Cody Johnson and Luke Combs have a lot in common. They’re both family men; they’re both Billboard Country Airplay mainstays; they’ve both won Entertainer of the Year awards (Cody via the ACM Awards in 2026, which he dedicated to Luke, and Luke by way of the CMA Awards in 2021 and 2022); and they both happen to be on a text thread with Josh Phillips, one of Nashville’s most prolific behind-the-scenes hitmakers. Unfortunately for Luke, though, he didn’t see one very important text come through—and that oversight led to Cody nabbing yet another Top 10 hit.
On Friday, June 5, Cody joined Music Row Happy Hour: CMA Fest Edition at Eric Church’s bar, Chief’s on Broadway, ahead of his Nissan Stadium headlining set later that night. During his pop-in performance, Cody revealed that his hit song “Dirt Cheap” almost made it into Luke’s catalog, but he was quicker to respond.
“When it comes to the songwriters, man, when I'm picking songs, I don't want to know who the songwriter is because I might be biased, you know? Like, I want the best song to win… But when you make relationships with guys like Josh Phillips, and he starts feeding you songs through a text message thread, you're like, 'How many more of them you got, bud?'” Cody told the crowd. “This song was sent to Luke Combs, and Luke's dumb ass didn't open the text message. We were duck hunting in Mississippi, and he said, ‘I could kill you for that song, “Dirt Cheap.”’”
CoJo’s admission made the crowd break into laughter, and Instagram into cahoots, praising his version, analyzing how it’d be different if Luke sang it, and pleading for a remix with both country stars on the track. “It wouldn't have been as good. Now I love @lukecombs. I was at the Parthenon, so I'm a huge fan, but it's more believable when @codyjohnson [sings] it,” one fan concluded on The Highway’s post from Cody’s appearance.
After wowing the crowd at Music Row Happy Hour, CoJo commanded the audience at Nissan Stadium, where he sang to an estimated crowd of 50,000 festivalgoers well past midnight. Congratulations on a wildly successful CMA Fest.
