Jamey Johnson (born July 14, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter.
He was dropped from BNA in 2006 and signed to Mercury Nashville Records in March 2008, releasing his second album, the gold-certified That Lonesome Song.
[3] While in the Marines, he began playing country music in various bars in the Montgomery area; one of his first gigs was opening for David Allan Coe.
One of his first connections was with Greg Perkins, a fiddler who had played for Tanya Tucker, Tammy Wynette, and other artists.
Perkins invited Johnson to sing as a duet partner with Gretchen Wilson on a demo tape.
[4] Among Johnson's first cuts as a songwriter was "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk", which Adkins released from his 2005 album Songs About Me.
That song he co-wrote along with hit songwriter Dallas Davidson and fellow country singer-songwriter Randy Houser, who later worked with Johnson again co-writing "My Cowboy" for country pop singer Jessie James for her self-titled debut album.
After the loss of his record deal, Johnson divorced his wife and took on a reclusive lifestyle, residing in a friend's house while working on his songwriting.
Johnson was part of the Fox TV television series Nashville,[6] which was cancelled after two episodes in September 2007.
9 on the Country chart in January 2009 and was followed a month later by "High Cost of Living", which managed to crack the Top 40, but only reaching No. 34.
Upon its release, The Guitar Song was met with overwhelming praise and universal acclaim from music critics.
In addition to producing other acts and writing new material,[9] Johnson released his fourth studio album titled Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran on October 6, 2012.
The album paired him with acts such as Ray Price, Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, George Strait, Vince Gill, and Merle Haggard.
[15] In a 2017 interview, Johnson stated that he had been having more difficulty with songwriting after an incident about seven years prior when he received a concussion due to slipping on ice and hitting his head.
[18][19] On March 19, 2022, Bill Anderson invited him to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry, which he accepted; Johnson had performed regularly on the show for the previous seventeen years.
[21] On December 15, 2023, Johnson gave the commencement speech to the 2023 Fall graduating class of Jacksonville State University and received an honorary doctorate from the school.