Cody Johnson just nabbed his third chart-topper with the Josh Phillips-penned “Dirt Cheap”—a tender mid-tempo about how the best things in life aren’t for sale.
“I recorded ‘Dirt Cheap’ because I want you to understand how I feel about being a rancher,” Johnson told American Songwriter‘s Cindy Watts. “I want to take you back to where I come from in Texas.”
“Dirt Cheap” jumped from the fifth position to the first this week on the Media Base country airplay charts. The song is from Johnson’s 2023 album Leather. And while Johnson didn’t write it, he said the song was “ultimately unapologetically me.”
It is also Phillips’, who ripped many of the lyrics from his life.
Lines include:
‘Cause I got a little girl that used to swing right there| I still see her pink bow in her brown hair| She’s in the big city, but she still calls home| What’s she gonna do if she comes back, and we’re gone?
Phillips and his wife bought a 1904 farmhouse, remodeled it completely, and planned to sell it. Then, one night, he was sitting outside and realized he just couldn’t do it.
“I Literally Proposed In the Front Yard”
“I was like, ‘Man, there’s so many memories in there,’” he said on social media. “I literally proposed in the front yard. Our rescue dog is still living with us, our little girl with a pink bow and brown hair. It’s all littered throughout that song, life that we live.”
When Johnson was recording Leather, his life was similar to “Dirt Cheap,” too. He was professionally at the top of his game, but his housing situation didn’t reflect his career status.
Johnson and his wife had recently bought a 7,800 sq ft ranch house in Texas. They found mold, which triggered a renovation. They and their two daughters had to move out to a single-wide trailer near their barn during construction.
“My family and I, at the biggest part of my career so far, we’re as close as we have ever been in a very physical close way,” Johnson said. “I said this to somebody the other day. I put on my gold watch, got the driver to pick me up, and took me to the airport. I got on a private jet and flew in to go play Kix Brooks’ Songwriter’s Hall of Fame deal. I got on the jet, flew back out, went home, and walked in my trailer house. I said, ‘Well, if that ain’t high-tech redneck right there, I don’t know what is.’”
Cody Johnson: “If That Ain’t High-Tech Redneck Right There …”
Johnson just logged another career milestone. The Texas cowboy just headlined the Festa do Peão de Barretos – Brazil’s biggest rodeo festival. Johnson sold well over 40,000 tickets.
If he is true to his word—and cowboys aren’t known for lying—new music should be coming by the end of the year. The singer promised a deluxe edition of Leather would be out in 2023. He recorded it at the same time as Leather but didn’t want to release a double album.
“People’s attention spans are so short nowadays that I figure let’s put these 12 because these 12 all complement each other,” he said of the track list on Leather. “It’s two separate things. I thought, ‘Well, let’s release the first one. Give people the time to digest. Let’s maybe get a couple of singles. Then we’ll release the second half. It’s the difference between an appetizer and an entree.”
(Photo by Daniel DeSlover/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)
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