There's that area, right there, where you can be too hard on yourself or you need to be really hard on yourself - I'm trying to ride that line by telling myself that I can always write better, sing better, what can we do to make the show more interesting? Pretend that you're the guy who's been in the front row for the last five shows; what would make it new for you?
Cody JohnsonI really tried to push every genre that I could into this record. I wanted every song to have this feel, where as soon as the listener tunes in, they say "That's CoJo, that's Cody right there." That being said, it is a little different. There's Americana, there's Bluegrass, there's some rock, there's some really George Jones-style stuff on it, slow-style Ray Price country elements, there's some modern country, a little of this and a little of that. We tried to push a lot for show versatility, because I grew up with a lot of versatility in my music.
Cody JohnsonI think my brand of country music is that's been influenced by not just the rough-stock rodeo side or Ted Nugent's "let's get crazy style", but also the stand-up and sing style's like George Strait and Merle Haggard, and also the wild side of Chris Ledoux
Cody JohnsonOne of the things that I always admired about Michael Jordan was that he considered his teammates to be his coaches, claiming they would always teach him something that he didn't know - and we're talking about the best of the best.
Cody JohnsonI absolutely believe that what you sing and how you act when you're in this position, should be the definition of who you are and where your heart and character stands.
Cody JohnsonI just continue to be myself and give this thing over to the good lord, just do my best every night and pretend like it's just any other job.
Cody JohnsonI think that no matter what you do, whether you rodeo, whether you work in an office, you work in the oilfield or you play music for a living, eventually if you do enough of it, the devil in the back of your head tries to turn it into work. You have to find new ways to make it new and make it exciting to keep that drive there.
Cody Johnson