Throughout his career, there's been a few songs that really struck Cody Johnson, but he wasn't sure if they should be singles. Thankfully the fans have the final vote, and have pushed tracks like "'Til You Can't" and the latest single, "The Fall," into the spotlight. Backstage at the 2025 ACM Awards, Cody explained why it's always up to the fans, and shared his excited with Katie Neal for this week's award show.
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00:00We are backstage at the 60th annual ACM Awards with another one of our Entertainer of the Year nominees, Cody Johnson.
00:07Are you tired of hearing that yet?
00:09No.
00:09No, I've worked my whole life for that.
00:11No, you don't get tired of hearing that.
00:12I bet you did.
00:12You look very dapper today.
00:13Thank you, thank you.
00:14Can we do like a little Texas fit check here?
00:16Like what are we wearing?
00:17It's pretty simple.
00:18It's pretty simple.
00:19All right, where's the hat from?
00:20Resist All Hat.
00:21Okay.
00:21Justin Boots, Wrangler jeans.
00:24And I have my own Wrangler shirt lined up.
00:26But I was needing to iron some of them.
00:28So I threw on a polo for my buddy at Suitsupply, Kevin Baker.
00:32Shout out, bud, for dressing me.
00:34And a belt buckle also.
00:35Is this a winning?
00:36Oh, this looks like a good one too.
00:37Yeah, we won that last year.
00:39And this was actually cool.
00:41Okay, what do we got here?
00:42It's a 1987 Rolex GMT.
00:44Ooh, tell me about where you found that.
00:46I bought that in England on my world tour.
00:48That's a good one.
00:49I was born in 87, so I wanted my birth year.
00:51And it's actually tropic.
00:53That is something special.
00:54It used to be brown and the sun burn it, just like me.
00:58So me and this watch have a lot in common.
01:00I love that so much.
01:01You are going to be performing on the show Thursday night.
01:04Talk about this a little bit.
01:05We've got two performances.
01:06I'm doing Red Dirt Road with Brooks and Dunn, two of my heroes.
01:09Oh, incredible.
01:10The cool part was, thanks for asking me personally, guys.
01:13They sought me out and asked if I would do that.
01:15I love that.
01:16And then we're going to be doing our new single, The Fall.
01:18This song is very special.
01:20Talk about The Fall and the first time you heard it.
01:21You know, I love it.
01:23I've loved it.
01:24I didn't know for sure that it was going to be the scene.
01:28And I kind of had a Till You Can't moment because that happened with me on Till You Can't where I just wasn't sure.
01:34And you have to kind of listen to your audience and you have to listen to the people around you.
01:39I had some other suggestions because, you know, like I said, I wasn't sure.
01:42But what I can't deny is when you travel all the way across the world and everybody's got their phones out and they're all screaming the words of The Fall, it's like, man, that song deserves to be on radio.
01:52So it really kind of spoke for itself.
01:55Everyone tries to say they know what a hit song is, but I truly don't.
01:57Nobody knows.
01:58Nobody knows.
01:59But the best litmus test is what you just said.
02:02Well, it's people.
02:02We can talk about algorithms.
02:04We can talk about data and research.
02:06My data and research is, you know, 15 to 20,000 people a night.
02:10And what do they say?
02:11Exactly.
02:12Cody Johnson, I'm so excited.
02:13I feel like so many good things are happening for you.
02:14You got some amazing nominations for the award show.
02:17Two incredible songs.
02:18I'm going to love you.
02:19Dirt Cheap.
02:19You got to just be so happy.
02:21I'm pretty happy.
02:22It's pretty easy to do these kind of things, you know, rehearsals and interviews and all that stuff.
02:27You're like, I remember when I wasn't invited.
02:29This is really cool.
02:30It's so cool.
02:30And are the girls going to be watching from home or will they be in bed?
02:32No, they're going to be watching from home.
02:34They always want to see dad on TV.
02:35Oh, that's got to be so special.
02:36Listen, thank you so much for coming to see us.
02:39Congratulations on all your nominations and good luck at the 60th annual ACM Awards.
02:43We are backstage with Cody Johnson.