Cody Johnson: ‘Long Live Country Music’

Cody Johnson releases his album Leather on Friday (11/3). The new album from the CMA Male Vocalist nominee is full of songs that tell Cody's story even though this time around, he didn't have a hand in writing any of the songs on the project. He says that the songs he was pitched spoke for him and were just better than the ones he wrote.

One song, in particular, was written for Johnson after he won an award and said something on stage in his acceptance speech that sparked a song idea. He told us when we interviewed him last month, "I think it was the CMT Awards. I accepted an award, and on stage, I said, 'Long live country music.' Well, that night, they wrote that song, and after what I had said, it got pitched to me. And the next day Ronnie Dunn calls my phone and says, 'Hey, have you heard this song called 'Long Live Country Music' and I was like, 'Yeah, I just got it.'"

The two country stars then went back and forth asking who would cut it, and Cody said to Ronnie, 'Well, how about this, why don't you talk to Kix (Brooks), and why don't you all just cut it with me on my record.' It's pretty simple, but that's exactly how it happened."

He added that the song goes back to a particular time in country music when Brooks & Dunn ruled. Johnson said, "I do believe that it's a great opportunity to stand up with a bunch of guys that did it the way I did it, grew up playing honky tonks and bars. They've got that deep country heritage of hard work; go get it, nobody's gonna hand it to you sound of the 1980s and 1990s. The sound of Brooks and Dunn. I think that's one of the biggest things about having them on there is I feel like me and Ronnie and Kix we still stand for country music. We don't want to water it down; we want it straight up."

The CMA Awards' Male Vocalist category has existed since the CMA Awards began in the 1960s. During that decade, winners of the award included Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell. In the 1970s, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride, Kenny Rogers, and Ronnie Milsap won the Male Vocalist Award. Milsap took home the honor three times, and Pride won it twice in that decade. The 1980s saw names like George Jones, Ricky Skaggs, Randy Travis, and George Strait win the honor. Vince Gill dominated the Male Vocalist category at the CMAs in the 1990s, winning the trophy five times.

The 2000s saw Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley take home the award. Blake Shelton won Male Vocalist five times in his career from the CMA beginning in 2010.

Flash forward to the late 2010s and the 2020s, and Chris Stapleton dominates the category with six wins, including a win for Male Vocalist last year (2022). Chris said when he won the honor for the sixth time. "Well, okay. Man, thank you so much for this. It means so much to get an award from my friends back here. I was sitting over there, and all the guys in the category all deserve this award. Everybody's killin' it. I am so honored to be a member of the country music community." He then wished his daughter Ada a happy twelfth birthday. There's a good chance Stapleton could win his seventh award in the category at the award show next month.

The 2023 CMA Awards  is only weeks away, and we will know who takes home Male Vocalist in 2023. The nominees are Chris, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, and Morgan Wallen. We take a look at each nominee in this year's category to shed some light on who may walk away with the Male Vocalist prize this time.

Luke has won this award twice in his career from the CMA already in 2019 and 2020. At the top of his game, Combs has already won the Entertainer of the Year from the CMA twice in 2021 and 2022. Luke's voice and popularity make him a shoo-in to win this honor once again. It would be no big surprise if he walked away with the honor again in 2023.

Below is his first win for Male Vocalist presented by Trisha Yearwood, who noted before she gave out the award that Male Vocalist fifty years ago went to the Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash.

This is Jelly Roll's very first nomination in the Male Vocalist category for the CMA. With the on-fire year that Jelly has had in 2023, he very well could win. Jelly has yet to perform at the CMA Awards and will undoubtedly do so this year. In June, he made his debut performance on the CMA Fest stage and said that he was "trembling" when he performed, being nervous about stepping onto the stage that he has watched all of his life as a Nashville native.

This is Cody Johnson's second Male Vocalist nomination at the CMA Awards. A win in this category would be so important to the Texan who is lighting up country music and releasing his much-anticipated "Leather" album a couple of days before the CMA Awards are to be handed out this year on November 8. Cody performed his CMA winner for Single of the Year in 2022, "Til You Can't," at last year's CMA Awards.

Chris has won twenty-five CMA Awards in his career so far, including six Male Vocalist wins in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Known as one of country music's best vocalists ever, Stapleton has also won the Album of the Year award three times.

When he won last year, he wished his daughter Ada a Happy Birthday as he promised her he would if he won.

This Male Vocalist nod is Morgan's second nomination in the category. With his amazing success and selling out multiple nights at stadiums this past summer, a win for Morgan here would be no surprise. Although he has been nominated for eight CMA awards to date, including a nomination for the Entertainer of the Year this year (2023), he has only won a CMA once. He won the New Artist Award in 2020.