Jamey Johnson knows his country music. The Alabama native grew up listening to country music, even if he might have been mistaken about who was singing some of them, at least when he was little.
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"I remember my dad taking out a book and singing songs," Johnson says on the Fully Armed podcast (via Whiskey Riff). "Well, the songs he was singing were Hank Williams' songs, but we didn't have any Hank Williams records. We didn't have any Hank Williams records, but I knew all of Hank Williams' songs. I remember the first time I heard Hank Williams singing one of those songs. And I thought, 'That's my daddy's song.' And that's how it began, was just kind of learning music."
Johnson credits his family's love of country music with his own career. But he also says it's because of where he was raised, in rural Alabama.
"It sounds kind of weird, but growing up where we did, we were kind of disconnected in a way," Johnson explains. "I mean, we didn't have neighbors. I mean none because we lived in a trailer way off in the country on the side of the road, and there weren't any neighbors."
Johnson might have fallen in love with Williams' songs. But it's a group, one that has been around for more than 55 years, which inspired Johnson to pursue music.
"Alabama was the one that did me, from an early age," he reveals. "My mother was a big Alabama fan, and, of course, I was too. The first time I heard 'My Home's In Alabama,' I was hooked. And what's what I wanted to do."
Midnight Gasoline
Johnson's first album, The Dollar, came out in 2006. Almost two decades later, Johnson is still as in love with country music as ever. He recently released a new album, Midnight Gasoline. The record is his first since Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran came out in 2012.
Perhaps surprisingly, it was the death of Toby Keith that inspired Johnson to make music again.
"The writing was already coming back to me, piece by piece, but I still didn't have any ambitions on making a record," Johnson tells Billboard. "When Toby passed away, it moved everything into high gear because I realized that that was the end of his discography, that we weren't getting another Toby Keith record. And that's what drove me to wanting to finish my own discography.
"It's what made me understand that I'm nowhere near done, and so it's time to get busy," he continues. "After he passed away, I immediately started talking about this session and started trying to get all the particulars in order. It was time for me to get in the studio again."
