Cody Johnson's coming out of the gate a winner. The singer's debut major-label release Ain’t Nothin’ to It has landed at No. 1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, as well as at the top of the publication's all-genre Digital Album Sales chart.

Additionally, Johnson makes an impressive mark at No. 9 on the overall Billboard 200, which compiles sales from every arena of music.

Johnson, a Taste of Country RISERS pick of 2019, found his way to the head of the class with the album's single "On My Way to You," a love song inspired by his wife Brandi. "Before I met my wife, I was not a good kid," he explains. "I was pretty wild. I talk about that plan that God has, and when I met her, everything changed."

Cody Johnson's "On My Way to You" Is Another Heart-Grabber

A lot of things changed for the Texas musician over time as he began to slowly find his footing as a serious artist. Johnson, 31, was initially working as a guard in a maximum-security prison for years and didn't have much hope of breaking out of that path.

“I didn’t have a college degree and I didn’t have a direction,” he recalls. “I was just going to work at the prison 'til retirement. You grow up in a small town and you just do what your daddy does.”

He eventually started picking up music gigs here and there, and with the encouragement of his manager, his wife, and the warden, he quit his prison job to pursue music. And now he's got a No. 1 album!

Johnson is the first Taste of Country RISERS artist of 2019. The program allows one rising star to show off his or her talents and potential every three months. The 2018 RISERS program featured Morgan Wallen, Lindsay Ell and Devin Dawson.

Who Is Cody Johnson, Anyway?

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