Jamey Johnson in Contract Dispute– “I Don’t Get Paid.”
Jamey Johnson’s latest album, Living for a Song: Tribute to Hank Cochran was nominated for “Best Country Album” at the 55th annual Grammy Awards, but the long-bearded country singer was nowhere to be found at the ceremony on Sunday night. Instead he’s on tour in the Midwest, playing a show in Chicago the night before the awards where he caught up with Rolling Stone reporter Dan Hyman and had some revealing things to say about the future of his music and a brewing contract dispute.
“Financially speaking, they treat me worse than they ever did the Dixie Chicks,” Johnson explained to Rolling Stone. “I feel pretty used by the music industry, in that my contracts are written in such a way that I don’t get paid.”
Johnson is signed with Mercury Records Nashville. The label picked up his album That Lonesome Song in 2008 and signed him to a multi-record deal.
“It’s time for us to regroup and it’s time for us to look at these contracts,” Jamey says. “The problem is, I don’t trust any of the people that I’ve worked with so far. I believe they’ve all hidden the truth from me or lied to me or deceived me in one way or another. Because the end result is that no matter what they said or did or what they said they did, I didn’t get paid… As a musician I never studied music law. I can’t even read the contracts I’ve signed. But I’m fairly sure they don’t say what I thought they said.”
When it was announced that Johnson would be releasing a tribute album of cover songs, some wondered if an artist who is primarily known as a songwriter was in the midst of writer’s block. As Jamey explains, his contract issues have hindered his creative process, and fans shouldn’t expect any new, original material from him anytime soon.
“Well, I wish I could tell you that I am writing. I’m not. I wish I could tell you I’m gonna go home next week and record another album. It’s not likely to happen. We haven’t reached such a gridlock that we can’t continue to do work with them in the future. But we can’t do anything right now until that gets resolved.”
This is not Jamey Johnson’s first issue with a record label. Signed to BNA in 2006, Johnson released his first single “The Dollar” to moderate commercial success. But when the second single, “Rebelicious” failed to chart, he was dropped by BNA.
February 11, 2013 @ 11:33 am
He should try to get out from under that label and move to another. I think he would fit well under Zac Brown’s label, since he has already worked with Blackberry Smoke and others. But that may not work well either since the artists under Zac Brown’s label aren’t well known either. Too bad Marty Stuart or Dale Watson couldn’t start a label with their musical direction.
February 11, 2013 @ 11:47 am
Another idea is for Jack White to take him in on his Third Man Records.
February 11, 2013 @ 2:02 pm
That was my first thought too. I think he’d be a good fit for Southern Ground.
February 11, 2013 @ 11:53 am
I can understand why BNA dropped him after “Rebeliscious.” Thats a pretty trite and crappy song. Actually, its a terrible song.
February 11, 2013 @ 5:11 pm
The song is terrible, but it was also a terrible choice of a single. It was clearly album filler/live show material and was probably shoe horned into the album just to have an up tempo track. That album, as much as Jamey hates it, does have some pretty good songs on it.
February 12, 2013 @ 12:00 pm
That song is awesome! Jamey Johnson makes good music that actually sounds like country music. Most of the CRAP that Nashville pumps out these days should be played on pop music radio stations only. It’s obviously produced only for the monetary value and not targeting the country lifestyle. Half the men sound like women when they sing and their clothing choices are downright obnoxious. When did real country music become bad to produce? Why target pop music fans instead of country music fans? It’s difficult to tune into a country station these days because the music is awful! That’s my opinion and there are many other fans who share this opinion. Jamey Johnson, Ray Scott, et al, please keep writing songs in the tradition of Waylon, Merle, the George’s. There are lots of us that still want to hear REAL country music. There’s been a murder down on music row!
February 11, 2013 @ 11:55 am
He could sign a distribution deal and record indedently but still dsitribute internationally. Dualtone could work or Thirty Tigers Entertainment.
