If you’ve caught a Cody Johnson show, you know that the proverbial bells and whistles are things you definitely won’t see onstage.
Instead, the “‘Til You Can’t” singer is all about keeping things simple and letting his vocals take center stage.
“I do like the no-frills approach. I don’t want confetti bombs and fire and dancers. I want you to focus on me,” Cody tells ABC Audio. “I want you to focus on me being up there. I don’t want to say naked, but it’s stripped down to the point of like, ‘Look, this is what you get.””
In fact, Cody’s concerts are so real and bare-bones that mixed-up lyrics are almost part of the experience — and he takes full ownership of that.
“The other night at the Opry, I screwed up the words to ‘Dirt Cheap.’ And I said, ‘Do you know why y’all heard me screw up the words the ‘Dirt Cheap’? Because I don’t have any tracks. This is live music. If I screw it up, I screw it up. But this is me being me and giving you my soul right here,”” the 2024 CMA Male Vocalist of the Year nominee recalls.
“I think that on a stadium, it’s very important for me to be even more stripped-down and say, ‘Hey, look, we can just do this with our instruments and a microphone,”” Cody adds.
Cody will kick off his upcoming Leather Deluxe Tour Jan. 17 in Newark, New Jersey. You can find tickets and a full list of dates now at codyjohnsonmusic.com.
Cody’s Leather Deluxe Edition, featuring the Carrie Underwood-assisted “I’m Gonna Love You,” drops Nov. 1 and is available for preorder and presave.
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