Cody Johnson’s Upcoming Song Needed Carrie Underwood

Cody Johnson gave as many details as he could about the new duet he has coming out with Carrie Underwood. Although he would not give the song's title or when it will be released, Cody told us backstage at last week's (6/8) CMA Fest when asked about it, "I didn't know she didn't say 'yes' to everything, so thank you for making me feel better."

Johnson explained, "I won't go into too much detail about it because I want to save some sizzle of surprise. From the moment I heard the song, and this was six years ago, I wanted to record it, and I wanted to do a duet with Carrie because I heard her voice on it."

He continued, "The artist that wrote the song (whom he would not say by name), the label said, 'We're holding that for him,' and I didn't get the song; it didn't work out for him, and it went into her pile and didn't work out for her record company. So it went back into the stratosphere of who wants to record this, and I said, 'Whatever happened to that song that guy wrote?' and They said, 'Well, it never got recorded,' and I said, 'I want Carrie Underwood on it."

Cody's label asked what if she said no and what other female artist he would want on the song. He recalled, "I said I didn't want to record it unless I could have Carrrie on it.'"

Johnson admitted it's not that he is a die-hard fan of Underwood, but it just had to be Carrie's voice on the song. He told us, "I love Carrie's music, but I didn't have her poster on my wall, you know. But when I heard this song, I heard her voice, and I just knew that it was gonna work out. We had never sung together, so when we got in the room, and we started singing together, It was like family harmony. The only way I can describe it is the way I grew up singing with my mom. It just instantly fits, and it meshes."

Cody concluded, "It's really interesting to me because my voice and her voice are really drastically different. But put together, they make a very, very unique sound, and I'm excited for it to come out. I'm not sure when it is; we're kind of holding the Ace card close to the sleeve."

Cody Johnson has been making waves in country music in the last few years and has been taking home some awards including winning the Single of the Year award at the 2022 CMA Awards for his 'Till You Can't." He also won a 2023 CMT Music Award for Performance of the Year.

Cody recently announced during a CMT nominations special earlier this month, that he will be releasing a 24-track double album, titled Cody Johnson: Leather. And the new project will feature a duet with Carrie Underwood. He revealed this when he was asked what it was like to compete with Underwood for a CMT Award. "I actually just recorded a duet with her yesterday for my new album coming out. And getting to know her — man, she's such a pro and everybody that she surrounds herself with are all very professional, as well. I don't mean this to sound bad, but it's kind of hard to compete with that."

The new album will be Johnson's second consecutive double album, as his October 2021 project, Human, was also a two-disc project with 18 tracks.

As Cody continues his climb in country music, heading for superstar status, we take a look at the last couple of years of this Texas country star's life in Nashville and beyond.