February 11, 2013 @ 12:53 pm
Jim,
I think when he cut his album “They Call Me Country” that was on his own, and limited distribution deal, if any. From that, he got picked up by BNA. They had him cut the album “The Dollar” and tried to make him something he isn’t. He got cut loose, yes, for the failure of “Rebelicious” as BNA will say, but BNA was looking for the next 15min. of fame guy, and pulling all the strings.
(See song “Jennings and Jones” for a little of his BNA experience.)
He then cut “That Lonesome Song” on his own and Mercury picked it up. It had such success, they gave him the current deal.
So, I think he has tried the route of cutting albums himself and maybe some distribution deals, but then labels come in based on his sucess and I’m sure it is hard to resist when you are promised things, and believe you understand what you sign…we all know how that can go.
Seems like this is a bit more than just releasing his music or cutting albums he wants. This is about getting paid for your work. I don’t think we have seen to many label disputes over getting paid, they are usually over material being released. Recent disputes like Hank3 and Tim McGraw vs. Curb were about material mostly. Those two certainly have been paid.
This should be interesting.
February 11, 2013 @ 12:12 pm
Maybe he can sing under Dale’s new genre. I love his voice. Hope he stands up to the powers that be.
February 11, 2013 @ 12:25 pm
This will be interesting how this plays out. Johnson certainly isn’t the first to have a label dispute, but this seems different I don’t know how he will handle it, but he has many many veteran artists around him that no doubt can give him some guidance and support. Seems this has been brewing for sometime and maybe he has tried to handle it, and finally he had to speak up to Rollingstone.
This seems a bit different than past label disputes. I.E. Hank3 and Tim McGraw vs. Curb not releasing music.
Johnson didn’t mix words…he isn’t getting paid. You gotta know what your signing, but I can’t imagine the contract didn’t pay him.
He needs to find a lawyer..he can trust…I know…that’s not helpful advice, but it was an attorney that helped Waylon and Willie get on their way. I’m afraid without that, it’s going to be tough.
February 11, 2013 @ 12:32 pm
Neil Reshen. But that was a long time ago.
February 11, 2013 @ 12:31 pm
Yes, there’s a lot of places he could sign or maybe wants to sign, but if he has a record deal with Mercury and he owes them a specific amount of albums before that deal is up, it will never happen. What he could do is refuse to turn in music until Mercury agrees to restructure his contract.
There’s a lot of reasons an artist may “not get paid.” It could be that his royalty percentage is too low, or that he’s not recouping the costs of his albums. With “Living For a Song,” all of the songs were written by Hank Cochran, so the Hank Cochran estate, and the folks that own the rights to the songs (primarily SONY ATV) are going to be owed a chunk of change. Then there were all the guest players on the album that will all be owed something. Then all the production costs have to be recouped by the label for studio time, session players, engineering, mixing and mastering, advertisement and distribution. I can look back on “Living For A Song” and see a very expensive album even by Music Row standards that it may take a long time for Jamey to get back to black and start seeing royalties for. At the same time, the album has sold pretty well, and I’m surprised he hasn’t seen something.
It could also be his managers who made him sign bad contracts, or allowed him to.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:05 pm
I don’t think this started out from the “Hank Cochran” album. Sounds to me like this has been an issue since coming to Mercury. Has he been paid what he is owed from “That Lonesome Song” and “The Guitar Song” albums?
I also am curious what he means by ““Financially speaking, they treat me worse than they ever did the Dixie Chicks,”
That doesn’t sound like he is talking about the black list Dixie Chicks found themselves on after Natalie’s comments, but more so how the Dixie Chicks were paid or not paid for their albums before and/or after Natalie’s comments.
We all assume the artist is banking it.
February 11, 2013 @ 3:23 pm
@Tim – Before the Dixie Chicks were blacklisted,they went on record (on 60 Minutes I believe it was) at the highest point of their career, and said basically the same thing Jamey is saying now.That they sold millions and have hardly seen any of it and people would be suprised at how they lived.They also pointed out that the headlining tour they were on at the time was the only way they could make money..THEN they made the comments about Bush on foreign soil..then the comments about other country stars..then the comments ridiculing country fans..so on so forth you know the rest.
