We know that Cody Johnson already recorded a duet with Carrie Underwood, which will likely be on his forthcoming double album, Leather, but now it seems he could have another collaboration in the works as well. The Texan hints that he might have something special coming with Jelly Roll, a combination that to Johnson makes complete sense.
“Respect is mutual, and real recognizes real. So absolutely, we’ve talked about working together,” Johnson said backstage at CMA Fest (via Taste of Country).
There might seem to be a lot of differences between Jelly Roll and Johnson, but the former prison guard says they are far more alike than people expect.
“You guys may not look at me and realize this, but I have a pretty jaded past as well,” Johnson shares. “I’ve always said there was a time in my life where I had to make a decision, and that decision was either to chase this dream professionally, with a good mindset. There’s a few mistakes that I’ve made in my life — there’s a few decisions I’ve made in my life where I could have wound up here, or I very well could have wound up in jail.”
While Johnson worked in the prisons, while Jelly Roll did time in them, Johnson has still found a lot of similarities between the two of them.
“I have a very thick background on incarceration. Jelly did time. We’ve talked about that,” he continues, sharing all that they have in common.
“We struggle with a lot of the same pressures of, we put so much pressure on ourselves to be the best husband, to try to be the best father, for our [bands], to try to be the best leader, to be the best performer…it’s almost like a blessing and a curse, because we put so much on ourselves.
“I relate to him, and he relates to me,” he adds. “We’re so opposite; you got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos. I think it’s just an opposites attract kind of thing.”
Whether it would be on Johnson’s next record or not is unclear, but 36-year-old, whose last record, Human: The Double Album, was released in 2021, says that fans should expect the unexpected with his next set of tunes.
“I can’t reveal all the surprises, but there’s definitely been some songs that we’ve sat and listened to, to where they speak to him as much as they speak to me. So you’ll see something from us very soon,” Johnson says.
Of Leather, Johnson says it is his favorite record he has ever done, at least so far.
“This round of 24 songs I have to say is the best round of songs I have ever recorded, and I feel like that’s the way it should be,” Johnson tells Audacy’s KMLE Country 107.9. “Each album should outdo the last one. There’s some fun stuff, I think the theme of this new album is fun. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a ballad or whether it’s tongue-in-cheek kind of fun. It all has to be fun, it all has to make you kind of want to move around and bob your head a little bit.”
Find all of Johnson’s music and upcoming shows at CodyJohnsonMusic.com.