I will always have.”

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.

Four Fantastic Cody Johnson Music Videos

"On My Way to You" (2018)
This is Cody’s first song released under the Warner Brothers record label in Nashville. Although he did not write this song, Johnson says the song reflects on his many hardships and heartbreaks en route to finding the girl he’s meant to be with forever. The lyrics of the song’s chorus include: “All the stars I’ve seen / All the songs I’ve sung / All the beers I’ve drank / All the damage done / I was just passin’ time / Kinda just passin’ through / On my way to you.”
"Till You Can't" (2021)
This music video includes scenes of “fishing excursions, classic-car rebuilding sessions, family dinners” interspersed with footage of Johnson delivering a fiery solo performance of the song. He said of the video, “I love the storyline in the video. You think it’s going in one direction, and then suddenly, you are surprised at the turn of events. When they sent me the rough edit of the video, it was so powerful and brought tears to my eyes. It put into perspective the song that I had been singing for months.”

The song won the Country Music Association Award for Single of the Year and Video of the Year at the 56th Annual Country Music Association Awards in 2022.
"Dear Rodeo" with Reba McEntire (2020)
Johnson wrote the song as a very personal tribute to his previous career in bull riding, which struck a chord with Reba McEntire, who grew up on a family ranch competing in barrel racing.

Reba said, “It was a thrill to sing ‘Dear Rodeo’ with Cody because we’re both from the rodeo world. I grew up in a rodeo family; I’m a third-generation rodeo brat. So the song means a lot to me because I did leave rodeo to be in the country music business. I sure miss it.”

Cody added, “The story behind ‘Dear Rodeo’ is more a story about life and less about rodeo. I feel like everybody has their own ‘Dear Rodeo’ story, and when I found out that Reba was impacted by this song enough to want to do a duet, it was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my career.”
"Human" (2022)
This music video shows the former bull rider riding horses and also scenes of him playing live in concert. It also shows video clips of Johnson roping cattle in a rodeo arena setting. Cody said that “Human” is his most autobiographical song to date.