My question is,if Jamey already knew the record company screwed a huge name like the Dixie Chicks over,why would he sign with them in the first place,or at least not pay attention or hire someone to watch what he was signing??.
February 11, 2013 @ 3:39 pm
Thanks RWP. That helps me understand what he was referring to with the Dixie Chicks.
Dixie Chicks weren’t the first to get screwed by record label, and Johnson isn’t the first since, so I think we need to be careful about saying “he should have known”. Or taking a tone of “well, he’s probably rich anyway so who cares”. Not saying you have those views on it.
We will have to see how this plays out, but Johnson hangs out with everyone from Willie to Merle and on and on. He no doubt will have some folks to give him a litte support on how to handle.
And some might say why didn’t he have that guidance before, but again, if you do hire someone to review things, and they say it’s good to go, but they were lying, and you trusted them at the time, what do you do but live and learn?
If it is so corrupt, then why does anyone sign a recording contract?
I don’t think Jamey is whinning here, I think he is just exposing yet another situation.
Or, maybe this is simply a case of Mercury holding money back they shouldn’t be. That seems a lot more feasible and “normal” for a music deal. Happens all the time. Just not always so public.
February 11, 2013 @ 7:41 pm
Yep.In fact it doesn’t seem like you ‘make it” UNTILL you been screwed over at least once!
February 11, 2013 @ 3:45 pm
Good info RWP, I’d forgotten about that myself.
January 13, 2014 @ 5:42 pm
The way contracts are written these days in country music is: an artist would have to have mega stardom success to receive royalties of any note, artists pretty much make their money from gigs, t-shirts and stuff, percentage of the bar at the gig (sometimes). They are basically doing their own marketing by playing casinos, medium venues. Just think if you pack out Chesapeake Arena…your gonna make bank, but if you barely fill up Riverwind Casino, your going to make enough to keep working more concerts. Jamey Johnson’s music is amazing and I personally love it; however, its not Luke Bryan …(Thank God and Greyhound) Luke’s kind of music sells like crazy, but it’s crap. As long as Jamey makes good music….it won’t sell like mainstream junk will. He will be remembered as a country legend and is a country legend. I think that will pay off eventually someday….it did for Blake Shelton.
February 12, 2013 @ 11:48 am
…or he could go Lou Reed on ’em and record Metal Machine Music 2.
February 12, 2013 @ 11:15 pm
Hell yeah! Good idea! Incidentally, there are stories floating around Nashville songwriting circles about Jamey and his eccentricities, one of which involved a stalemate in a writing session because Jamey wanted to put references to his beard in the song that he and another writer were collaborating on. He should write a whole album of songs about his beard. It could be kinda like a “Metal Machine Music” move.
March 30, 2013 @ 7:18 am
Trigger I have to say first of all i am a faithful follower of your work. I have been running a Jamey Johnson fan twitter page for over 3 years on my own accord. I once had 2 Face Book Fan pages as well, that at the time was up and running for almost 3 years. Unfortunately J.J’s publicist had the Face Book pages shut down by reporting them as “fake pages” although it was well known and in writing that it was a fan page and not owned or run by JJ or his label. With that being said, i feel i can say i’m somewhat a expert on his fan’s and what they want from Jamey. Since we as fans are spending our money to buy his CD’s and support him, I feel it’s safe to say that if he does not get back to writing his own song’s and giving the REAL Jamey Johnson sound instead of doing more cover songs at his concerts he will never get paid what he feels he deserves.
I see and have seen e-mails that was sent to the FB pages i once had, and the e-mail’s i get on the Twitter page from fan’s that complain that Jamey is just not Jamey anymore. He loses fans everyday, those that say they will never pay to see him ever again or by another CD, because of the way he act’s on stage by cussing at his fans, or how members of his staff treat his fans at shows or how he does more covers of other artist songs and not enough of his. There are plenty of video’s on youtube to back this up.
