Chords for Inside Music Row: featuring Jamey Johnson

_ _ _ _ _ Jamie Johnson [F] is well on his way to star status.
You may recognize him as the co-writer for the [G] 2007 [C] CMA and ACM [F] Song of the Year Award
for his song Give It Away, which was recorded by George Strait.
Jamie's first album, that lonesome song, hits stores next week, but we caught up with him
first to hear all about [Bb] it.
[Eb] I love to go out to a bar, and if people want to get rowdy, we get rowdy tonight.
If they just want to lay back and [Bb] have a more intimate song listening session, then
that's what our show turns into.
I said, Grandpa, what's this picture here?
[Ab] It's all black and white.
And ain't real [Eb] clear, is that you there?
He said, yeah, [Bb] I was a-lovin'.
Getting through my divorce, _ [F] I stayed home a lot, [Eb] and I lived in a basement.
[C] It was about 800 square feet, so there wasn't really a whole lot of room.
I had quit drinking at the time, because I had really good things and really bad things
going on at the same time.
It was kind [Eb] of confusing.
_ _ _ When I want to go out and [Bb] celebrate with my friends, I end up just pouring alcohol on
the depression, and that didn't turn out to be a good thing.
After a while, I just said, you know what, I'm going to quit this.
I'm going to quit drinking for a while until I can [Eb] kind of pull through the depression
of being in the middle of a divorce and getting dropped off a label.
[Bb] And all that, [D] that's not good for me [Bb] right now.
_ I didn't [Ab] touch another drop until we won Song of the Year at the ACMs in Las Vegas.
This [F] whole album was written in that _ period in between.
It [Bb] was just [A] me dealing with things that I needed to deal with, and dealing with them
with a straight [E] head.
_ _ _ _ [B] _ We put a couple of [Eb] cover songs on there, [F] Waylon Jennings.
[E] _
[Eb] In fact, they were on [Ab] the same album.
They were on his [A] Dreaming My Dream [E] album.
It came out in [B] 1975. _ _
It's [D] one of those albums, it's been my favorite album for a long time now. _
_ I can go through different parts of my life and listen to that album again, and you hear
something different each time, or you understand something finally [Bb] for the first time
in a different way. _
_ _ _ [F] _ You can't roll into town and call Bill Anderson up and say, hey Bill, I'm Jamie the new guy.
How about writing a song with me sometime?
The only way I got to write with him was Buddy Cannon.
Buddy liked my music, and me and Buddy had been writing together for a while.
I told them that song title, Give It Away.
That was just a special day for me, because I felt like those two guys were sitting there
trying to help me understand something that [C] I needed help with at that point.
And that's when they step in, not only as co-writers, but as mentors.
That song was just definitely meant to be.
[Eb] That was one of my more proud days in the writing room.
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
I was [Ab] walking into a building one morning, and Lee Miller, [Eb] a good buddy of mine,
_ he'd [C] been over to see Bill recently at that point, and he said he was looking at old pictures
on Bill's wall, an old black and white [F]
picture in particular from Bill's early [Gb] days,
getting started off in the music business.
He said it was just like the whole scene [Eb] was unfolding in his own mind.
[F] He was just, it was intimate to [C] him.
If somebody keeps a picture hanging on their [Db] wall, it means something [Bb] to them.
[F] And it was kind of cool that Bill was sitting there telling him that story.
I said, man, [Eb] _ [Gm] you should have seen that in color, huh?
That's the [F] story of my life.
[Eb] _
I love it all.
You can't have one without the other.
I'm going to write [Gb] songs, and I'm going to sing, [C] and I'm going to keep [Bb] hitting the road
with a guitar in my hand, hunting somebody that wants to hear it.
And you have to do those things in balance.
And if you can pull that off, you get a long career.
[Bb] And if you can't ever figure it out, you get a short career.
[C] _ _
_ _ We'll [D] get out and do a few shows here and there.
[C] You might catch us, but I think for the [B] time being, we're just going to hold up here at the [C] house
and go hang out in the studio for a while, keep making records.
_ _ Riding in your Mercedes.
_ [F] Wow, what an awesome story.
And Jamie is a pretty super guy and very talented, of course.
With all the hit songs he's written, he could be happy just sitting around waiting on those royalty checks.
But [Bb] he's out there every [F] day working on his new career [D] as a country