Picture the country music prom. If Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood are in the gym slow dancing to “Remember When,” Jamey Johnson is the unkempt outcast smoking weed in the parking lot. An Alabama native, Johnson spent eight years as a U.S. Marine, after which he decided to pursue music as a second career. Turned out he was good at it. His first paying gigs were at Montgomery dive bars, but he has since worked his way up the ladder, becoming a go-to songwriter for artists like George Strait and Trace Adkins. A recent tribute album to country legend Hank Cochran found Johnson stepping further into the spotlight, duetting with Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson and many others and solidifying himself as the closest thing in Nashville—both in voice and attitude—to country’s anarchic old guard.
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