His true followers want more albums with the feeling of heartache and payback like he had in The Lonesome Song, or the Guitar Song albums, that is the Jamey Johnson we as fan’s crave and love. We all would love for him to re-release “They Call Me Country” because there is such a HUGE call from his fan’s that would love to have the CD for their collection.
The tribute album to HC was a beautiful tribute, but honestly I bought the CD listen to it twice and then gave it away. It was not the Jamey Johnson that I have grown to love and support from the get go of his career.
If he chooses to NOT write or produce another album because he is “not getting paid” what he feels he deserves, it will be his own fault. I am and will always continue to be a supporter of Jamey Johnson because I know what he can be and he could be so much more than what he has been lately.
I have supported him through a member of his staff’ threats to send me cease and desist letter because of the fan pages to text messages and phone calls from the same staff member. To UMG sending me a message on Twitter to call their office, and when I did they did not want to speak to me.
My attempts to contact Jamey and meet with on a professional level have been denied for over 3 years.
I may be looked at as just another fan, but I am just another fan that knows his fan’s better than him. my message to Jamey would be this:
If you want to get paid, give us, the supporters, the fan’s more of just the REAL Jamey Johnson, the money is there but you can’t have it just because your name is Jamey Johnson. Get back to the humble person you once was who seem to care about us, the fans that bust our ass all week to make money and maybe work over time just to have the extra cash to buy those tickets to see you for the first time, or even the hundredth time. Stop hiding on your bus & and make it a point at sometime before or after a show to do a meet and greet with some of your fans. You inspire so many people, but you never take the time anymore to appreciate it. Take time to just say “Thank You” to those of us that have stood by you and supported you when others gave up on you. Without us, your fans and true supporters, you will end up just another used to be washed up country singer.
You say you don’t trust anyone? Maybe you should stop trusting those that got you in the situation you are in now. Clean house so to speak and start a new. I for one want to see you soar! I want to see you get the recognition you deserve I will always be a supporter, but only if you stay true to your self and get back to being Jamey Johnson.
August 15, 2013 @ 8:19 am
Interesting, I just saw Jamey in NC and it started really late but was a good show. I liked the covers, I’ll never see some of those artists and hearing him do “That’s the Way Love Goes” was a highlight. He played a lot of his own tunes and quite a few covers as well. I would rather have a great album every two years than a bad one every 6 months, although I don’t expect a bad one from him. I have read about him being rude, but he’s always just quiet when I’ve seen him. Hope he lives up to his promise, that’s for sure…he does move me with his music.
January 13, 2014 @ 7:25 pm
As a Jamey Johnson fan, quite frankly you’re full of shit and you have no clue what you’re talking about. I’ve seen him 16 times or more and the shortest set i’ve seen was 2 hours, most shows lasting 2.5 hours including a mix of originals and covers. His covers are excellent and are my favorite part of his shows. The 3 times we saw him in 2013, he stood outside his bus for an hour or more signing autographs and taking pictures with his fans. I know no other artist that performs covers of Jones, Haggard, Paycheck, Vern Gosdin, Waylon, Hank Sr., and mixes the best of his original material.
Don’t get pissy because your fan facebook page got deleted.
April 25, 2014 @ 4:22 pm
I don’t know if Jamey is rude. Jamey seems to be very shy, and sometimes for those who are truly shy, a crowd of people can be overwhelming. He”s on stage singing not so much because he loves the adulation, and the crowd, but because he is a musician, a music man. Interestingly enough, Hank 3 appears to be genuinely shy as well, however, I believe he has forced himself to work against that imperfection so many times that he has some how learned to get the mastery over his natural tendency to run the other way, at least when he is in performing mode. Jamey, unlike number 3 has not gotten the mastery over his shyness.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:03 pm
Man, that interview bothered me…
If you sign a contract, you read it (or have a smarter person read it and explain it to you). If you fail to do this extremely basic thing, pretty much most of what happens next is going to be your own fault. To the claim that he is not getting paid, we only have that from him, I am sure there is more to it than he’s saying.
