Jelly Roll has a good friend in Cody Johnson. The “Save Me” singer is opening up about this friendship with Johnson, who has been one of Jelly Roll’s biggest supporters since the beginning.
“Cody Johnson is one of my best friends in country music,” Jelly Roll tells American Songwriter. “I love Cody Johnson. That cowboy is one of the most authentic, real dudes, ‘I love you’ kind of dudes. He’s the most Christlike dude I’ve met in the business. He is awesome.”
Jelly Roll and Johnson also recorded a song together, “Whiskey Bent,” from Johnson’s 2023 Leather album, although the Nashville native knew early on that it likely wouldn’t become a single like he originally hoped.
“We got to do a record together on his album and I thought, there is no way this isn’t going to be his next single after ‘The Painter,'” Jelly Roll recalls. “As hot as he is, as hot as I am, as hot as this song is and the meaning of it.”
But as soon as the label chose “Dirt Cheap,” Jelly Roll knew that he and Johnson wouldn’t have a single together, at least not with “Whiskey Bent.”
“I called him and said, ‘Well Bubba, one, congratulations on what’s going to be an award-winning album,'” Jelly Roll recalls. “Which it did go on to win the CMA Album of the Year. I said, ‘This album is unbelievable. But me and your dream of having a single together just died.'”
When Johnson asked him why he thought that, Jelly Roll said, “’Dirt Cheap’ might be the best song I’ve ever heard.”
Jelly Roll has been vocal about his close friendship with Johnson. Fortunately, their admiration goes both ways, with Johnson also praising Jelly Roll. It might seem like an odd pairing, with Johnson formerly working as a prison guard, and Jelly Roll serving time in prison. Still, Johnson says they have more in common than people might think.
“I have a very thick background on incarceration. Jelly did time. We’ve talked about that,” Johnson says (via Taste of Country). “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. We’re so opposite; you got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos. I think it’s just an opposites attract kind of thing.”
Both Jelly Roll and Johnson are also enjoying hit singles right now. Jelly Roll has the No. 1 single with “Liar,” while Johnson is in the Top 5 with “Gonna Love You,” his duet with Carrie Underwood.