A powerful visualizer to match the gravity of the song.
Every since Kid Rock first performed his rendition of Cody Johnson’s “‘Til You Can’t” at Hondo Rodeo Fest this past November, country music fans, and even Cody Johnson himself, have been moved by the extra verse. Of course, if you watched the Turning Point USA All-American Halftime Show during the Super Bowl earlier this year, you saw Kid Rock deliver his soulful cover of the CoJo chart-topper. He formally released his cover the night after, and it immediately shot #1 in the all-genre iTunes store – ahead of Super Bowl halftime show headliner Bad Bunny.
Kid introduced the new lyrics by saying that he woke up one morning and felt called to add one more verse:
“I awoke one Sunday morning all alone with this song stuck in my head, and in that moment, something or someone spoke to me. They said there was still a verse that needed to be written for this song. And to get up and write it down.”
The additional verse essentially calls for people to dust of their Bibles (or perhaps buy your first if there isn’t one to dust off) and fully submit their lives to Jesus, embracing the Christian way of life. And given the context of “‘Til You Can’t,” there’s a certain sense of urgency in his delivery:
“There’s a book that is sitting in your house somewhere
That could use some dusting off
There’s a man that died for all our sins, hanging on the cross
You can give your life to Jesus, and he’ll give you a second chance
‘Til you can’t”
It’s powerful declaration of faith, one that most fans probably never expected to come from an artist like Kid Rock. But that’s kind of the point of the song and the new verse, right? To remind you that it’s never too late to change you life and turn things around… until it IS too late.
Following the release of the new music video, Kid Rock called it one of the most meaningful songs of his entire career:
“This song – and now video, means more to me than most will ever know. There was no way to include everyone I love who has been so important in my life, so apologies in advance if anyone feels left out – just know I love you all and dearly miss all of you who are no longer with us. God Is Good.”
Check it out:
Cody Johnson’s Blessing
Ahead of the dropping the song, Kid Rock revealed that he was given the blessing of both Cody Johnson and the songwriters, Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers, to record his version of their #1 hit:
“A big thank you to [Cody Johnson] and the songwriters Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers for giving me [their] blessing to record and release it, It really is one of the best written songs I have heard in a long time and NOTHING is more powerful than a great song in my book!”
During an appearance on the Rodeo Time podcast with Dale Brisby, CoJo says he first saw Kid Rock perform the song when he saw a video from the Hondo Rodeo Fest. But ahead of the TPUSA halftime show, he got a text from his record label alerting him that Kid Rock would be calling him about releasing his version of the song. And his first question was how the songwriters felt about it:
“She said, ‘Well they sent the message that they’re not signing off on it if Cody doesn’t, cause it’s Cody’s song.’ And I was like, that’s really respectful, that was really cool to feel the admiration from those guys of taking their song that they wrote and making it what it is.”
Well the next step was talking to Kid Rock himself, and during the conversation he explained his reasoning for adding a third verse while making it clear he wasn’t critiquing the original version:
“He said, ‘Here’s the deal.’ He said, ‘I feel like that Ben and Matt did such a great job writing this song. I don’t want to insinuate that they didn’t write it good enough.’ He’s like, ‘I just, you know, you take the phone call from your mom. You tell your old man you go fishing. You fix up the Pontiac with your old man. Say I’m sorry. Say I love you.’ He’s like, ‘But they just didn’t include God.’ And he’s like, I just felt like, you can only ask forgiveness and get to know Jesus until you can’t.”
Cody says that Kid Rock’s explanation for the third verse “raised the hair on your arms,” and it wasn’t a conversation he was expecting to have – especially with Kid Rock. But he was all in and said he would “100% sign off on it.”
Kid Rock then told him that he would be performing it on the TPUSA halftime show, so naturally Cody was tuned in to see his song being performed:
“I watched it, had tears in my eyes. I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome.’ Freaking Kid Rock singing my song, man. That’s cool.”
Of course he does wish Kid would have done one thing differently:
“I wish he’d have worn a Cody Johnson hat but I couldn’t talk him into that.”
