John Osborne isn’t just one of the best guitar players in Nashville, he’s also a master songwriter. As one-half of Brothers Osborne alongside brother T.J. Osborne, the duo is known for such hits as “Stay a Little Longer,” “Ain’t My Fault,” “Shoot Me Straight,” and more.
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“If art reflects life, then it should change,” John told American Songwriter. “Life evolves, popularity evolves, personal philosophy can evolve, and it should reflect that. It’s really hard to write songs that you just don’t connect to, but as a songwriter, sometimes you have to do that. However, for our own music, it always feels like the best ones come from a place of experience.”
When he’s not shredding on guitar, John is penning songs for many of his peers. Check out three songs you didn’t know he had a hand in writing.
1. “Never Been Over” by Darius Rucker
On Darius Rucker‘s 2023 album, Carolyn’s Boy, which he released in honor of his late mother, the singer enlisted a few friends to help him. One of those friends was John Osborne, who teamed up with Rucker and Lee Thomas Miller to co-write “Never Been Over.” The gentle ballad is inspired by Rucker’s divorce from his wife of 20 years, Beth Leonard, and finds him poignantly singing: We’ve never been a headlights weaving / Taillights fading / So long, move on / Goodbye waitin’ / Never been one last long look across your shoulder / We’ve been a lot of things / But we’ve never been over. Osborne also plays acoustic guitar on the track.
“[John and I] toured together for almost two years. [Brothers Osborne] are awesome,” Rucker said on Today’s Country Radio on Apple Music Country. “A lot of people [don’t] know John can really, really sing. And he sang the demo. And I tell him, ‘When you listen to me sing it on the record, I’m just trying to be him. That’s my John Osborne imitation.’”
2. “All the Right Places” by Dierks Bentley
Like on Darius Rucker’s album Carolyn’s Boy, Osborne also appears as a songwriter on Dierks Bentley‘s 2023 album Gravel & Gold. Osborne helped write the deep cut, “All the Right Places,” with Bentley and Ross Copperman. The upbeat song is juxtaposed by lyrics that find a man reliving all the places he’s had his heart broken. Yet he maintains a positive attitude singing: Maybe it’ll all work out one day / But if it don’t, it don’t, and at least I can say / My heart’s been broke in all the right places. Osborne also co-wrote “Walking Each Other Home.”
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Brothers Osborne Wrote For Other Artists]
3. “Y’all People” by Cody Johnson
Following 13 years as an independent artist in Texas, Cody Johnson came into the Nashville music scene with a bang in 2019 with his major label debut album, Ain’t Nothin’ to It. Among the heavy-hitting writers on the album is John Osborne, who co-wrote “Y’all People” with fellow hit writers Laura Veltz and Chase McGill. Johnson dedicated the rocking song to his fanbase known as CoJo Nation as he sings: Y’all people make a stranger feel right at home / Pour ’em up tall, people / A-come one and come all, people / If I’m gonna drink one, smoke one, tie one on / With anybody under the sun, come on / It’s y’all people.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
