Closing out the same lunch that Ashley McBryde performed at was none other than our native son, Cody Johnson. It is no secret that Cody has not always fit in with the Nashville crowd (they were a little slow to learn) BUT I’m proud to say that has changed.

Cody played 3 songs at lunch that day. He dedicated ‘Til You Can’t to his fiddle player who was not able to make the performance because his mom had just passed. That started the emotions to build. He then performed his new #1 The Painter, which was not #1 yet but we all knew it would be before that week was over. More emotion building, more pride than anything.

You see, I have a certain bond with Cody. Brody and I talked about this on our video the other day. Cody filled in for Old Dominion at the Houston Rodeo when I was working there. I referenced to him that it was his George Strait moment. George filled in for Eddie Rabbit at the rodeo when he was sick and that was the moment that launched his career outside of Texas. Same thing happened for Cody. All of us in Texas have always known how special Cody is, it just took that performance in front of that audience for the rest of the country to wake up.

So when Cody said, “I can’t believe just one guy wrote this song.” I searched for every thing on the table that I could grab quickly in case I started sobbing uncontrollably. I knew exactly what was about to happen. It was Dirt Cheap. If there was anyone in the room that hadn’t heard it yet, I felt sorry for them. They didn’t know what was about to hit them.

Needless to say, I had to go back to my room after this and fix my makeup before my next meeting because I had cried it off during this performance. I was ok with it considering I wasn’t the only one. A lot of the guys were trying to hide their tears, they didn’t hide them well.

You can hear Dirt Cheap here on Y100. Just make sure you have tissues handy at all times. You never know when it is gonna sneak up on you.