Why CBS' New Year's Eve Special Is Especially Significant for Cody Johnson (Exclusive)

Cody Johnson is part of one of Nashville's biggest TV events tonight, New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash on CBS. Johnson, age 36, will be shown performing at Whiskey River Saloon (part of Nashville's Broadway area) during the special, but this isn't just another random performance for the Texas native. Any time he steps on a stage in Music City, he's reminded of just how far he's come.

"I love playing here because, forever, I wasn't accepted here," Johnson told PopCulture.com before his performance. "Being the independent artist or being a guy from Texas, there was always this stigma about, 'You're not ever going to make it in Nashville.' And here we are, with so many friends, so many business relationships and such a growing career, in the town that everybody told me I'd never thrive in. 

"And so things like this, getting to sit and play on Broadway, I wasn't the guy that moved from Kentucky to Nashville and played on Broadway until I got a record deal. I was the guy that was playing Texas honky tonks. So I don't know anything about the strip down here in Tennessee. I'm looking forward to playing. This is going to be fun."

The CBS broadcast caps off a big year for Johnson, who dropped his latest album, Leather, in November. The "'Til I Can't" and "Me and My Kind" singer has been traveling around the globe with Luke Combs, and it truly put his success in perspective for him.

"Well, a big moment was getting to go to Australia and New Zealand with Luke Combs to open up," Johnson told us. "And the biggest moment of that is while we were there, not only did we figure out that people all over the world, on a completely different continent — I could have gotten to Asia or to Antarctica quicker than America — people knew every word to every song. They were mad because I didn't play certain songs that were songs that I wrote 10, 12 years ago when I had a publishing company or a publishing deal here in Nashville. And that was a big eye-opener, man. 

"So big thank you to Luke for that, friend-to-friend, he's done a lot for me. Another huge thing was releasing 'The Painter,' to start off our album release of Leather, starting to get out of venues that we'd been playing here in the United States that we are starting to outgrow that I thought we'd never outgrow. And that's really a model of growth right there, that every country artist wants to have."

While Johnson has come so far from his humble days in Texas honky tonks, don't think that he's peaked. When discussing his goals for 2024 in the spirit of the New Year's special, Johnson voiced his determination to grow his reach even further. He's not just looking at 2024, but 2025, as well.

"Professionally in 2024, I'm looking forward to kind of teeing up what we're going to do in 2025," Johnson said. "We've got the deluxe edition of our album, Leather, coming out in 2024. There's going to be a lot of new music, a lot of streaming, a lot of new fans. We have a lot of new opportunities because of that record and because of Warner Nashville's hard work that they've put into it. 

"We're going to Canada, we're going to Brazil, which is going to kind of tee up '25, going to the U.K., going to Australia, and doing these things that, kind of following in the Luke Combs footsteps, honestly, for the doors that I just mentioned that he had opened for us. Really taking this career that I've worked so hard for, to the next level."

However, Johnson, whose song "The Painter" recently hit 40 million Spotify streams, won't just be hyperfocused on his career. He's set a personal goal of spending downtime with his family (including his wife Brandi and their two daughters) and on his passion for roping.

"I've got a few team ropings on my list and a few ropings that I want to win for me personally, and (I want) to spend more quality time at home," Johnson told PopCulture.com. "Not 'being at home and getting through the week to hurry up and get back out on the road,' but really enjoying and taking a breath. I think that's important after 17 years of doing this. That's really important."

How to Watch New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash

New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash will air live via CBS on Sunday, Dec. 31, at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT and will continue through 1:05 a.m. ET/PT as we ring in New Year's Day. You can watch it on CBS, which is viewable for free for anyone with a digital antenna (which you can purchase at retailers like Amazon and Walmart.) You can also watch CBS through cable providers and digital services like Fubo TV. (Click here for a free trial of Fubo TV.)

Since New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash is a CBS event, it will also stream live via Paramount+. Click here for a free trial of Paramount+, which also gives you to access to major shows like NCIS, FBI, Criminal Minds: Evolution, Survivor, Frasier, SpongeBob SquarePants, Blue Bloods, 1883 and 1923.