Could you imagine a guy like Jamey Johnson worrying about radio success?
The “In Color” singer hasn’t released an original album since 2010, yet he still remains one of the most talented voices in country music thanks to his incredible catalog of true-to-himself, outlaw-tinged country songs.
Although even Jamey admits that there’s been pressure on him to change his sound over the years.
Jamey recently told the story about some advice he got from country music legend Willie Nelson on staying true to himself and not worrying about having success on the radio.
According to Jamey, it came around 2008, which would have been about the time that “In Color” was climbing the charts. But he says that country radio wanted him to change the song up to make it a better fit for what they were looking for:
“We had sent this song to country radio. They told me they wanted another mix, and I didn’t want to remix the song. I put it right where I liked it and I intended to leave it there.
And then this guy on my team sent me a text message, and I guess it was around ’08. ‘Just wanted to be the first one to let you know your new song died at country radio today.’
I thought, well that’s nice.”
Gotta love people on your own team who can’t pass up an opportunity to say I told you so…
Well after getting the news, Jamey called up Willie Nelson, who had some advice that’s stuck with him all these years:
“Willie said, ‘Hell, mine die a long time before they get to country radio.’
He said, ‘Man, them people that have that kind of mentality where they just want to break the bad news to you, you can’t listen to that. Most of them won’t be doing what they’re doing in 10 years.
They’ll be selling used cars or insurance or something else, they won’t even be in the business. But you still gotta get on your bus and get to the next town because you got another show to do. So you listen to that same spirit that led you to this point and you don’t ever stray from it.'”
Wise words from a country music legend. And Jamey definitely made the decision not to change up “In Color” (assuming that was the song he was talking about). Even though it died at #9 on the charts, it’s undeniably had a bigger impact and remains a more classic song than pretty much anything else on country radio at that time.
