Alabama’s Jamey Johnson has a new song that talks about addiction and sobriety, pointing to his struggles with both.
“Sober,” released on Friday, Aug. 30, is the latest single from the country star, who came to fame in 2008 with the album “That Lonesome Song” and the hit single “In Color.”
Johnson, 49, is a native of Enterprise who grew up in Montgomery. His music combines a traditional country vibe with outlaw influences, and he’s known for writing songs that are rugged and sensitive, tough and tender. Johnson has earned four awards from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association, 2007-2009, and received 10 Grammy nominations to date.
Although he hasn’t been the most prolific artist in recent years, Johnson has released four singles in 2024: “21 Guns,” “What a View,” “Trudy”(a Charlie Daniels cover) and now “Sober,” written with James Slater.
“‘Sober’ is about how hard it is to stay sober in a town that glorifies drinking and other kinds of debauchery — not just glorifies it, but it is in just about every song in country music one way or the other,” Johnson said in a press release. “It’s about how difficult it is being a songwriter to stay sober in the presence of it.
“I am 13 years sober now. I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since 2011, and I know that could end this afternoon,” Johnson continued. “It is a day-to-day, hour-to-hour decision. Most of the places I play are bars, or I am still hanging out in bars. That’s where most of my friends are. Now I can hang out in them and not be drinking like I used to. That is what ‘Sober’ is about.”
The lyrics of “Sober” are both heartfelt and straightforward, saying:
I’ve been mad/I’ve been drunk/I’ve been so high I can’t tell up from down
But lately I’ve been working/on trying to get my feet back on the ground
It ain‘t easy on the wagon/Hell I lost more of my mind than I have found
All these drinking songs we’re playing/make it hard staying sober in this town.
(Listen to “Sober” in the video below.)
Johnson’s music has detailed the perils of addiction before, most notably in “High Cost of Living,” a track from “That Lonesome Song.” The tune, also written with James Slater, comes from the perspective of a newly sober man who’s reflecting on the bad choices he’s made, turning to drugs when the stresses of his job and family life seemed overwhelming.
“All aspects of life are fair game when it comes to songwriting, not just the hard stuff, and not just the fun stuff, and not just the whatever stuff,” Johnson said in a 2015 interview with AL.com. “All of it is. … You definitely draw from the mood that you’re in that day. The good thing about songwriting is that you get an immediate feedback from yourself — whether or not this is good material, whether or not it’s worth passing along, letting somebody else hear, or if it’s just an echo rattling around inside of a hungry mind.”
READ: Jamey Johnson: Country star talks about Alabama roots, outlaw heritage, more in rare interview
Saving Country Music praised “Sober” as a return to form for Johnson, whose catalog also includes “The Dollar,” “Can’t Cash My Checks,” “Heartache” and “Between Jennings and Jones.”
“Though Johnson’s Memorial Day anthem ‘21 Guns’ was admirable, his cover of ‘Trudy’ by Charlie Daniels was entertaining, and ‘What A View’ was a fine love song, ‘Sober’ is really where we hear Jamey Johnson in top Jamey Johnson form, turning in a country song that you sense will be around and beloved for many years to come like the top selections from his back catalog,” the website said in its review.
Johnson kept things simple when introducing the song in posts on social media. “It’s for people who know the struggle,” the artist said.
Johnson performed in his home state on Saturday, Aug. 31, at Sand Mountain Amphitheater in Albertville. The show was part of his “What a View Tour.”
