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Cody Johnson Talks CMA Nods

Cody Johnson has five nominations going into this week’s 58th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday live on ABC starting at 8 PM ET. While Cody is nominated for Male Vocalist,…

Cody Johnson performed on stage in a cowboy hat and white shirt.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Cody Johnson has five nominations going into this week's 58th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday live on ABC starting at 8 PM ET.

While Cody is nominated for Male Vocalist, Single, Album, and twice in the Music Video Of The Year category, along with “The Painter” and “Dirt Cheap” both being up for Song Of The Year – he’s not taking anything for granted going into this year’s CMA Awards.

He recently told us, “I could probably tell you who’s going to win all of them, and it’s probably not me. I think we have a better shot at Music Video because I’m in there twice, but you know it’s not about winning for me. It’s like, man, we were nominated technically seven times, five for myself and two for the songwriters of ‘The Painter’ and ‘Dirt Cheap,’ which is just as cool to me.”

Cody Johnson: Leather Delxue

Originally, Johnson had planned to release Leather with all 24 songs on it, until it was suggested to break it up into an album, and a Deluxe album. Cody had no idea that as he was releasing the Deluxe Edition that Leather would get nominated for CMA Album Of The Year.

The country star said, "I wanted the Deluxe edition and Leather to be like one thing. And then we got nominated for Album Of The Year, and I was like, 'Wait a minute. The rest of the album’s not out yet, and everybody kind of went well, we didn’t vote for it.' It just kind of happened. And I thought, 'Well, you know what? Everything happens for a reason. And I’m not going to complain about being nominated for Album Of The Year.'"

Cody Johnson: His Sold-Out Hometown Show

Cody got the chance to play a hometown show in Arlington, Texas. Cody sold-out his first-ever headline stadium concert earlier this month (11/9) playing for 40,643 fans at Globe Life Field in his native Arlington.

Special guests included Jon Pardi, Tracy Byrd, and Ella Langley. To announce this show the singer attended batting practice and threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a home Texas Rangers game this spring and returned to the field to perform the National Anthem at the 2024 MLB All-Star Game in July.

Johnson told us before the hometown show, "I haven’t got a chance to play in Texas a whole lot, you know, obviously home is where the heart is, and that’s my heart’s always in Texas. The one date I’m looking forward to the most, the baseball stadium in Arlington. And I think that’s just going to be amazing. I got to play it once in 2020 when the Wrangler NFR was there in Arlington, and it’s a pretty big deal."

He added, "So, I’m looking forward to that…but those are easy. Anytime we’re playing in Texas, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll just come in that day and skip sound check and I’ll play the show and just go home.’ And actually in Arlington, the day after I’ve got a team roping I’m going to right there in Fort Worth. So, it’s double good for me."

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.