The song will be available this week
When Jamey Johnson and Ronnie Dunn recorded “Never Gonna Be,” which will be released on Friday, September 12th, the lyrics had special meaning to Johnson because Dunn co-wrote the song about him.
The recording is a poignant full-circle moment because Dunn and co-writer Terry McBride wrote the song about Johnson 15 years ago, just as the Alabama native’s career was taking off.
“It makes me think of my early days in Nashville, bringing my guitar downtown to play,” Johnson says. “Once I was playing Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and came back out, and my 1986 Dodge had been towed. It reminds me of those days when everybody out there was working hard and trying to get noticed and write a better song and perform a version of it live.”
The song is not only a snapshot in time of Johnson’s early solo career, but a powerful description of the steady stream of countless aspiring artists that have been coming to Nashville for decades, “riding on high hopes, living on dreams,” as the song says, hoping to make it in a town full of “them that are and has beens, and never gonna be.”
What did it mean to Johnson to have Dunn write a song about him? He says, “It was awesome! I never ever really knew what to do with it because I don’t think I knew he was pitching it to me to record. I don’t know what I thought at the time.
“I thought he nailed the concept as far as everybody coming to Nashville and it chews them up and spits them out. I guess I never did know which of those categories I fell into. Now I think I do: I’m a ‘never gonna be,’ and I’m OK with that,” he says with a laugh.
Johnson and Dunn first crossed paths in 2005-06, when Johnson opened shows for Brooks and Dunn. In 2010, Dunn and McBride wrote the song in Saskatchewan, Canada, during a break in Brooks & Dunn’s tour there.
“It was back when Jamey was just coming on strong, maybe just before he’d had ‘In Color,’” Dunn says of Johnson’s award-winning hit. “We were just looking at the new wave of outlaws coming into town.
“It’s like, ‘Oh boy! This is going to be fun!’ We just took off, thinking, ‘What would it be like?’ Listening to him in interviews, you’d get insights into people and what was going on with him. Man, we were excited!
“I came from a conservative place in West Texas, where you couldn’t have your hair over your ears in school. I thought, ‘Oh man, we’re gonna get to meet hippies finally!”
Johnson patiently saved “Never Gonna Be” for more than a decade, waiting for exactly the right moment to record it. “It was fun getting to hear the first notes that were played by the band and know we are finally doing this,” Johnson says. “It’s good that we got to cut it and I’m excited to put it out.”
When Johnson began working with producer Buddy Cannon earlier this year on a future album, this was one of the first songs he sent Cannon.
“Evidently, Buddy sent it to Ronnie and Ronnie said he didn’t remember it, so I copied the email Ronnie sent me in 2010. Buddy sent back an email, ‘He remembers it now.’ Once he heard the one I was talking about, he remembered everything about it.”
While the song is about Johnson, he says that it is also a tribute to Cannon, his mentor, co-writer, and member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Cannon, Bill Anderson and Johnson wrote “Give It Away,” the 2006 George Strait hit that won both the CMA and ACM Award for Song of the Year.
Cannon has been an integral part of the country music industry since the 1970s, when he played bass for Bob Luman and Mel Tillis. He has written hits such as “Dream of Me,” “Set ‘Em Up Joe,” and “I’ve Come to Expect It from You.” He has produced artists including Willie Nelson, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, Reba McEntire, George Jones, Shania Twain, and many more.
“It was cool that all of this happened through Buddy,” says Johnson, who met Cannon in 2001. “He is more than just a bridge between writers and artists and other producers and labels. He is a mentor to everybody I know. Buddy has probably the longest-lasting relationships in town with all of the artists. He seems to meet everybody early on in their careers and knows them all the way through.
“Everybody that I know who does anything in the country music business has got a great story to tell about Buddy Cannon,” Johnson says. “He is one of the few people you will meet that nobody has anything bad to say about him. He is such a good honest person, which is astounding in our business!”
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