Cody Johnson Takes Pride In Being An Entertainer

All eyes are on Cody Johnson tonight as he attends the 2024 ACM Awards as not only a performer, but also as a five-time nominee. His nominations include Visual Media of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and the top honor of the night, Entertainer of the Year.

Johnson spent some time in Frisco, Texas this week with Backstage Country's Kelly Ford; to say he's ready to take on the ACM Awards, would be an understatement. The country star didn't hold back on his true feelings going into Country Music's Party of the Year.

"I've been ready for the Entertainer of the Year nomination since I was about 12 years old. Being an entertainer is something I pride myself on." Johnson told Ford.

He continued, "However, if I have to compare one to the other, you know, like Album of the Year is a conglomerate. Yeah, that's me, Trent Willmon, Jack Clark, Scott Gunter, Chris Lacy. It's my band in Nashville, and it's something that we all worked very hard on. So, yeah, there's two different things now."

Johnson is set to perform his latest single, "Dirt Cheap," tonight at the ACM Awards. The song, which is now a country staple, is featured on his 2024 album, via Warner Music Nashville, titled Leather.

"Josh Phillips, he wrote this song by himself. I heard through the grapevine that his wife asked to hold on to it until he felt like he had an artist that could portray it in the right light. He sent it to Luke Combs. Luke never clicked on it. Thanks, Luke. Well, I found that out on a duck hunt," Johnson said.

Johnson is currently out on the road for his headlining 2024 'The Leather Tour' and will play major festivals this summer including CMA Fest in Nashville, Windy City Smokeout in Chicago, and Gulf Coast Jam in Florida, among others.

The 2024 ACM Awards will air on Thursday, May 16 at 8 p.m. EDT/7 p.m. CDT/5 p.m. PDT, streaming live exclusively on Prime Video.

Cody Johnson is well on his way to becoming one of country music's bigges stars. The former rodeo star, who now sells out arenas with high-action music concerts, is an award favorite at the CMA and ACMs.

Johnson makes sure he always leaves the audience with a memorable performance when it comes to taking the stage, whether at one of his concerts or an awards show. He told us, "Leave nothing behind. We play this show like it's the last show we're ever going to play. This is the show we get remembered for. I hit the stage with the exact same mentality and the exact same intensity every single night because we're not guaranteed tomorrow, so it's like you gotta go out there, and you gotta play it like it's the last one. You gotta play it with the same intensity as if you're never going to get to do it again."

Cody added, "Now, after the fact, we can be like, 'Man, that was cool,' but when you're in the moment… you're like, leave no doubt, leave nothing behind, make sure they remember your name."

Jan. 19 -- Sacramento, Calif. @ Golden 1 Center
Jan. 20 -- Anaheim, Calif. @ Honda Center
Jan. 26 -- San Diego, Calif. @ Pechanga Arena
Jan. 27 -- Glendale, Ariz. @ Desert Diamond Arena
Feb. 2 -- Nashville, Tenn. @ Bridgestone Arena
Feb. 9 -- Wichita, Kan. @ Intrust Bank Arena
Feb. 10 -- N. Little Rock, Ark. @ Simmons Bank Arena
Feb. 16 -- Sunrise, Fla. @ Amerant Bank Arena
Feb. 17 -- Jacksonville, Fla. @ Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena
March 16 -- Birmingham, Ala. @ Legacy Arena @ BJCC
June 1 -- Panama City Beach, Fla. @ Gulf Coast Jam
June 14 -- N. Lawrence, Ohio @ The Country Fest
July 11 -- Ft. Loramie, Ohio @ Country Concert @ Hickory Hills Lakes

As he gears up to hit the road this weekend (1/19), we take a look at four amazing music videos.

This is Cody's first song released under the Warner Brothers record label in Nashville. Although he did not write this song, Johnson says the song reflects on his many hardships and heartbreaks en route to finding the girl he's meant to be with forever. The lyrics of the song's chorus 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 music video includes scenes of "fishing excursions, classic-car rebuilding sessions, family dinners" interspersed with footage of Johnson delivering a fiery solo performance of the song. He said of the video, "I love the storyline in the video. You think it's going in one direction, and then suddenly, you are surprised at the turn of events. When they sent me the rough edit of the video, it was so powerful and brought tears to my eyes. It put into perspective the song that I had been singing for months."

The 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.

Johnson wrote the song as a very personal tribute to his previous career in bull riding, which struck a chord with Reba McEntire, who grew up on a family ranch competing in barrel racing.

Reba said, "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."

Cody added, "The story behind 'Dear Rodeo' is more a story about life and less about rodeo. I feel like everybody has their own 'Dear Rodeo' story, and when I found out that Reba was impacted by this song enough to want to do a duet, it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done in my career."

This music video shows the former bull rider riding horses and also scenes of him playing live in concert. It also shows video clips of Johnson roping cattle in a rodeo arena setting. Cody said that "Human" is his most autobiographical song to date.