Cody Johnson: Where Is His Duet With Carrie Underwood?

In June, Cody Johnson told us that his upcoming album, Leather, would feature a duet with Carrie Underwood; however, the track listing was just revealed for his album Leather and there is no duet with Carrie on it. He told backstage at CMA Fest, "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."

Cody's label asked 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 Carrie 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 said, "I love Carrie's music, but I didn't have her poster on my wall. 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."

The new album, which will be released on November 3, does have collaborations with Jelly Roll and Brooks & Dunn. Johnson told Billboard this week that a deluxe version of the album (featuring another 12 songs) is coming next year. And yes, Johnson says the deluxe project will feature more collaborations, but said, "Those are the ones I can't mention."

1. "Work Boots" (Jason Afable, Brett Beavers, Canaan Smith)
2. "Double Down" (Jeff Hyde, Adam James, Clint Daniels)
3. "Watching My Old Flame" (Kat Higgins, Wynn Varble, Daniels)
4. "That's Texas" (Andy Sheridan, Erik Dylan, Wyatt McCubbin)
5. "Dirt Cheap" (Josh Phillips)
6. "Jesus Loves You" (Mark Holman, Chase McGill, Michael Hardy)
7. "Whiskey Bent" (feat. Jelly Roll) (James, Mikey Reaves, Rocky Block)
8. "Leather" (Ian Munsick, Rivers Rutherford, Jeremy Spillman)
9. "People in the Back" (Devin Dawson, Austin Taylor Smith, Mark Trussell)
10. "Long Live Country Music" (feat. Brooks & Dunn) (Phil O'Donnell, Wade Kirby, Trent Willmon)
11. "The Painter" (Higgins, Benjy Davis, Ryan Larkins)
12. "Make Me a Mop" (Jessi Alexander, Connie Harrington, Alan Shamblin)

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.