FL: Your path into the music industry was a bit unorthodox. Can you tell me about that?
RJ: A lot of artists know at five years old that they're gonna be an artist but it was a totally different story for me. I'm very creative, so I would write songs and sing them and people around me would say, ‘Oh you got something,’ and I was always like ‘No, no, no, I'm not a singer. I'm a songwriter.’ I was a sales rep on the road and my wife gave me a Christmas present to cut a demo of one of my original songs in a studio. Back then, I thought it was the worst Christmas gift ever because I didn't consider myself an artist. I
still went, and decided to do a feel-good country rock song called "I'll Be There Rockin’ and Rollin.’’ The band enjoyed it, and said it sounded like what was coming out of Nashville. That’s how it all started, I just needed that little push in the studio.
Can you tell me about your songwriting process and how your new single, "TGIF," came to be?
For ‘TGIF,’ I was fooling around on the piano and I just let it out. I don't know where the songs and the words came from, but I just let it out. It’s a weird process because sometimes I felt like the song already existed and I’m just the one who found it. I love that it’s a beautiful love song and then it takes a twist. It’s the feeling when it’s Friday, and you know you can drink more than one today. You're not working tomorrow, so just have fun.
Do you collaborate with others on your music?
I usually write solo but sometimes I get together with my buddy Danny Rader. I play a song for him and we tweak it to make it better. Sometimes we change a lyric here and there to make sure people understand what I’m trying to say, and look at the structure of the chord progression. He fills in a lot of blanks for me.
What is it like living in Franklin and being in the music industry? About 10 years ago, we moved to Nashville to start my career. We were driving around looking for good schools for my daughter and found a great arena here where she could figure skate. We fell in love with Franklin and thought it was such a beautiful city. We’ve moved a couple of times since then, but we’ve always stayed in Franklin because we love it so much. Robby-Johnson.com
Listen to “TGIF” on all streaming platforms
Johnson releases new music every six-to-eight weeks and is working on a full-length album
You can watch a live recording of Johnson's performance of "TGIF" on Country Radio Seminar's (CRS) website