‘Dirt Cheap’: From Fixer-Upper to Chart-Topper

Country music star Cody Johnson visits Build Series in New York City in 2018. Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images

Country singer Cody Johnson will never forget how he felt when he heard his latest single, “Dirt Cheap,” for the first time. Penned by songwriter Josh Phillips, the track was sent to Johnson’s producer Trent Willmon. Johnson was nearly brought to tears by Phillips’s emotional performance. He told ABC Audio that after he listened to the heartfelt track, he asked, “Where did this song come from?”

Released on his 2023 album, “Leather,” “Dirt Cheap” has since become a country radio darling, rocketing to the top spot on the charts. It’s now a favorite among fans of the Texas-born troubadour. But the song’s origin story begins in Tennessee, where Phillips and his wife bought a fixer-upper farmhouse they intended to sell after renovations.

The cover for Cody Johnson's 2023 album "Leather," featuring the hit song "Dirt Cheap." Warner Music Nashville

“Dirt Cheap” tells the story of a farmer who holds onto his family’s land despite others’ attempts to buy it. The memories attached to the land are worth more than any dollar amount. The song is autobiographical, based on Phillips’s own experience with his family’s farmhouse. After one top country artist passed on it, Johnson jumped at the opportunity to include it on his record.

Fans’ love of the song, along with the support of country radio, made the single a hit.

A Renovation Project Inspires a Country Song

"The Evans Homestead Haddonfield New Jersey," 1901, by Charles Lewis Fussell. Public Domain

After saving enough funds in 2019, Phillips and his wife, Jordan, bought the dilapidated farmhouse. Built in 1904, the old property needed a lot of tender loving care. On Phillips’s social media account, he talked about the inspiration behind “Dirt Cheap” and their multi-year renovation project:

“We sold everything we didn’t need and saved that money alongside extra income, wedding [money] from family, and money we’d saved and we put it all into the house.”

As the years went by and they rebuilt the house, Josh and Jordan also built their family, welcoming three children into the world. One evening in 2022, when the house renovations were finally complete, the couple sat outside around a fire they’d built. When they started talking about selling, Phillips realized he didn’t want to move.

He has a habit of writing down phrases he thinks might make good song titles. During renovations, he wrote down the phrase “dirt cheap” and set it aside. But as they chatted by the fire and talked about staying in the house they built together along with their family, he said, “You can’t buy this kind of dirt cheap.”

The moment the words left his lips, he knew he had a song in the works.

That night, he picked up his guitar and headed to the barn, one of his favorite writing spots. By morning, “Dirt Cheap” was written.

‘A Godsend’

The song is one of the most autobiographical stories Phillips has ever written. It opens up with a farmer being approached by several businessmen interested in building a subdivision on rural farmland. They need him to sell his land, and he’s the only remaining holdout. They think “top dollar” will be all the convincing he needs.

But soon, they find out the memories his family made on his land are worth far more to the farmer than any amount of cash. Lines such as “[the] little girl that used to swing right there/I still see her pink bow in her brown hair” and “over there is where I got down on one knee” feature Phillips’s own memories at his family home.

"Girl on a Swing" (L) and "Two Girls in a Swing" (R), 1879, by Winslow Homer. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York City. Public Domain

He pitched it to country star Luke Combs first, but he passed on the track. One day, his wife suggested he send the demo of “Dirt Cheap” to Cody Johnson. Phillips is good friends with Trent Willmon, one of Johnson’s trusted producers, so he sent him the demo and asked if Johnson might be interested. He soon got word that Johnson decided to include it on his third studio album, “Leather.”

Phillips told Country Now how excited he and his wife were when Johnson recorded the song: “It’s amazing. I don’t think anybody could have done it just the way that he did it.”

When Johnson first heard the demo, he said, “It was so incredible the first time I heard it [that] I almost started tearing up and crying.”

And when Phillips and his wife heard Johnson’s final recording of the song for the first time, they turned misty-eyed too.

Phillips said of the emotional ballad: “It’s just a Godsend. We cried, and we thanked the Lord for it.”

A Shift in Country Music

Phillips has written tracks for many popular Nashville artists, including Jason Aldean and Chris Young. But “Dirt Cheap” is special to him for a few reasons. Not only is it a song he wrote solo, as opposed to in one of the standard co-writing sessions that produce Nashville hits every day, but also, it’s a song that Phillips said represents a shift in country music.

Cody Johnson onstage during the 2023 CMT Music Awards at Moody Center in Austin, Texas, on April 2, 2023. Rick Kern/Getty Images

He explained that country music fans are turning to songs that tell stories again. He’s excited about what that means for the genre as a whole.

“People want to hear these songs again. These songs tell a story and you feel something,” he said. “I love those, like, ‘Three Wooden Crosses’ and ‘When You Say Nothing at All,’ all those old songs. I think it’s cool to see ... country music in general coming back around to those types of songs.”

Johnson says he’s “thankful to have this song as a single.” While he knew he wanted to include it on his 2023 album, he was undecided about releasing it as a single. But fans had a different plan. After the “Leather” album release, listeners discovered “Dirt Cheap” on their own. Their streaming of the track caused Johnson and his team to take notice.

Before the song was released in March 2024 as the album’s second single, it was already receiving a significant amount of playing time thanks to Johnson’s fans. He explained:

“It started charting while ‘The Painter’ was going for number one,” he said. “I’m going, ‘Guys, stop pushing it.’ And Warner Music Nashville says, ‘We haven’t even pushed it yet.’”

On Sept. 4, 2024, MusicRow Magazine announced that Johnson had “scored a No. 1 at country radio” that week thanks to “Dirt Cheap.”

The hit single is part of a double album release, “Leather: The Deluxe Edition,” with the first half available now and the second half debuting in the fall of 2024.

Johnson is currently on his The Leather Tour promoting “Dirt Cheap” and other songs from his latest record.

Phillips calls the chart-topper one of his favorite songs he’s ever penned. Months after the single’s initial release, Phillips says the song is still affecting people, including him and his family.

“This song has been nothing but a series of thanking God,“ he said. ”It seems like every other month it takes on a new life, which has been amazing.”

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]