More and more this is sounding like a classic case of ‘I want to play the game, but I can’t be bothered to learn or follow the rules’.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
I agree you need to know what you’re signing, and if you don’t, get someone smarter, but how do you know they are smarter? Just because they have a piece of paper that says “Degree” on it? And sounds like he has trusted some folks, but that has faild him too. We are responsible for putting our signature on contracts and I have a hard time believing he isn’t getting paid at all, but I will say, from experience handling legal settlement agreement matters every day, it can get extremely confusing very fast and when you think you have “smarter” people doing things, it isn’t alwasy the case. I can’t imagine the number of parties wanting a piece of the pie in a music contract.
If he said he was “forced” to sign, I would argue that with him, but it seems this is a matter of language as he understood it and how things are playing out.
* If you read Waylon Jennings autobiography (and probably talk with many other artists), you will see how you don’t get paid in a hurry. Doesn’t mean the money isn’t set aside for you, but sometimes you can’t get to it.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:50 pm
I’ll say this. When somebody says they’re “not getting paid” that can be a very relative statement. He very well could be getting paid something, just not what he thinks he should be getting paid, or what he sees other people around him getting paid. When you’re paling around with Willie Nelson, Track Adkins, etc. etc., you might feel poor, when compared to me and you, Jamey is doing just fine. I’m not saying that’s the case, he literally might not be making anything because some unscrupulous people had him sign bad contracts.
I go back and forth if the artists are to blame for signing bad contracts. Legalese these days is so confusing, it is almost impossible for a lay person to understand a recording contract. That is why you hire managers and lawyers who are supposed to look out for you, but sometimes they don’t do their jobs or are in cahoots with the label. And again, it could be the manager scraping off the money from a contract, not the label.
But the most important thing to appreciate is that most musicians make really bad businessmen, that’s why they’re musicians. And they are notoriously bad with their money, and trend towards alcohol and substance abuse and spending their money on stupid crap. The Rolling Stone story says Jamey had just packed a bowl in his bus before the interview, so he has enough money for elective drugs and to not have to tour in a van. There may be some artists out there laughing mightily about Jamey’s accusation that he “doesn’t get paid.” Then again he could be in some serious financial pinch because some folks are doing something illegal. We just don’t know.
February 11, 2013 @ 2:48 pm
I’ll take a little exception to your reply.
I certainly hope people that read this don’t think this is about being a poor musician, I don’t think you presented it as such, nor he meant that at all.
Johnson maybe making great royalties from past songs he has written, and that has nothing to do with this contract with Mercury.
He didn’t say he wasn’t doing fine, he said he wasn’t getting paid per the contract as he believe it to be. There is a difference and I don’t think it has anything to do with “relative” or Willie Nelson vs. guys like us financial situation.
Also, having money for some pot and a tour bus has nothing to do with his contract either.
I think this label dispute will be very interesting to watch, but I hope it isn’t skewed into how he is doing fine in comparison to other struggling musicians. Everyone, no matter who, just wants to be paid as intended.
What I do know about the music industry, if you’re not careful, it is a lot easier for a label to not pay you than to pay you.
Artists get advances a lot. So they can seemingly be doing well (I.E. the tour buses and all) but if you got an advance to buy a $300K tour bus, but your contract calls for you to have made $500K through various things…someone isn’t getting paid.
Just like if my company gave me a $30K company truck to drive around in but didn’t pay me my $45k salary…I’m not getting paid.
February 11, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
Except artists aren’t salaried employees. If he spends his advance on his bus, he is using the bus to make money outside of the label (i.e. the label is not paying him the $ for his touring).
It is pretty standard in the music industry for an artist to get paid 10-20% of the record sales. For simple math’s sake, let’s say the deal is that the artist gets 10% of all sales and a million dollar advance for a record and records cost 10 dollars each. This mean he’ll get 1 dollar a record and needs to sell 1 million records before he gets any more money.
If your records don’t sell, then you won’t see another cent, and if you spent your advance (which will end up being a lot less than 1 million after paying agents, lawyers, IRS, etc.) you might feel like you didn’t get paid, because it’s been a few years since you saw a dime.
