Cody Johnson

Cody Johnson's straight-ahead country music reflects his hardscrabble background. Before he became an award-winning, platinum-selling country singer, he lived the life of one: As a teen, he competed in rodeos as a bull rider, then found work as a prison supervisor in early adulthood while working on his music -- he released his first album on his own indie imprint, CoJo, in 2006. A decade later, his sixth LP, Gotta Be Me, became a word-of-mouth sensation, reaching number two on Billboard's Country Albums chart and setting him up to make the leap to the major labels with 2019's...