There’s no doubt that Cody Jinks is one of the most interesting independent artists in country music today. Despite not quite reaching the heights of the likes of Zach Bryan, Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers, the “Loud and Heavy” singer has firmly placed himself as a bit of an Eric Church type in the alt-country scene. With loads of respect among his peers, six RIAA-certified singles and a career that has spanned over 14 years now, Jinks has cemented himself as one of the most underrated artists in the entire genre.
Despite the success over the past few years, it’s clear that Jinks has always viewed himself as a bit of an outsider due to his unique blend of country and rock that doesn’t quite fit in the Nashville machine while simultaneously not fitting in the traditional Texas/red dirt scene. No song captures this sentiment quite like his platinum hit, “Hippies & Cowboys.”
On Dale Brisby’s Rodeo Time podcast, Jinks touched on the song’s creation and noted how angry he was while writing it. When asked about whether or not he thought it would be a hit, Jinks said, “God, I was such a mess when I wrote that song. No, I didn’t. I was so angry. I was so mad when I wrote that song. Me and my wife were barely getting by. She was pregnant with my first one who’s about to be 15.”
He then noted how the song came from a place of frustration given that he knew he didn’t want to be in Nashville while also not quite fitting the mold of prominent Texas artists such as Cody Johnson, Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen, “I knew I didn’t want to do the Nashville thing, and I couldn’t compete with the Texas thing, man. I talked to Randy [Rodgers] and Wade [Bowen] and Stoney [LaRue] and Cody [Johnson] and all these guys about this through the years. I couldn’t compete with you guys, man.”
This feeling of placelessness led to Jinks taking his tour outside of Texas, something that ultimately paid dividends for him and helped procure his current audience, “We got the hell out of Texas and started doing our national tours, which nobody ever does because it’s so freaking hard.”
Later, he touched on how he views “Hippies & Cowboys” as a song for the disenfranchised, hinting that it has a punk element to it, “We were starting to play that song, and people were going, ‘Oh.'” They could relate to it; it’s for the disenfranchised. We are. We still are the punks, man. We did it punk method. You want to talk about punk? That’s how we’ve done it.”
Watch the clip here: