A Crowd Outside Of The CMA Awards Thought Drew Parker Was Cody Johnson

A man wearing a cowboy hat and a man in a cowboy hat

I feel like there’s a metaphor for the state of mainstream country in here somewhere…

First, a little background information:

This is Cody Johnson.

And this is Drew Parker, who is NOT Cody Johnson.

Do they look similar? Sure.

But would most people who are really fans of Cody Johnson mistake Drew Parker for him? Probably not.

Well that’s what happened during the CMAs a few weeks ago, when Drew walked out of Bridgestone Arena to a crowd of fans cheering for…Cody Johnson.

A video posted to TikTok with the caption “Cody Johnson” shows the mixup as Drew walks out to screams of “Cody! Cody!”

Drew took the case of mistaken identity in stride though, dueting the video on TikTok and asking whether or not he should tell everybody that it’s actually him they met and not CoJo.

@drewparkerplays

#duet with @mindyirby Ain’t Mad About it though.

♬ On My Way to You – Cody Johnson

And hey, he took it as a compliment.

Even more ironic, though, is that Cody wasn’t even nominated for a CMA Award this year, while Drew was nominated as the songwriter for Luke Combs’ “Forever After All,” which was up for Song of the Year.

Now, I know that Cody’s just breaking into mainstream country after being a massive name in the Texas scene for years now. And Drew is just now starting to break out for himself after writing some massive hits for guys like Luke Combs and Jake Owen.

But maybe this is a sign that real country guys in cowboy hats have just gotten too rare in country music these days.

I mean, apparently the only one mainstream country fans even recognize is Cody Johnson.

Well, kinda recognize…

For more from Drew, check out our episode of Whiskey Riff Raff podcast together:

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A RIFF ON WHAT COUNTRY IS REALLY ABOUT

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