Carrie Underwood is a big, big fan of Cody Johnson. The two are currently celebrating a No. 1 song, with their “I’m Gonna Love You” duet, although Underwood says she was a fan of the Texan long before their chart-topping collaboration.

“He’s awesome,” Underwood boasts. “I remember the first time I met him. I know he’s been working at this for a long time. Whenever somebody kind of comes onto the scene, it seems like it happens so fast. But I remember the first time I met him, and I was like, ‘I like that guy.’ I came away from that meeting — not meeting, it was just at an awards show — but I told my manager, ‘I like him. He just seems very genuine and like the real deal.’ And he’s got an incredible voice.

“So I feel like it was inevitable that we would sing together at some point,” she adds. “And I love this song so much, and getting to be in the studio and be around him on the video shoot and things like that. He’s just, he is the real deal. And he’s like this cowboy that sings, which I love that.”

Underwood had been pitched “I’m Gonna Love You” years before, either to sing by herself or as a duet with Travis Denning, one of the song’s writers. At the time, the American Idol judge said she liked the song, but it wasn’t right at the time for her. But when Johnson brought it back to her, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“I had heard the song before,” Underwood shares. “I feel like songs kind of make their way to different people at different times, and things like that. I was actually sent the song when I was doing my last album. And I was like, ‘I like this song so much. I wish there was a guy singing it.’ So it didn’t make that much sense for me to do. And then when it was sent over, I was like, ‘Now this is perfect. This is even better than just a guy singing it by himself.’ It’s Cody and making it a duet is just was a no-brainer.“

It’s fortunate for Johnson that Underwood was willing to do “I’m Gonna Love You” with him, since he was only going to do it if Underwood sang with him.

“I get the song and as soon as I hear it, I went ‘Carrie Underwood,’” Johnson shares. “And they’re like, ‘Well, what about this person, what about this person.’ I’m like, ‘Nope, it’s Carrie Underwood.’ So then, once Carrie and I are in the studio, she’s like, ‘You know, I had this song. This is the second time it’s come into my life’ and I’m like, ‘Well, that’s if that’s not meant to be. I don’t know what is.’”

Find “I’m Gonna Love You” here.