Cody Johnson Surprise Competitor at Townsville Rodeo

US country star Cody Johnson was a recent surprise visitor at the North Queensland Elite Rodeo. Visiting Australia while opening for Luke Combs on his sold-out Australian World Tour dates, Johnson shocked locals in Townsville over the weekend (19 and 20 August) with his rodeo takeover.

“What an amazing weekend!! Thank you so much Cody Johnson for taking the time to come to our event and spend time talking to your fans and getting photos,” North Queensland Elite Rodeo organisers wrote on social media yesterday (21 August). “It was great to meet you.”

While we haven’t found any footage of Johnson’s rodeo performance, we’ll update this article if and when we do.

Cody Johnson joining in some rodeo action isn’t all that surprising – this is an artist with a song called Dear Rodeo (featuring Reba McEntire) in his discography, and a 2021 Amazon Prime documentary entitled Dear Rodeo: The Cody Johnson Story – he was made for the Townsville rodeo.

Last month, the Mount Isa Rodeo Festival offered Johnson to contribute to their event after he told KIX Country Radio about his interest in rodeos.

Earlier this year, Johnson contributed to a tribute to American rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd at the 2023 CMT Music Awards alongside Billy Gibbons, Chuck Leavell, Paul Rodgers, Slash and Warren Haynes, Lynyrd Skynyrd founding member, guitarist Gary Rossington, and LeAnn Rimes and Wynonna Judd joining as “The Honkettes.” Johnson led in vocals beside Rodgers.

Back to rodeos – when Countrytown shared our March 2021 Song Of The Day, Let’s Build A Fire, we revealed that Johnson was a former bull rider-turned-country music artist.

At the time, he was promoting his 18-track Human: The Double Album. Johnson said about the album, “There was too much good out there to let go of, so I just said, ‘We're going to cut all of them.’ There are ones I wrote on, there are ones I didn't write on, and there are ones that I wish I’d written.

“I addressed things personally with this music, and when people listen to Human, they are going to hear a lot more of me being me. I am finally comfortable with myself and able to share that with my fans.”

Last month, Johnson shared that he has a new album, Leather, coming soon.