Brush With Fame: Cody Johnson’s ‘The Painter’ Hits Country Airplay Top 10

Cody Johnson rolls up his third top 10 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “The Painter” climbs from No. 11 to No. 8 on the ranking dated Jan. 27.

In the Jan. 12-18 tracking week, the song increased by 10% to 20.7 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.

Benjy Davis, Kat Higgins and Ryan Larkins co-wrote the song, which Trent Willmon produced. It’s the lead single from Johnson’s LP Leather, which arrived on Top Country Albums at its No. 5 peak in November, becoming his fifth top 10. On the Jan. 20-dated list, Leather placed at No. 20 (10,000 equivalent album units, up 2%).

Johnson, from Sebastopol, Texas, scores his third Country Airplay top 10 in succession. “The Painter” follows “Human,” which hit No. 8 last June, and “‘Til You Can’t,” which ruled for two frames starting in March 2022. He charted his first of 11 entries with “With You I Am,” which reached No. 40 in May 2017.

Johnson has two additional tracks on Country Airplay. His duet with Ian Munsick, “Long Live Cowgirls,” ranks at No. 56 and “Dirt Cheap” enters at No. 58 (600,000, up 42%).

Six-Alarm ‘Fire’

Nate Smith’s “World on Fire” leads Country Airplay for a sixth total and consecutive week (35.5 million, down 1%). It became his second straight career-opening No. 1, following “Whiskey on You,” which dominated for two weeks last February.

“World on Fire” marks the first title to top Country Airplay for at least six weeks since Morgan Wallen’s crossover smash “Last Night” reigned for eight weeks beginning last May. The latter went on to lead the 2023 Country Airplay Songs recap, as well as the year-end all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100 Songs survey.