Cody Johnson is recalling a pivotal moment in his life. During an interview on Bobby Bones’ BobbyCast podcast, the country star revealed how his dad reacted after catching him out at a bar when he was just 14.
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“I snuck out and hopped in a truck with a buddy that was 16. We went down to the bar,” Johnson recalled. “There were like 100 people at this little honky tonk. The band let me jump up and play with them. They said, ‘We’re going to take a break. Why don’t you play?’”
Three songs into his impromptu set, Johnson “looked in the back of the bar and my dad was standing there.”
“You want to talk about an ‘Oh s**t’ moment? That’s one of them,” he said. “I got whipped pretty good for that. [My dad told me,] ‘You play in these bars, it’s going to lead to a life of destruction. You’re going to wind up becoming a drug addict and an alcoholic.’”
Though Johnson’s dad let him have it for sneaking out, his secondary reaction was one that the singer is grateful for to this day.
“After I got my whipping, he said, ‘You actually sounded really good, just so you know,’” Johnson recalled.
Cody Johnson Ranks His Songs
Flash forward more than 20 years, and Johnson has become a successful country music singer. He has 47 career RIAA certifications, a Pandora Billionaire Award, nearly 7.5 billion global streams, two No. 1 single, and multiple CMT and CMA Awards.
During his podcast interview, Johnson reflected on his career by naming his top five favorite songs he’s released.
“I think the one song that’s impacted my career the most is ”Til You Can’t,’” Johnson said. “Not because it’s my highest streaming dollars and all of that, but because of the people that have come to me at meet and greets and told me their stories about how this song changed their lives in very impactful ways.”
“That being said, I would probably choose ‘Dear Rodeo‘ for the second one, because it was the most personal thing that I’d ever written,” he continued. “Three would probably be ‘Dirt Cheap,’ just because of how impressive it is that Josh Phillips wrote that song by himself.”
For numbers four and five, Johnson pointed to “By Your Grace” and “I’m Gonna Love You,” the latter of which was a duet with Carrie Underwood.
“I just always wanted to sing with Carrie Underwood,” he said. “I mean, who wouldn’t?”
Photo by Taylor Hill/WireImage
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