Cody Johnson Takes The CMA Fest Big Stage Friday

Cody Johnson plays the Nissan Stadium main stage on Friday night (6/7) at CMA Fest, and fans can look forward to an energetic set from this Entertainer of the Year nominated cowboy.

Cody performed on the big stage at CMA Fest for the first time last year and brought fans to their feet, bringing out country icon Reba McEntire to sing his song "Rodeo" with him.

Before he made his first CMA Fest main stage performance last year (2023), Johnson talked to us backstage and shared how excited he was to play CMA Fest in such a big way. He told us, "From working hard and personally, a long hard road of playing bars and honky tonks to get to the top where I get to step on the largest stage in America with country music fans. These people aren't here to party for three days in a field; they are here to hear country music."

Cody added, "To be on this lineup, especially for the 50th anniversary for me personally, I look back on all the years of work hard and never giving up, and I said, 'Someday I'm gonna be able to play my brand of country music that sounds more traditional, has got a little cowboy in it, on a very large stage. So, it's an incredible thing. We're gonna try to burn this place down."

RELATED: Cody Johnson: 'Not Just A Guy From Texas'

Johnson released his ACM-nominated Album of the Year, Leather, late last year. According to Cody, that project has twelve more songs and 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.

Cody Johnson has been moving to country superstar status with the release of his new album Leather and the announcement of the accompanying tour.

Cody recently told us that early on in his career, before he signed with Warner Brothers Nashville, industry people wanted to change his style. He said, "You just have to stand your ground. I had a big fat record deal sitting in front of me when they asked me to take my hat off, and I turned it down. At the time, I was starving. My wife and I didn't have anything, and that was a hard pill to swallow. This is not an easy thing to do to stand up and say, 'I know who I am already. I don't need you to tell me who I am. This is who I am, musically and personally.'"

Johnson added, "It gets easier over the years because the bigger you get, the more people accept that. I think it's a hard road, and that's why a lot of people don't take it. They will let people influence them to change their name, change the way they dress, or change their producer because that producer had a lot of hits."

Cody told us he's glad he stood his ground, "It's been a hard road, but I'm thankful for it because I feel like I've earned everything. When you get to it good, it tastes so much sweeter. And that's really who I am, so I'm never gonna change that. I am not arrogant about it because I know who I am musically. I know who I am personally."

As Johnson expands his popularity in country music and becomes a major star, we decided to take a deep dive and give some details on the Cody Johnson songs everyone should know by now.

This was Johnson's first song released by his then-new label home, Warner Nashville. The song cracked the top 15, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot Country Song chart. The lyrics 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."

This amazing 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 and the Grammy Award for Best Country Song at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2023. Johnson did not write the song but told the message in it, "In our world today, we could use more positivity."

While Johnson did not write this song either, he said that it is his most autobiographical song. It was released in 2011 and made the Billboard Country Airplay chart's top ten, peaking at eight. It is also the title track to his double Human album, which was also released in 2021.

Cody teamed up with Reba McEntire for a duet version of his song "Dear Rodeo." Johnson wrote the song as a very personal tribute to his previous career in bull riding, which struck a chord with Reba, who grew up on a family ranch competing in barrel racing.

Reba said then, "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."

This song is bound to be a big hit. Even though Johnson did not write the song himself, it's about his marriage. He said, "My favorite lyric in 'The Painter' is 'For every wall I built, she saw a canvas.' If there's anything that describes my marriage with my wife, Brandi, it's that line. And that's why we've been together for 15 years."

Johnson added, "I hope my fans are encouraged to take the time to appreciate the people they have around them. The ones who make their life beautiful and bring all the beautiful colors to their world when it could just be black and white and dark. Remember them and tell them you love them."