Cody Johnson to Perform National Anthem at World Series Game 7
Texas country artist Cody Johnson will get the distinct honor and worthy exposure of singing the National Anthem at the World Series Game 7 Wednesday night (10-30) pitting the Houston Astros against the Washington Nationals in Houston. The game and National Anthem will be broadcast live on FOX.
Johnson, who is originally from nearby Huntsville, TX and got his start in country building a strong fan base in the Houston area, is a fan favorite in the city. In March he performed at the Houston Rodeo, drawing a whopping 73,009 attendees, and beating out bigger mainstream names such as Luke Bryan, Zac Brown Band, and Tim McGraw in attendance numbers. Playing at the Houston Rodeo in 2017 in a replacement spot and drawing a surprising crowd is one of the things given credit for Cody’s ascent into the big time.
Cody Johnson started playing and singing country music when he was 12-years-old, and first formed the Cody Johnson Band with his father Carl. He worked as a corrections officer at a local prison while moonlighting as a performer until 2011 when he quit to pursue music full time. His 2014 album Cowboys Like Me saw surprising chart success for an independent artist, coming in at #7 on the Billboard Country Albums chart, and leading to more national awareness.
Cody Johnson signed a deal to form Cojo Music/Warner Music Nashville in June of 2018. The deal meant Johnson was now part of one of the biggest label groups in country music, but still retained creative control under his long-standing, completely independent, and personally-owned record label Cojo Music. His new record Ain’t Nothin To It hit #1 on the Country Albums Chart upon debut, and his last radio single “On My Way To You” hit #13 on the charts, and has been Certified Gold.
Cody Johnson is also a strong proponent for true country music. “I think personally that it is unfair for women like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, and men like George Jones, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Strait … it’s a little unfair for those men and women to give their lives, and to give their heart and soul to our industry, the country music industry, and for us to sit back and take a look at it in 2019, and it really doesn’t look or sound anything like what they stood for,” Cody Johnson said when headlining the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in June.
This won’t be the first time Cody Johnson has made an appearance in the World Series, so to speak. In 2018, The Boston Red Socks were blasting Cody Johnson and singing along while celebrating their series win in the locker room.
Cody Johnson is not the only country artist to sing the National Anthem this year. Clay Walker sang it at Game 6.
October 30, 2019 @ 10:32 am
As long as he doesn’t need to write the national anthem down on his hand, it should be good
October 30, 2019 @ 10:58 am
Or wear that stupid freakin’ hat.
October 30, 2019 @ 11:48 am
I think you took a wrong turn on the internet somewhere, sir.
October 30, 2019 @ 12:21 pm
Nope, that hat looks like a dehydrated stingray and stupid.
October 30, 2019 @ 2:36 pm
Dehydrated stingrays don’t look stupid then, Steve Earlwin?
October 30, 2019 @ 10:38 am
I hope he performs better than a lot of the other country singers have performed at sporting events. We’ve had some stinkers.
October 30, 2019 @ 11:36 am
Nascar races.
All the (more or less unknown & d-list) “Nashville recording artists” i saw over the years…meh. I’m not an american but hearing someone screaming out the anthem is painful.
The germans say “fremdschämen”…it’s like “second hand embarrassment”.
October 31, 2019 @ 3:50 am
Gesundheit.
October 30, 2019 @ 10:55 am
Hope he’s better luck for the Astros than Susan Tedschi was for the Braves.
Google Game 5 2019 NLDS. It’s too painful for me to recount here. 😀
October 30, 2019 @ 11:13 am
I just couldn’t resist, my first thought was… If you’ve ever seen him live, you will know that he mostly sings covers, so this will be right up his alley! I’m not sure they will let him talk for 20 minutes before singing this song, though, so that will be a bit different.
In all seriousness he is a good singer, and this is a perfect fit.
October 30, 2019 @ 12:17 pm
That’s completely incorrect sir.
October 30, 2019 @ 12:23 pm
I do believe he will walk out to Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart” though.
[Note: I like Cody. Though I did find it funny last time I saw him that he had TWO walkout intro songs]
October 30, 2019 @ 12:49 pm
I was stoked to finally see him live. Loved his records. I own them all. As you can tell, my main genre is alt-country, which might highlight some systematic differences between me and the average country music concertgoer.
He is a good performer. But during his 2 hour set, he must have talked for 30 minutes, no exaggeration, pandering to the audience about social topics and Old Town Road for applause. Then be played what had to be a 30 minute medley of classic covers – not doing anything unique with his versions, just hoping to get people to sing along.
This is probably the most mainstream country show I’ve ever been to…are they all like this? I can listen to George Jones at home, or go to a bar and watch someone cover his songs.
It has actually harmed my ability to listen to his records following the concert.
Obviously most people in the crowd enjoyed themselves. It was just not my thing. Maybe I should stick to alt-country. Lol.
October 30, 2019 @ 3:14 pm
Always stick to alt-country, its the best kind of music there is
October 30, 2019 @ 7:38 pm
Nah there’s a lot of those kind of artists ya’ll overrate.
I can count on one hand how many i actually like.
October 31, 2019 @ 5:45 am
AltCountryFanatic – Like Elton John once sang- ‘I thank the lord there’s people out there like you!’ I could not have said it better if I tried.
October 30, 2019 @ 11:14 am
Tracy Byrd has also sing the National Anthem for the Astros this postseason. I believe he did game 6 of the ALCS
October 30, 2019 @ 12:51 pm
Boston Red “Socks”? Yikes!
October 30, 2019 @ 5:00 pm
Elizabeth Cook and Emmylou Harris have both done it for the Braves. Multiple times actually.
❤️
October 30, 2019 @ 7:09 pm
Cody sang our national anthem beautifully!! ???????? ???? Awesome job, Cody!!???????? Go Astros!!⚾️
October 30, 2019 @ 8:06 pm
Trig – No Halloween playlist this year? That’s my favorite list of the year!
October 30, 2019 @ 10:06 pm
I appreciate the interest Travis. Unfortunately I just didn’t have time this year to do it justice, and I didn’t want to just slap something together. Truth is the thing had a ton of interest the first year, and then by last year, very few people were paying attention. But I hope to bring it back next year, and really dig to find some great songs and make it something special.
October 31, 2019 @ 4:57 am
Thanks. I know you are always prioritizing with everything you want to cover and inevitably, someone’s going to complain. Don’t take this as a complaint. I always find a song or two or band or two in those lists that I really like though. Hopefully next year!
October 30, 2019 @ 8:35 pm
He did a great job.
October 30, 2019 @ 9:09 pm
they lost , his uninspired version didn’t fire up the home team..if this off duty state trooper is “real country music” the genre is fucked
October 30, 2019 @ 11:29 pm
Pretty happy my Nats finally won the World Series (!!!) but sure wish the TV/musical powers-that-be had chosen the ‘better’ Cody. Lesson: no Jinks = ‘Stros jinx.
November 6, 2019 @ 2:29 pm
Now days, everyone calls themselves an outlaw or non mainstream. That is, until they are not. This Cody is about as outlaw and non mainstream as apple pie. We saw him live and he had the pop radio sound and demographic cornered. We were there to see the Steel Woods and Wes Bayliss sang circles around this guy, as did Riley Green. I’m sure this Cody will have plenty of commercial success and make tons of money, but he won’t be saving country music for me. The only Cody saving country music is of the Jinks variety.