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Jamey Johnson is definitely living the life. Starting Friday (May 27), he's going to be paid to play songs in front of his adoring fans with some of his closest friends and one very important icon. In other words, he'll head out on this year's Country Throwdown Tour with Willie Nelson, Randy Houser, Lee Brice and more.
"When they brought up the idea this year of doing a Throwdown with Willie, it was just common sense," Jamey tells The Boot. "We tried to do a tour with Willie a couple of years ago and ended up canceling the second week of it, and I've been waiting on that second week ever since."
While this is Willie's first year on the tour, it isn't Jamey's first rodeo. "The Throwdown Tour is the one we did last year with Montgomery Gentry," he recalls. "We had a blast. It was an opportunity for us to meet other artists that were just getting started, and all of us got to go out and entertain the same audience together. It turned into something really cool. We had guests every night that we've never gotten to do songs with, and old friends that we used to play bars with."
What can fans expect from the singer-songwriter this year? "Less choreography," Jamey jokes. "[I can play] the music I grew up listening to. It can be a new song, something me and the band have been jamming to, or it can be something off the Blind Boys of Alabama record. ZZ Top, I don't know. We're liable to break out with anything. If the mood hits me, I may break out some new stuff, but if it's not ready, then I'm going to do the same thing I do every night: have the most fun I can have, and get off the stage in time. [laughs]"
