Cody Johnson: What He Did Before Photo Shoot Is Shocking

Cody Johsnon's upcoming album Leather features a closeup photo of his dirty hands holding a saddle horn with a rope tied around them. According to Cody, the picture is as authentic as you can get.

He told us of the morning the photo was taken at his Texas ranch, "I wanted it to be gritty. I wanted it to be real. So I had Chris Douglas, my photographer, come down. All we did was, we worked cows. He got up with us at five o'clock in the morning, we went and pinned cows, and when you see the hands on that saddle horn in that picture, that's literally because I just got through castrating twenty bulls."

He added, "It was real. We branded forty cows, and that's what my hands look like after a hard day's work on the ranch. Leather is just not a saddle; it's not just chaps or a cover seat on a car. Leather is a part of a soul. I think the picture of my hands is a good representation of that."

Johnson said the album's title song, "Leather," he did not write, but he related to it. He said, "When you hear those words, 'You can bend him, but you can't break him. It took years of work and dirt to make him, and when your whole world falls apart leather,' You know my wife said that second verse is as autobiographical as you can get."

He concluded, "I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but being a cowboy is not easy; if it was easy, everybody would do it; we're rough and tough, and there's grit. There's a line of morality that's very hard to stand up for sometimes and stay in society. Where I come from, yes, still means yes, and it's black and white. There is no gray area. That's hard for a lot of people in this world to swallow these days."

Cody's album Leather will be released on November 3, just days before the CMA Awards in Nashville, where he is nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year.

Jelly Roll is having his big moment in country music, and he is a multiple award nominee at next month's CMA Awards in Nashville, including a nod for the album (Whitsett Chapel) and Male Vocalist.

Last week, Jelly debuted on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. In a video clip posted to his Instagram, his team highlighted the appearance with backstage footage where Jelly says at one point in the clip, "I hadn't left much past Ohio three years ago. National TV, dude. Two shows in one day, baby, one on national television."

At another moment in the clip, Jimmy Fallon comes into Jelly's dressing room to say hi. The talk show host tells Jelly, "You're crushing it, bud, you're crushing it. Congratulations, and keep going." After Fallon leaves, one of Jelly's bandmates says that was pretty cool, and Jelly replies, "That wasn't pretty cool, that was (expletive) awesome." Jelly adds, "It was like Waylon Jennings on the Johnny Carson show." He says, "We're in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza; we're in the big leagues. Johnny Carson was here."

After he performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jelly and his band boarded a private plane from New Jersey to West Virginia and, with a police escort, went straight on stage at a sold-out show. After the show, they made it in time to watch their performance on late-night TV.

See that post here. Note: there are many expletives in the Instagram video clip.

When he performed for the first time in June at Nashville's CMA Fest, he revealed that during his first performance at Nissan Stadium in June, which was televised as a TV special on ABC, he was "trembling."

Jelly posted a video clip of the performance on his Instagram. He wrote in a lengthy caption, "If you listen closely, you can hear my voice shaking the first half of the song— I was trembling; I was so nervous. 65,000 people in my hometown stadium- the same stadium my father took me to every Sunday for Titans games. The same stadium I've been taking my daughter to since she was a baby."

He continued, "Thank you, CMA fest, for letting me be a part of your 50th anniversary - I have literally been going to 'Fan Fair' since I was a child. This night was unbelievable... to hear 65k people [sing] 'and God, I need a Favor' in unison like one voice. Speaking of 'NEED A FAVOR,' I can officially say it is the #1 song on Country Radio right now. There is no greater achievement in this town than being #1 in country radio. The fact this is my 2nd number one at Country Radio this year makes it almost unbelievable to me, to be honest - and this same song also held 3 weeks at number 1 on Rock radio."

Jelly concluded, "Just when I thought things couldn't get any wilder, y'all continue to amaze me. Thank y'all - this has been an unreal year."

We gathered five of Jelly's friends in country music and share his connection to each of them.

Lainey and Jelly have been friends for a while now and are currently nominated for a CMA together for Musical Event of the Year for their collaboration of "Save Me." They are on the same record label and are both having massive success. Wilson said in an interview earlier this year that she was an extra in his music video in 2013. She said it was the one Jelly did with Uncle Kracker, admitting she played "a drunk girl, passed out on the ground." While that was her first interaction with him, they have since become good friends, and he considers her to be a sister.

Ashley recently opened shows for Jelly Roll. When I interviewed her recently, she told me about the man. Ashley shared about her friend, "He's so loving and so inviting. I love being on the road with him. The culture he has created with his band, crew, and everything about that is really welcoming." She added, "He told me my first day, 'You'll never feel more at home on any tour than you will on this tour.' And I thought at first, 'Aw, I don't know, I've toured with some really amazing tours.' He told me, 'You'll never feel more at home with any fanbase than you are with mine,' and he's right. His fan base is so diverse, and at first, when you look at a snapshot of it, you go, 'These people don't all belong under the same canopy right now,' but they do. And that feeling while you're watching a show is amazing."

Jason Kempin x2/Getty Images

Cody told us of Jelly in June, "Jelly's one of my favorite people to hang out with. You may not look at me and know this, but I have a pretty jaded past as well." He added, "I've always said there was a time in my life when I had to make a decision, and that decision was to chase this dream professionally with a good mindset. There are a few mistakes I've made in my life and decisions in my life where I could have wound up here, or I very well could have wound up in jail." He concluded, "It's almost like a blessing and a curse because we put so much on ourselves. And I relate to him, and he relates to me, and we're so opposite; you've got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos... I think it's a very opposite attraction kind of thing. The respect is mutual and real recognizes real."

Miranda revealed that she and Jelly Roll were writing songs together in January. Lambert posted a couple of photos to her Instagram, one with her, Jelly Roll, and a songwriter named Telenitry. She wrote, "Made a new friend this week! Jesse was right when he said we go together like biscuits and gravy! Loved writing a tune with @jellyroll615 and @telemitry."

Green recently announced he is releasing a new album, Ain't My Last Rodeo, on October 13 on BMLG Records. The 12-track project is named after a song on the album, "My Last Rodeo," which the singer wrote solo following one of the final conversations he had with his late Grandaddy Buford while in the hospital. Riley has a song with Jelly Roll called "Copenhagen In A Cadillac" that he co-wrote on the project and a cover of Tim McGraw's "Damn Country Music." Green has sung on stage with Jelly many times and considers the Nashville area native a good friend.