Cody Johnson is in Concert at the TRI State Rodeo this year!!! Thursday, September 7th! Win your tickets today in the 4pm hour!!! Be ready to call the Kiss Lines at 319-395-0096. You can also register to win on the contest page. http://965kisscountry.iheart.com/contests/win-concert-tickets-at-the-273196/
Cody Johnson is no stranger to the rodeo arena. After briefly attending Angelina College in Lufkin, Texas, he traded in his books to become a professional bull rider. Johnson did okay in that sport – the oversized belt buckle he wears today was won fair and square on the back of a bucking bull – but he broke a litany of bones: his right leg, his left arm, two ribs and his right collarbone. “That’s a very, very rough sport to be in,” Johnson notes. “It’s very, very rough on your body. It’s very rough on your mind, and it’s scary. I mean there’s not a professional bull rider that won’t tell you it’s not scary. If it wasn’t scary, we wouldn’t do it.”
His current Gotta Be Me project, paints him as a cowboy, raised on outlaw country, who drinks too much, fights too much and won’t apologize for having an opinion. By the time the 14-track journey is over, he’s shared his rodeo history in “The Only One I Know (Cowboy Life),” demonstrated his woman’s influence in “With You I Am” and paid homage to his gospel heritage in “I Can’t Even Walk.” This album is loaded with solid country instrumentation and winsome melodies.
His love of music was passed down from his father, who played drums for their congregation at church. The drums were the first instrument Cody picked up, “Learning drums first taught me about feeling the song – feeling that dynamic of when it’s supposed to be big and when it’s supposed to be soft,” he says. “
Johnson learned guitar next, and when a teacher heard him playing an original song, he convinced Johnson to form a band with a few other students enrolled in the Future Farmers of America. Just a few months later, that first band finished runner-up in a Texas State FFA talent contest, creating an internal buzz that Johnson would continue to chase.
Not thinking music was his life’s calling, he pursued the pro rodeo circuit. Cody started recording his own music during that phase of his life, beginning with Black And White Label, which featured his dad, Carl, on drums. Johnson sold the CDs, pressed on his own CoJo imprint, from his pickup.
Eventually, Cody took a job at the prison to pay the bills. His band kept hitting the clubs on the weekend, with Johnson kept banging away on the guitar on Fridays and Saturdays while overseeing some very hardened convicts whose crimes had cut them off from humanity.
Meanwhile, his weekend crowds began to grow, and Johnson started landing hits on the Texas music charts. After the release of his third album, he won New Male Vocalist of the Year in the Texas Regional Radio Music Awards.
With the support of his then, fiancée, he put his full effort into making it on the country music scene. After many sacrifices, hard work and employing the right songwriter, Cody broke onto the Billboard chart with “Cowboy Like Me”.
Which brings us back to today and the Cody Johnson who will be performing at the Tri-State Rodeo. In essence, Gotta Be Me (his newest project) documents the life of a guy who’s lived in the fast lane as a beer-drinkin’, rodeo-ridin’ cowboy, but who’s also seen just enough darkness to temper that wild streak.
Johnson delivers it all with an uncanny confidence. His smoky baritone and ultra-Southern enunciations give him a voice as uniquely identifiable as country kingpins Jason Aldean or Tim McGraw. And he uses it to convey a Texas-proud swagger, a real-man charm and an unwavering honesty about who he is, where he comes from and where he hopes to go.
“I’m a God-fearin’, hard-workin’, beer-drinkin’, fightin’, lovin’ cowboy from Texas,” he grins. “That’s about it