Anyway, I’m not saying this is the situation with Jamey, but it’s not inconceivable that he thinks he hasn’t been paid anything at all, and it just means that his records haven’t sold enough to cover his advance.
February 11, 2013 @ 5:15 pm
Well said,
Just because I like Jamey Johnson’s music and don’t like what Nashville labels have promoted as country music, does not mean that in a dispute over money, Jamey Johnson is right and the label is wrong.
And even if he was truly wronged, I can’t imagine that giving an interview when you are high complaining about it is the best way to redress it. Airing these disputes in public should be a last resort after you already tried to have your lawyers and manager try to fix it. Maybe he has already done that, but then I think he should have been more focused on how he would bring it up. Looks like he was just high and pissed off and it just came out.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
It is a sad thing for an artist’s sweat and blood to not result in financial gain when it is commercially viable (it is an entirely different (and sad) matter for artists who never get financial viability). It deprives the people of good albums due to lack of motivation by the artist.
February 11, 2013 @ 1:51 pm
Boom! That’s the point of this whole thing. Because of legal/financial problems, Jamey Johnson’s creative output has been compromised. And for that we all lose.
February 11, 2013 @ 3:29 pm
Many times it is the most trusting and unassuming people who get taken advantage of. I think we’re seeing a case of that here. Time for Jamey GD Johnson Productions if you ask me…
February 11, 2013 @ 3:41 pm
“Time for Jamey GD Johnson Productions if you ask me”
That is an awesome comment Josh!
February 11, 2013 @ 5:18 pm
The whole situation sucks, because I wont be able to hear more of his music as well as the fact that at the end of this we will very likely have one less “Traditional” artist on a major label.
I just hope it gets figured out pretty quickly, but at this rate I dont think Jamey even needs a label. I mean, his style isnt going to be picked up by Country Radio anymore, it just isnt and you are seeing more and more artists both big and small just start up their own labels and release music independently. Thanks to digital distribution, I see very little point in having a label contract unless you want to get on national radio. I would think at this point Jamey could pull something similar to what Reckless Kelly did and just self release his material.
February 12, 2013 @ 8:53 am
Jamey has done the self recording and distribution. See his first album, “They Call Me Country” and “That Lonesome Song” was made on his own before being picked up by Mercury.
Appears though that somewhere along the line, there was something not read/understood by Johnson or that Mercury is holding out something.
The full interview, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/q-a-jamey-johnson-on-his-grammy-nomination-and-uncertain-future-20130210
sheds a little more light on somethings and has some great comments from Johnson on commerical/award success.
* To bad the blog didn’t take into consideration the a little more of that since we are always hoping to hear some artist that is not all about the awards and what great comments about making music as a flip side to Blake Shelton.
February 12, 2013 @ 9:10 am
I put two links to the full interview in this article. I did not interview Jamey Johnson. So out of respect for the original content on Rolling Stone, I only posted excerpts.
February 12, 2013 @ 10:27 am
I understand that, but just in the wake of the Blake Shelton comments, and the fact that Johnson rarely gives interviews and we know so little about him and why he makes the music he does (along with so many that accuse him of being a sellout or fake), there were a couple ways to go with a blog on him citing this interview.
I guess I would have expected the comments about commercial/award success and reasons for making music to jump out at you rather than contract dispute which only generates pure speculation and allows for more accusations, until we know more facts.
There is no potential speculation on his comments of making music: “Those trophies, they’re so useful to other artists that they’re willing to do unscrupulous things to achieve them. I know that people tend to fight like wolverines over things like that, I just don’t see the value in it. You won’t see me out campaigning for one.”
That seems to be something SCM would love to hear and really jump on with support. but…
February 11, 2013 @ 9:13 pm
Besides having a girls name, hes a lil old to not know how the music industry works eh? read the damn fine print before you sign contracts
February 12, 2013 @ 8:41 am
Great point…(yawn.)
I guess you should say the same thing about anyone else that has gotten “screwed” by a label, which is a pretty long distinguished list of legends, not just a “guy with a girls name”…which you spelt wrong in your handle.
