Cody Johnson’s newest single at Country radio was almost recorded by Luke Combs.
During a recent conversation with Country Now, songwriter Josh Phillips revealed the story of how “Dirt Cheap” was accidentally passed over by country superstar, Luke Combs, and how it fell into the hands of Texas bull rider, Cody Johnson.
Phillips, known for penning other LC songs such as “Angels Workin’ Overtime” and “Can I Get An Outlaw,” as well as Jason Aldean’s “Small Town Small,” had previously written with CoJo’s longtime producer, Trent Willmon, in what he described as “many years ago,” but it wasn’t that connection that got the song into the hands of Cody to begin with.
Luke was originally the first person thought of after Phillips finished the song. However, the “Beautiful Crazy” singer apparently never heard it:
“He’s one of my great buddies, and I guess it got lost in the text chain and he didn’t respond. I was like, man, I don’t know who to send it to.”
Phillips also described the somber night he got the idea to pitch it to Cody:
“I walked in the house one night. Jordan, my wife, was lying in bed watching TV. I was kind of just defeated. I said, ‘Baby, I don’t know who to send this to. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.’ She said, ‘Why don’t you send it to Cody Johnson?’
And I said, ‘Well, it’s funny that you say that, because back when I was an artist, many years ago, I wrote with his producer, Trent Willmon, I’ll just send it to Trent if he’s still producing him. Maybe in a long shot, Cody will hear it.”
Phillips also admitted that he later ran into Combs, where they both addressed Luke’s “passing over” on the track:
“He was just like, ‘Man, you wrote a song of the year and I missed it. That’s never going to happen again.’ I think he’s happy where it landed too, because it did land in the perfect place. I think God has a plan for everything and he definitely did with this song.”
After “The Painter” became a massive hit and landed Cody his second career #1 hit at mainstream country radio, “Dirt Cheap” has officially been shipped off as the next single from his ninth studio album, “Leather.” The song has already become a fan favorite, currently boasting the second highest amount of streams since the record’s release in November of last year.
Luckily, it seems the song fell into the right hands. Check out “Dirt Cheap,” below, and read our full album review of “Leather” here.