Everyone should be celebrating Cody Johnson at the 60th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, going into the award show tied with Morgan Wallen for the most nominations of any male artist this year: Entertainer of the Year, Male Artist of the Year, Song of the Year for “Dirt Cheap,” Single of the Year for “Dirt Cheap,” and Musical Event of the Year for “I’m Gonna Love You” (featuring Carrie Underwood). As if things could not get more impressive, the Texas native is competing against himself in the Visual Media of the Year category, nominated for both “Dirt Cheap” and “I’m Gonna Love You” (featuring Carrie Underwood).
With his impressive amount of nominations aside, Johnson will also be taking the stage tomorrow night (May 8) in his home state — as the award show will take place at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas — performing alongside Brooks & Dunn. Ahead of the soon-to-be sensational performance, the talented singer/songwriter stopped by media row to tease the performance, delving into the details while speaking with Country Now.
For those who are unfamiliar, Johnson has collaborated with Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn on numerous occasions, joining forces to record a new rendition of “Red Dirt Road” for Brooks & Dunn’s Reboot album, prior to joining forces for a second time to record “Long Live Country Music” for Johnson’s Leather album.
According to the “The Painter” singer, his relationship with Brooks & Dunn began “when [he] got asked to be on the Reboot album, which was extremely cool.” Johnson reminisced, “I believe we played outdoors at, I think it was CMA Fest downtown on Broadway in Nashville, and then just started kind of exchanging phone numbers, talking about projects and songs… Ronnie’s hit me up several times like ‘What do you think about this song?’ and that’s actually how I got ‘Long Live Country Music.’”
Since then, Johnson has “been able to pick up the phone and call Ronnie or Kix anytime of day or night and ask questions or get some advice,” deeming Brooks & Dunn — who have second-most ACM Awards in history with 30 — to be his “heroes.” How sweet is that?
Nevertheless, Johnson will get the chance to share the stage with said “heroes,” giving attendees at the 2025 ACM Awards a glimpse into Reboot with their rendition of “Red Dirt Road.” The 37-year-old teased, “I think my favorite part of playing ‘Red Dirt Road’ with Brooks & Dunn is the fact that it’s not the original, that it’s kind of a broken down acoustic thing. All the guitar signatures are different, and me and my band play it every now and then on stage, just us, so it kind of feels like it’s part of our career now, so I think that’s my favorite part of it.”
The ACM Awards themselves even teased the performance, sharing a video via TikTok of the three country stars spending some time together backstage. “Walking into #ACMawards rehearsals like,” the caption reads, tagging both acts.
To see the performance for yourself — as well as performances from Kelsea Ballerini, Eric Church, Alan Jackson, Miranda Lambert, Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Chris Stapleton, Blake Shelton, Zach Top, Lainey Wilson and more — tune into the the 2025 ACM Awards, hosted by Reba McEntire for the 18th time, tomorrow at 8pm ET/5pm PT via Prime Video, as well as the Amazon Music channel via Twitch.