February 21, 2013 @ 10:36 pm
Everyone can hash over, feel sorry for, analyze the situation all they want to…There is no bigger fan of Jamey’s music than me…but he needs to quit whining and just write and sing songs like he did in front of 25 of us back in the day because the bottom line is he is a grown man and he signed the contracts that are getting him paid….He has gotten big enough that his fan base and album sales have grown into something he didn’t envision at the time….he was just happy to have a contract in front of his face….To openly admit he didn’t understand and still doesn’t shows the left side of his brain that obviously operates the direct opposite from the intellectual side that writes music…Jamey, Man up, keep touring, quit crying and I’m sure you’ll keep the electricity on until better cash flow comes your way one of these days….that is unless you signed on for a lifetime with Mercury and don’t know it……p.s you can save some labor if you’ll quit adding members, or friends, to your band….two drummers these days….really?
March 30, 2013 @ 6:25 pm
I have a love-hate relationship with Jamey. I love the music but couldnt get into the tribute album. I went to see him at a casino in West Virginia earlier this year and he pretty much only played songs off the tribute album. People were getting up and walking out, and it isn’t like he plays long sets anyway. Every song was slow. The only song that had any energy to it was a cover of “I Saw The Light” right before he walked off stage. I hung around near the bus afterward because I wanted to meet the guy. The rest of the band came out and said hello and seemed really nice, especially one older guy “cowboy Eddie Long” I think was his name. From the way he talked he had played with Hank Jr and a lot of others back in the day. One of the guys gave us some JJ guitar picks, and a fellow with big hair (his stage manager maybe? He was loading sodas on the busses with JJs daughter) gave the ~15 of us that hung around to the bitter end an autographed cd insert from the tribute cd (which I think came out the following week). So we stood there and waited and watched the busses left with no sign of JJ. So do you get mad at the guy or not? At least the band came out, and they gave us the autographed cd inserts. A few days later they had a tribute show at the Opry, and JJ’s facebook page showed all these pictures where he hung around after the show signing autographs and chatting with fans, like it was an everyday occurance. It isn’t. I don’t know what to think at this point. I hope he gets his head back in the game, with new music that is what we’ve come to expect from him. And someone really needs to show him how to structure a setlist taht doesn’t put everyone to sleep. I wish him all the wealth and happiness he deserves, but he needs to get his head straight.
December 26, 2013 @ 10:47 pm
just saw Jamey live a week ago at a very small local bar. the definition of a honky tonk bar. awesome show. played for exactly 3 hours. played everything from his stuff to Waylon, George, Hank Sr, and Merle. his daddy stood beside the stage the whole time and I got the chance to talk to him. he told me to go out to the bus after the show. so after the show I walked out to the bus. no one was around but one security guard. Jamey came out of his bus and I got to meet him and the entire band. all the band members were like “we didn’t plan on playing that long” “Jamey played the honky tonk ass out of the show”. he played so good. wasn’t boring. jammed out all night. when he played “the ride” the place exploded and I thought the instruments were gonna catch fire!
April 24, 2013 @ 10:20 am
This was all an interesting read! And especially timely because this past week i drove from Austin to Montplier, La to see my first JJ show and have never been more pissed at an artist in my life. A horrible production across the board! What a shame to waste his talent (based on previous work) and put out such a pitiful product (his performance in Montplier). If that is what results from a bad contract, all contracts should be outlawed………ct
October 21, 2014 @ 11:49 am
I think maybe Jamey has a mental illness. Maybe Paranoid or Bi Polar. Sometimes its hard to be around people. Not his fault. Just enjoy his music.
December 5, 2013 @ 1:00 am
Let the man write his music he can write damn good stuff. It comes from the heart and that’s what most of us wanna hear. Just because its not this main stream bullshit people wanna call country now which I think is horse shit but I’m not everyone but I know I don’t care for this pop “country” but whatever we need more song writers and artist like Jamey Johnson bring country music back to the way it should be.